User talk:Trainsandotherthings/Archive 4

DYK for Northup Avenue Yard
Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 00:02, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Canadian Pacific reporting marks
Hi! I saw you reverted my edit to Canadian Pacific Railway because the template can't handle more than 4 reporting marks. I know that, but it already had 5, and I wanted to add more for the sake of comprehensiveness, even though they wouldn't be displayed. Blippy1998 (talk) 01:21, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
 * They shouldn't all be listed in the lead section, anyhow. It's excessive. Just list the main mark in the lead. If you want to do a laundry list of every reporting mark, put it in the body and/or infobox, not the lead. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 02:55, 14 August 2022 (UTC)
 * So should I remove the others, leaving only CP, and put them in the infobox? Blippy1998 (talk) 01:06, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Personally I don't think listing every single reporting mark is necessary at all, but if you insist, the infobox and/or the body would be a better place. Companies like CP can end up as the owners of dozens of reporting marks through mergers or acquisitions; we do not and should not list them all. Only marks that are actually used should be listed for a currently operating railroad company. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 02:06, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Hm, alright, I'll hold off on it. Blippy1998 (talk) 04:52, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

NPP message
Hi ,

For those who may have missed it in our last newsletter, here's a quick reminder to see the letter we have drafted, and if you support it, do please go ahead and sign it. If you already signed, thanks. Also, if you haven't noticed, the backlog has been trending up lately; all reviews are greatly appreciated.
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To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:11, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Northup Avenue Yard
The article Northup Avenue Yard you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:Northup Avenue Yard for issues which need to be addressed. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Sammi Brie -- Sammi Brie (talk) 23:22, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

DYK for East Louisiana Railroad
Vanamonde 12:02, 28 August 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Sand Springs Railway
Valereee (talk) 00:02, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

Wikiproject Military history coordinator election nominations opening soon
Nominations for the upcoming project coordinator election are opening in a few hours (00:01 UTC on 1 September). A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next coordination year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 UTC on 14 September! Voting doesn't commence until 15 September. If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the current coord team. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:52, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Moshassuck Valley Railroad
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Moshassuck Valley Railroad you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Premeditated Chaos -- Premeditated Chaos (talk) 07:21, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Sand Springs Railway
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Sand Springs Railway you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Premeditated Chaos -- Premeditated Chaos (talk) 05:41, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

WikiCup 2022 September newsletter
The fourth round of the WikiCup has now finished. 383 points were required to reach the final, and the new round has got off to a flying start with all finalists already scoring. In round 4, Bloom6132 with 939 points was the highest points-scorer, with a combination of DYKs and In the news items, followed by BennyOnTheLoose, Sammi Brie and Lee Vilenski. The points of all contestants are swept away as we start afresh for the final round.

At this stage, we say goodbye to the eight competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia, and we hope you will join us again next year. For the remaining competitors, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them, and importantly, before the deadline on October 31st!

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. The judges are Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:45, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Board of Trustees election
Thank you for supporting the NPP initiative to improve WMF support of the Page Curation tools. Another way you can help is by voting in the Board of Trustees election. The next Board composition might be giving attention to software development. The election closes on 6 September at 23:59 UTC. View candidate statement videos and Vote Here. MB 04:11, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Promotion of Branford Steam Railroad
Congratulations, and thank you today for Cedar Hill Yard, about "a railroad yard located in my home state of Connecticut, in the cities of New Haven, North Haven, and Hamden. From 1920 into the 1960s, it was one one of the largest railroad yards on the planet with over 2,000 acres of facilities, and handled 3,000 or more railroad cars each day. It has declined in importance and size with the rise of trucking and the general departure of most industry from New England, but today it is still by far the largest railroad yard in the state of Connecticut."! - Can I interest you in Opera in Ukraine (not by me), pictured on the same page? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:44, 5 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the message, Gerda. Opera isn't usually my thing, but I did enjoy reading that article you linked - it's quite well written. I don't think I've ever said this, but I do appreciate the hard work you put into creating opera articles. If it weren't for you, many of them wouldn't exist! Trainsandotherthings (talk) 14:49, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

