Talk:Darlington railway station

I know for a fact that sometime during 1980s/1990s Noel's Saturday Roadshow was hosted from a replica set of the station. Can anyone add more information? 86.152.162.136 12:07, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

"On Saturday 3rd October 2009, a Northern train heading North of Darlington Station crashed into a National Express train travelling to a train heading to Edinburgh.Fortunately only 3 people were sent to hospital with whiplash and both drivers of the trains were taking away for drug and alchol testing. An invesigation begun immediately after the crash and it ewas though wet leaves on the track were to blame and made the Nothern train hard to stop."

What child wrote this? I'd edit it myself, but i cant put trust in the idea that its only spelling errors that are problematic in this paragraph. Anyone out there who has more info (clearer to read, preferably) 62.25.109.197 (talk) 15:50, 8 October 2009 (UTC) Pablinho

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Distance from London
OK, time to nail this one down. Miles and chains are the common unit of measurement on UK railways, with a very few exceptions such as HS1 (and no doubt HS2 when built). It is appropriate that the distance is quoted in mi.ch. and converted to km. As chains are a relatively obscure unit, it is also appropriate that there is a link in the conversion. Miles is not obscure, but to link to chains there has to be a link to miles too (unless the template can be tweaked to link to chains without linking to miles). Mjroots (talk) 13:30, 11 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I removed the reference to 'chains' because I, like the vast majority of English speakers, have no idea what they are. They may be used as a unit *on* the railways, but this encyclopedia isn't a specialist railway encyclopedia. The distance provided in miles and kilometres is more than adequate.
 * Euphiletos (talk) 18:11, 11 January 2018 (UTC)
 * And I provided a link so that you can find out what chains are. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 23:32, 11 January 2018 (UTC)
 * - consensus is that chains are used in UK railway articles. They are still in use by Network Rail to this day for measurements and identifying locations. As you "have no idea what a chain is", having the link means that you, and other readers in the same position, can learn what it is. Part of Wikipedia's remit is "to educate". Mjroots (talk) 09:04, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I've never seen the unit used in any other article, and indeed it is absent from all the articles on British railways I just checked at random. There is therefore clearly no such consensus; and the fact the unit is used by Network Rail is irrelevant. While it may be Wikipedia's goal to educate, that goal cannot be cited in order to justify the use of obscure terminology deployed unnecessarily. I refer you to Wikipedia's manual of style, under 'Technical language', especially "Do not introduce new and specialized words simply to teach them to the reader when more common alternatives will do". If you're unable to explain why this abstruse term must remain in the article, then it ought to be removed.
 * Euphiletos (talk) 12:54, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * "I've never seen the unit used in any other article". Allow me to point you to a Featured Article and a Good Article which do use miles and chains. There are many more, I can assure you. As has been explained to you several times now, chains are a unit of measurement in use on the UK railway network, as evidence by this RAIB report published in December 2017 (paras 2 and 7 refer).
 * Anyway, it turns out that it is possible to just link chains in the conversion, so I've tweaked it to read . Mjroots (talk) 14:07, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't understand 95% of our article modular form - but I don't delete any of it. I'm grateful that terms such as upper half-plane are linked, even if I am barely enlightened when I read up on those, too. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 17:41, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Quite a long time ago when I was going Bristol station GAs, I got told not to put chains in the lead because it was too technical a measurement. I don't recall where it was offhand, but if you list the GA noms for stations between Worle and Bristol Parkway (plus Severn Beach Line) you should find it. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but thinking back I do agree with this - chains are an obscure measurement, and for the lead they're probably a bit too technical, so round it off to the nearest mile. Then, in the article body, use miles and chains, but use a note to state what a chain is. For example at Bedminster railway station we have:
 * Lead: Bedminster railway station is on the Bristol to Exeter Line and serves the districts of Bedminster and Windmill Hill in Bristol, England. It is 0.9 miles (1.4 km) to the west of Bristol Temple Meads, and 119 miles (192 km) from London Paddington.
 * Body: The station is built on the lower northern slopes of Windmill Hill, on the Bristol to Exeter Line 119 miles 22 chains (191.95 km) from London Paddington and 71 chains (1.43 km) from Bristol Temple Meads.[1][note 1] 
 * Note: Railways in the United Kingdom are, for historical reasons, measured in miles and chains. There are 80 chains to the mile.
 * The lead is not meant to be detailed, so giving an exact measurement there is not necessary. In the body however the specificity is useful, but adding a note (because the man on the street speaks in fractional miles) is helpful for comprehension. -mattbuck (Talk) 20:02, 28 January 2018 (UTC)