What is this?
I realize you don't like the guy, but stuff like this and this seems rather unnecessary to me. jp×g 12:14, 5 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Considering he just attacked me at the ANI, and has done nothing but brag about how many DYKs and GAs he has, I think my comments were completely appropriate. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 13:17, 5 September 2022 (UTC)


 * I just read through the ANI thread, and I agree that you are being unnecessarily inflammatory and comments like this are pretty much a personal attack. I'm going to quote from Observations on Wikipedia behaviour : "Try to be as tolerant as you possibly can regarding edits by established contributors. Should you need to revert one, leave as polite an explanation as possible, with room for compromise: and if they're simply wrong, don't rub their nose in it."
 * Doug is mentioning his GAs and DYKs for a reason. He's inviting you to check them (as people have already done, identifying potential copyvios) and, in turn, querying why there appears to be such an issue with his editing given the amount of material he's posted for review. You only need to look at WT:DYK and WP:ERRORS to see that you cannot churn out low-quality work at DYK and get away with it for very long. Ritchie333 (talk) (cont)  14:23, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * You're joking, right? Have you seen his conduct, which largely consisted of denying there was a problem, copy-pasting word-for-word the same message bragging about his DYK and GA numbers 5 times in a row and accusing me of starting the ANI thread out of jealousy? Maybe you should reevaluate who you should be scolding. And quite frankly, based on, he has sacrificed quality for quantity on occasion.
 * I do not appreciate being called "rabid" or accused of bad faith, nor do I appreciate other editors talking down to me, as TRM did. I also don't appreciate being falsely accused of doing things "just to punish him" which is a bold-faced lie. If you actually read my comments, I supported letting him off with only a warning. The only reason I wanted him to clarify what it is he had done wrong and how he proposed to avoid doing it again in the future was to ensure that no further trips to ANI or blocks would be needed in the future. None of this has been me trying to "punish" him. It's clear now he's going to suffer worse consequences than that. And TRM's conduct at ANI is pathetic, and I want no further part of it. He's doing exactly what he and you accuse editors like me of doing, being inflammatory and uncivil.
 * I also find it rich that you're here scolding me for being, in your opinion, mean, to a "content creator", when I myself am a content creator. You've been very clear that you think content creators are important, but apparently only certain ones?
 * Again, if you actually read the ANI, you'd see I was extremely lenient with Doug. I was forced to resort to ANI after he refused to engage in discussion at Talk:Preparation (principle) (a redlink now, but you're a sysop and can still view it) on multiple occasions, ignored multiple reverts by inserting the exact same disputed content, ignored a talk page message by myself, and then inserted the same disputed material in another article. Dammit, it took a block just to get him to answer a talk page message. You're an admin and you should know that is wholly unacceptable conduct from any editor.
 * Yes, I snapped, and shouldn't have left that last comment. However, I have been repeatedly attacked and had accusations thrown against me simply for proposing an editor be warned and then wanting to be sure he understood what the issue was. I'm sick of it. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:25, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Apology
It's overdue, and I'm here to apologize for some of the things I said during the station notability discussion, including the times I impugned your integrity by suggesting you were angry over an AfD outcome. That wasn't fair, and I posted angry, which I should never do. Something I've struggled with over the years is knowing when not to post. This XKCD comic (you may know it already) is a painfully accurate depiction of the problem. If I've been sitting there rewriting a post for 5-10 minutes, because I'm lingering over a winning hit or the proper invective, I probably should walk away. The posts that feel the best the moment I submit are probably the ones I want back the most. My anger got the better of me, and I'm sorry. Mackensen (talk) 22:43, 5 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi, I appreciate the message. It takes a lot of guts to admit when you're wrong, and honestly my own conduct during that RfC wasn't great either. In general I appreciate your contributions here and think you're a sound editor. I myself just got into trouble for posting angry, as you can see in the thread immediately above this one, so I do understand how it can feel in the moment and motivate one to post things they later regret. So, I accept your apology, no hard feelings, and I look forward to working with you in the future, as our paths tend to cross a lot. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:34, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Railway track
Thank you for:. 157.131.122.202 (talk) 04:53, 6 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Realized I never replied to this - you're welcome, and I'm glad you found my edits useful. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 02:20, 11 September 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Kauai Plantation Railway
Cwmhiraeth (talk) 12:02, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Wikiproject Military history coordinator election voting opening soon!
Voting for the upcoming project coordinator election opens in a few hours (00:01 UTC on 15 September) and will last through 23:59 on 28 September. A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next coordination year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. Voting is conducted using simple approval voting and questions for the candidates are welcome. If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the current coord team. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:27, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

Correction to previous election announcement
Just a quick correction to the prior message about the 2022 MILHIST coordinator election! I didn't proofread the message well enough and left out a link to the election page itself in this message. The voting will occur here; sorry about the need for a second message and the inadvertent omission from the prior one. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:42, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Regarding the revert on Track gauge
Hey,

Regarding this edit. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Track_gauge&oldid=prev&diff=1111641433 I tried to generalise the statement since it mentioned only Africa and India. Soon, people will start adding about each country making section overly detailed. I think, we should always write in a generalised way, for eg. "Track gauge conversion is going on in many countries. In many countries, new railways are either built in standard gauge or the prevalent dominant gauge."

What do you think? Vatsmaxed (talk) 07:30, 22 September 2022 (UTC)


 * I reverted because the statement "Track gauge conversion is taking place in many countries." (emphasis mine) is not supported by any references, and based on my general knowledge of the rail industry seems to be a questionable statement. Track gauge conversion is the act of changing track gauge, and that doesn't happen often anymore, though in the past it was certainly quite a common occurrence before standard gauge became widespread. I fully agree that we shouldn't have it become a laundry list of every single country, that's one of my pet peeves. Ideally it would just be a few sentences about how track gauge conversion has occurred in many countries, particularly from other gauges to standard gauge. Hope this helps, and if I have some time I might find some references on this myself. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 19:52, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

October 2022 New Pages Patrol backlog drive
(t &#183; c)  buidhe  21:17, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

You have been trouted for: I CARE about the paint scheme a train is wearing when I am INSIDE the train enjoying my cup of coffee. Yes, sure, I can't at all see it, but my heart still belongs on the undercarriage of that train. That Coptic Guy 02:20, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

Wikiproject Military history coordinator election voting closing soon
Voting for the upcoming project coordinator election closes soon, at 23:59 on 28 September. A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next coordination year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. Voting is conducted using simple approval voting and questions for the candidates are welcome. The voting itself is occurring here If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the current coord team. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:14, 26 September 2022 (UTC)

Nice work
Good find of sources one Old Burnside Yard. AFD has been closed, so if you're interested in cleaning up, feel free to go right ahead. Eddie891 Talk Work 21:54, 28 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I'm going to start by moving the page to the proper title and putting in a few sources so it can stand on its own. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 22:55, 28 September 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Moshassuck Valley Railroad
The article Moshassuck Valley Railroad you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Moshassuck Valley Railroad for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Premeditated Chaos -- Premeditated Chaos (talk) 17:21, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Sand Springs Railway
The article Sand Springs Railway you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Sand Springs Railway for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Premeditated Chaos -- Premeditated Chaos (talk) 07:21, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Discussion about ratings of states
You may be interested in the discussion at Talk:Vermont. HopsonRoad (talk) 12:57, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

F59PH
How can you tell it's improperly sourced? 72.89.23.197 (talk) 18:09, 5 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Because several of the asserted owners in your list lacked citations. Don't play dumb with me. You're edit warring and must stop unless you'd like to be blocked. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 18:31, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

BNSF addition request
Hello and good day. I recently added about the Barstow International Gateway to the BNSF article. a day or two ago. I bolded this and you reverted it. Is is ok to just accentuate as such Barstow International Gateway? Just want to know if this is acceptable and satifactory to you.Thanks and have a good day.Theairportman33531 (talk) 20:14, 7 October 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi. It's not about if I think it's satisfactory, it's about if the Wikipedia Manual of Style agrees. In this case, both MOS:BOLD (which I cited in my revert) and MOS:ITALICS apply. The latter says that the following should have italics:
 * Major works of art and artifice
 * Court case names
 * Certain scientific names
 * Named, specific vessels
 * You'll notice none of those apply here. So, we shouldn't use any emphasis. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:25, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
 * OK. Thanks. Have a good day. Theairportman33531 (talk) 20:38, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Draft:Canadian National 6400
Ayo. So um, someone created this draft about Canadian National 6400, and I tried to submit it, but I was told in my talk page that the citations are incomplete and there is some incorrect grammar. You think maybe you could read it and then fix any errors you find in it? Please? I ask, because you're a million times more professional than I am. 23.169.64.51 (talk) 16:35, 9 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I did find some sources which may be of use.     These should be sufficient to show the locomotive meets GNG. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 14:16, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you 23.169.64.51 (talk) 16:33, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

New Page Patrol newsletter October 2022
Hello , Much has happened since the last newsletter over two months ago. The open letter finished with 444 signatures. The letter was sent to several dozen people at the WMF, and we have heard that it is being discussed but there has been no official reply. A related article appears in the current issue of The Signpost. If you haven't seen it, you should, including the readers' comment section.

Awards: Barnstars were given for the past several years (thanks to ), and we are now all caught up. The 2021 cup went to for leading with 26,525 article reviews during 2021. To encourage moderate activity, a new "Iron" level barnstar is awarded annually for reviewing 360 articles ("one-a-day"), and 100 reviews earns the "Standard" NPP barnstar. About 90 reviewers received barnstars for each of the years 2018 to 2021 (including the new awards that were given retroactively). All awards issued for every year are listed on the Awards page. Check out the new Hall of Fame also. Software news: and  have connected with WMF developers who can review and approve patches, so they have been able to fix some bugs, and make other improvements to the Page Curation software. You can see everything that has been fixed recently here. The reviewer report has also been improved. Suggestions:
 * There is much enthusiasm over the low backlog, but remember that the "quality and depth of patrolling are more important than speed".
 * Reminder: an article should not be tagged for any kind of deletion for a minimum of 15 minutes after creation and it is often appropriate to wait an hour or more. (from the NPP tutorial)
 * Reviewers should focus their effort where it can do the most good, reviewing articles. Other clean-up tasks that don't require advanced permissions can be left to other editors that routinely improve articles in these ways (creating Talk Pages, specifying projects and ratings, adding categories, etc.) Let's rely on others when it makes the most sense. On the other hand, if you enjoy doing these tasks while reviewing and it keeps you engaged with NPP (or are guiding a newcomer), then by all means continue.
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Backlog: Saving the best for last: From a July low of 8,500, the backlog climbed back to 11,000 in August and then reversed in September dropping to below 6,000 and continued falling with the October backlog drive to under 1,000, a level not seen in over four years. Keep in mind that there are 2,000 new articles every week, so the number of reviews is far higher than the backlog reduction. To keep the backlog under a thousand, we have to keep reviewing at about half the recent rate!


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Source citations
Thank you for your significant contributions to Wikipedia's coverage of railroad topics, and especially New England's rich history of innovation. I hope we can work together in continuation of this effort. Portland Terminal Company was one of my first Wikipedia articles, and I encountered the unfortunately common hazing by editors suggesting speedy deletion and inadequate sources. I responded with the unusually comprehensive listing of citations which generated your "What the hell happened here?" edit. My efforts as a novice editor generated a tag functionally similar to your edit, which was dismissed seven years ago by User:Worm That Turned. That experience has encouraged me to use a more focused approach to sourcing, receiving less attention from drive-by taggers. I encourage you to consider the possibility efforts to reduce the number of citations may be counter-productive to Wikipedia's goals. Thewellman (talk) 22:15, 20 October 2022 (UTC)


 * If I'm being fully honest, I'm not used to anyone else actually watching or maintaining these articles. They're usually graveyards with no substantial edits in the past decade, and mostly unsourced and full of railfan trivia (like paragraphs about paint schemes or rosters filled to the brim with OR). Had I known you were actively watching the article, I wouldn't have gone so crazy with the tags. The number of citations is excessive by any reasonable reading, however. One paragraph should not require 15 citations. And I understand the frustration with drive-by citation needed tagging, I cite almost every sentence I write for that reason. But again, having 17 citations on one paragraph makes it unclear what is supporting what, takes up a lot of space, and just doesn't really have any benefit. The Union Station paragraph has 17 citations for 6 sentences, and they're all at the very end of the paragraph. I'm not going to go around deleting citations however, because they're to offline sources, are far more reliable than what usually passes for sources on train articles, and you know them far better than I do, so that wouldn't really be fair to you if I did. I have self-reverted 2 of the tags, just leaving the excessive citations one. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 01:47, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

Quite right about almost everything you said but one quibble...
Just to be clear I don't despise Floydian, I'm more bemused than anything else. See User talk:Floydian for my opinion of the general quality of their edits. If I wanted to take it to ANI I would have done so two or three dozen personal attacks ago... I'm not taking it personally, I just think thats how Floydian interacts with the world and they don't mean any harm by it. Horse Eye&#39;s Back (talk) 19:04, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

My two drafts
Hey, about the two Canadian ten-wheeler drafts I made and pointed out they weren't ready awhile ago; now, they're ready. Hence, why I resubmitted them both myself. I've also noticed your comments and I ensured both drafts have at least two "indipendent" sources. Someone who likes train writing (talk) 16:11, 26 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I gave both articles a look, and accepted them both. Good work on them. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 16:59, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Cool Chessie system forever (talk) 04:21, 31 October 2022 (UTC)

Hello
There's a page that's been unsourced for over a decade called Tama and Toledo Railroad. I was unable to find many sources outside of simple directories, but researching about railroading is not my area of expertise. Is there any chance you could look at this page? I'd hate for it to get deleted, but at the same time, I found no sources. Why? I Ask (talk) 01:45, 4 November 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi, thanks for the message. From a quick search I am definitely seeing sources. Railroads like this 99% of the time are notable, and you can find sourcing online in newspaper archives and Google Books. This one proved a bit harder to source than usual, but I had success with newspapers.com. Consider    which I think are enough to soundly defeat any AfD attempt. It's getting late on the East Coast now, but I'll rewrite the article with these sources tomorrow into something that can stand on its own two legs (unless you're interested in doing so yourself). Trainsandotherthings (talk) 02:15, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I'll let you work on it. I didn't check Newspapers.com (for some reason), but I couldn't find suitable sources on Google Books. Why? I Ask (talk) 02:18, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Yeah, Google Books was the first thing I checked, I was hoping to see either newspaper stories or stories in things like Railway Track and Structures, Railway Age, Electric Railway Journal, etc (compare with Sand Springs Railway, another interurban-turned-freight carrier that still operates toady, which I took to GA). No luck with either. But newspapers.com saved the day. I was about to type out "I'm having trouble finding anything" and then I fired up newspapers.com. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 02:29, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Wood River Branch Railroad
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Wood River Branch Railroad you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Premeditated Chaos -- Premeditated Chaos (talk) 23:21, 5 November 2022 (UTC)

WikiCup 2022 November newsletter
The 2022 WikiCup has drawn to a close with the final round going down to the wire. The 2022 champion is
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lee Vilenski (1752 points), who won in 2020 and was runner up in both 2019 and last year. In the final round he achieved 3 FAs and 15 GAs, mostly on cue sports. He was closely followed by
 * Bloom6132 (1732), who specialised in "In the news" items and DYKs, and who has reached the final round of the Cup for the past three years. Next was
 * ICS Zulu.svg BennyOnTheLoose (1238), another cue sports enthusiast, also interested in songs, followed by
 * Muboshgu (1082), an "In the news" contributor, a seasoned contestant who first took part in the Cup ten years ago. Other finalists were
 * Transgender Pride flag.svg Sammi Brie (930), who scored with a featured article, good articles and DYKs on TV and radio stations,
 * 🇺🇳 Kavyansh.Singh (370), who created various articles on famous Americans, including an FA on Louis H. Bean, famed for his prediction of election outcomes. Next was
 * PCN02WPS (292), who scored with good articles and DYKs on sporting and other topics and
 * Z1720 (25) who had DYKs on various topics including historic Canadians.

During the WikiCup, contestants achieved 37 featured articles, 349 good articles, 360 featured article reviews, 683 good article reviews and 480 In the news items, so Wikipedia has benefited greatly from the activities of WikiCup competitors. Well done everyone! All those who reached the final round will receive awards and the following special awards will be made, based on high performance in particular areas of content creation and review. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, these prizes are awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round, or the overall leader in this field.


 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lee Vilenski wins the featured article prize, for a total of 6 FAs during the course of the competition and 3 in the final round.
 * 🇺🇳 Kavyansh.Singh wins the featured list prize, for 3 FLs in round 2.
 * Pirate Flag of Jack Rackham.svg Adam Cuerden wins the featured picture prize, for 39 FPs during the competition.
 * Z1720 wins the featured article reviewer prize, for 35 FARs in round 4.
 * Epicgenius wins the good article prize, for 32 GAs in round 1.
 * Flag of Provo, Utah (1989–2015).svg SounderBruce wins the featured topic prize, for 4 FT articles in round 1.
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Lee Vilenski wins the good topic prize, for 34 GT articles in round 5.
 * Transgender Pride flag.svg Sammi Brie wins the good article reviewer prize, for 71 GARs overall.
 * Transgender Pride flag.svg Sammi Brie wins the Did you know prize, for 30 DYKs in round 3 and 106 overall.
 * Bloom6132 wins the In the news prize, for 106 ITNs in round 5 and 289 overall.

Next year's competition will begin on 1 January and possible changes to the rules and scoring are being discussed on the discussion page. You are invited to sign up to take part in the contest; the WikiCup is open to all Wikipedians, both novices and experienced editors, and we hope to have a good turnout for the 2023 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners and finalists, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:29, 6 November 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Wood River Branch Railroad
&mdash; Amakuru (talk) 00:03, 9 November 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Massena Terminal Railroad
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Massena Terminal Railroad you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of LunaEatsTuna -- LunaEatsTuna (talk) 01:01, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Kauai Plantation Railway
Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Kauai Plantation Railway you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ZKang123 -- ZKang123 (talk) 02:01, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Connecticut Southern Railroad
The article Connecticut Southern Railroad you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:Connecticut Southern Railroad and Talk:Connecticut Southern Railroad/GA1 for issues which need to be addressed. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Etriusus -- Etriusus (talk) 06:22, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad
Written in haste: Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad. Mackensen (talk) 18:19, 21 November 2022 (UTC)


 * Noting that I have seen this. I can look for some sources on newspapers.com later today. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:47, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

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Your GA nomination of Wood River Branch Railroad
The article Wood River Branch Railroad you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Wood River Branch Railroad for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Premeditated Chaos -- Premeditated Chaos (talk) 20:41, 10 November 2022 (UTC)

Boston & Albany R.R.
I am in possession of a folded stampless letter with a circular red cancel of August 28, 1847 which reads “Albany & Boston R.R.” I believe this may indicate that the dates of operation are much earlier than shown in the WP page currently. It is addressed to a Mr Zenas Cook of Hadley, Mas. May I send you a pic of the date cancel marking? 47.32.78.47 (talk) 15:38, 9 December 2022 (UTC)


 * As best as I can tell, the "Albany and Boston Railroad" was a holding company for the Albany and West Stockbridge Railroad - the New York State portion of the Western Railroad. There's an article about it on JSTOR, but I don't have access. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 21:14, 9 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi IP editor, I was supposed to be on a brief wikibreak, but I accidentally ended up on Wikipedia (looking up Björk, of all things), and saw the talk page messages. I found this intriguing, so I did some digging. Between Karr's The Rail Lines of Southern New England and some searching online, I've found the following:
 * I find the name "Albany and Boston Railroad" as early as the 1840s, but clearly as another name of the Western Railroad (predecessor of the Boston and Albany). This is similar to how the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad was commonly known as the "Stonington Line".
 * A company by the exact name "Albany and Boston Railroad" was formed in 1862, by none other than Jay Gould.
 * The Boston and Albany Railroad article is seriously out of date and needs a rewrite; neither Pi nor myself have gotten around to it yet. But what isn't in dispute is that the Western Railroad was the operator of the line in question until it merged with the Boston and Worcester Railroad in 1867 and formed the Boston and Albany. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 22:32, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

Happy holidays!
Happy Holidays text.png Hello Trainsandotherthings: Enjoy the holiday season&#32;and winter solstice if it's occurring in your area of the world, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, MrLinkinPark333 (talk) 03:17, 12 December 2022 (UTC) Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings}} to send this message MrLinkinPark333 (talk) 03:17, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Massena Terminal Railroad
The article Massena Terminal Railroad you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Massena Terminal Railroad for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of LunaEatsTuna -- LunaEatsTuna (talk) 23:21, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Peace Dove
Happy Holidays. &#8213; Buster7  &#9742;   22:33, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad
The article Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold. The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad and Talk:Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad/GA1 for issues which need to be addressed. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Etriusus -- Etriusus (talk) 02:41, 14 December 2022 (UTC)

Question about a merge
I saw your posts on AFD and the deletion, it seems very hostile. Wikipedia is a place where i get hostility to clearly bad accounts but why the tone. And in before someone says tone policing but the tone matters in a place where we are trying to work together with people where we can’t see intent! It also seems that the deletion is against the spirit of the AFD results and I would rather solve this here than edit warring. Ask me about air Cryogenic air (talk) 12:37, 15 December 2022 (UTC)


 * The material I removed had no sources. I've done nothing wrong by removing it, quite frankly. It's not like I deleted all of the merged content; I kept everything that had a source. If you or someone else can source it, it can be restored, within reason. The totality of the examples was excessive either way, as multiple people pointed out at AfD. If I seem hostile, it's because I'm sick and tired of people dropping drive-by keep votes on things that should not be kept, and accusing me of bad faith in trying to assure some level of quality control in the encyclopedia. The same drive-by keep voters will never in a million years actually try to improve an article; it's much easier to simply say "Keep" than to do the hard work of improving article quality. I would know because I spend lots of time improving articles, and I've been on the other side of the equation, trying to demonstrate something at AfD is notable and should be kept. I apologize if my comment at that talk page came across as unduly hostile, looking back it probably was. I just find it seriously upsetting to be told I'm acting in bad faith when it was my honest interpretation that the article in question was contrary to WP:NOTDIRECTORY (and I was far from the only editor to think so). I don't claim to be perfect, and I do get too heated at AfD sometimes. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 14:04, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the honest reply! I respect your candor and honesty. As someone who is getting back into the game of wikipedia I understand dealing with bad faith sources, and I will gladly source information (I also like trains like you do, (I am a east coast commuter guy myself). I just would again like to thank yo for the quick response, and honest reply. Thank you, and I hope therest of your day is better. Ask me about air Cryogenic air (talk) 14:20, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Kauai Plantation Railway
The article Kauai Plantation Railway you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Kauai Plantation Railway for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ZKang123 -- ZKang123 (talk) 00:21, 16 November 2022 (UTC)

Precious anniversary
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:47, 16 November 2022 (UTC)

Improvements on the wiki page (MGR Chennai Central - Mysuru Vande Bharat Express) + other 5 related trains
Dear @Trainsandotherthings sir,

Please let me know what improvements need to be made cause when I created this article, I found it self-explanatory and added enough information for the audience to know about this train as well as the other trains. Kindly guide me so that next time, I can either create or edit the article neatly. Hoping to get your response soon sir. Sanjeev4125 (talk) 01:56, 16 December 2022 (UTC)


 * The principle issue is that you cite only one source. We need more sources about the train routes than just indiarailinfo. Sources like this one and this one are useful. They allow more to be said, and prove the trains meet Wikipedia's requirements for notability. Hope this is helpful to you. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 02:12, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
 * @Trainsandotherthings sir,
 * Thank you for replying to this blog. The issue that I'm currently facing is that the first link you had sent, I can add more resources for that wiki page but as I try to add for those articles that launched in the year 2019, not many articles could I find. I'll try to add more sources in order to meet the Wiki notability. Hope to get your response soon again sir.
 * Sir, one more help needed. I had uploaded pictures of these trains but got "speedy" deleted from the Wiki Commons. I have asked my friend to send mail to the VRT officials for granting permission to use the picture in Wiki since he's the owner of the image. Kindly request you to look into this issue and help me sir. Thank you. Sanjeev4125 (talk) 02:30, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Wikimedia Commons is a separate project, and I've never worked on anything involving VRT before, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. You could post your question at The Teahouse, and someone will be able to help you there. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 17:45, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
 * @Trainsandotherthings sir,
 * I'll forward this issue to that and figure out someway. Thank you for your help sir. Sanjeev4125 (talk) 05:22, 17 December 2022 (UTC)

Season's Greetings
Happy Holidays text.png Hello Trainsandotherthings: Enjoy the holiday season&#32;and winter solstice if it's occurring in your area of the world, and thanks for your work to maintain, improve and expand Wikipedia. Cheers, Clovermoss 🍀  (talk) 00:18, 17 December 2022 (UTC) Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings}} to send this message

Your GA nomination of Connecticut Southern Railroad
The article Connecticut Southern Railroad you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Connecticut Southern Railroad for comments about the article, and Talk:Connecticut Southern Railroad/GA1 for the nomination. Well done! If the article has not already appeared on the main page as a "Did you know" item, or as a bold link under "In the News" or in the "On This Day" prose section, you can nominate it within the next seven days to appear in DYK. Bolded names with dates listed at the bottom of the "On This Day" column do not affect DYK eligibility. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Etriusus -- Etriusus (talk) 04:02, 20 November 2022 (UTC)

P&W images
It looks like you're close to FA for the P&W, and I see you're doing good work on the East Junction and East Providence branches. I happened to get some photos of those lines this weekend on my way to photograph South Coast Rail: Normally it's a few months between taking and uploading, but if any of those locations would be particularly useful for your current projects, I may be able to get some uploaded this week. Cheers, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 05:34, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
 * P&W mainline: Blackstone River bridge (at Valley Falls), and the tailrace bridge at the mill just to the south
 * East Providence Branch: Abbott Run arch, bridge over I-95
 * East Junction Branch: East Junction viewed from Thurber Avenue (not the most amazing shot)


 * Hi, glad to hear you've been watching my progress on those articles. I think some of those images could definitely be useful! I'm most interested in photos of trains on the lines, but working 9-5 every weekday means I have little chance to actually photograph trains on the lines, as the trains on the East Providence + East Junction branches run Monday to Friday during the day. I live locally so I can take photos of the branches whenever, but I almost certainly won't see any trains. I don't think the P&W article has any photos of the mainline between Providence and Worcester, that would definitely be useful. Any good quality photos (which yours always are) would be very helpful. Thanks! Trainsandotherthings (talk) 14:02, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
 * @Trainsandotherthings Cool, I'll try to get some uploaded. I also created Commons:Category:Providence and Worcester Railroad mainline which may helpful to you. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 21:01, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Oh, I also have quite a few of the Willimantic Branch (Plainfield–Willimantic), which I also just created a category for. Those may take more time. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 21:06, 19 December 2022 (UTC)