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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by EuropracBHIT (talk | contribs) at 03:43, 27 April 2006 (Explaining Boronia Station). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Here is a map and a list of the stations which indicates stations that I and Ozzmosis have updated with the new style Info Boxes and at least one photograph:

Map up to date as of 25/4/2006. Check list below map for current list of stations

All stations on the Puffing Billy Tourist Railway have also been completed.

Can you use a template for the infoboxes rather than putting the raw codes into each article? --ozzmosis 07:20, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That I would not know how to do. Do you have the knowledge to create one? If so, that would be really useful and make placing these infoboxes into the articles much faster. Lakeyboy 09:37, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's done. See the template at Template:MelbourneRailwayStation and also the updated articles of Southern Cross Station and Frankston railway station, Melbourne for examples, although the Frankston infobox is incomplete (needs a logo, Melway ref, etc). --ozzmosis 15:58, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I tend to think the "Station Facilities", "Connecting Transport and Timetables" and "Melway map of station" info links are going to get very tedious to do. Then what happens when the external URLs change...? --ozzmosis 16:03, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I went ahead and changed the infobox to a template in the station list above, and went a bit nuts and did a few other Frankston line stations too. Obviously they all need logos... --ozzmosis 17:37, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, I've just noticed someone has had the same idea but with a Connex logo and some additional or different info, eg. see the infobox at Upfield railway station, Melbourne. The template is at Template:Melbourne Station Infobox. Not sure what to make of this. --ozzmosis 19:30, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Huge thanks for making the infobox template. Will make the task much easier. And with those other connex infoboxes, I'm overwriting them. My old ones I was presenting to the WikiProject Melbourne team said it was way too much information so mine just has links to the information at the metlink site. I've also fixed up Frankston. Thanks again. Lakeyboy 11:01, 15 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Where are the Metlink station logos coming from? eg.

File:Southern Cross.PNG

Are you making those by hand? Surely you're not going to do that for all ~200 stations in Melbourne. What if I want one done for Frankston station? What happens when Metlink changes their logo? Why is the filename so generic? --ozzmosis 07:17, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes I am making these all by hand. Only takes about 10 seconds for each one but can take abit longer if it is a long station name (eg: upper ferntree gully). Yes I will eventually cover all 200 stations. I don't know how long it will take but it will get there bit by bit. If anyone wants their favourite stations put to the top of the priority list I can do that as well. If you want Frankston done, I'll get on it if you wish. If Metlink change their logo, then all the signs go down the train but I highly doubt Metlink will change their logo. It was created only about 3 years ago and they are rolling out tens of thousands of signs with the metlink logo on them right throughout Melbourne. And the filenames are generic for two reasons. Because the station pics usually aren't just the station name then .jpg at the end. They have different variations which include the station name and the second reason is that these signs are in .png format which can't be put into place for the station photos because of file sizes. Lakeyboy 08:57, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
OK, well I don't envy your task ahead but I do admit it looks good... --ozzmosis 15:59, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Can you explain the process? Primarily what software you are using. I want to make some of these myself... --ozzmosis 09:56, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Sure. I use only MS Paint for the process (don't need photoshop). I have a template I use which has the metlink bar at the bottom and the blue background with nothing on it. Here is the template for you: Station Sign Template I then use the textbox on transparent mode. I set the font to size 35 arial and the font colour white. No bold or itallic is used. If the text does not fit the template size, I extend the width. I align it to the right to make sure the end of the last letter of the station matches up with the end of the metlink logo. Then I simply save as a .PNG file. Only about 4-5kb each. Sorry if this sounds complicated. Lakeyboy 10:04, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Does that all really take only 10 seconds? *grin* OK, I'll give it a go. Thanks. --ozzmosis 10:06, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, maybe I was going a little overboard. More like 15 seconds! Anyway, in the logo section of the infobox, use this image tag and just replace the station name to the right station even if there is no file already made. That way, it will be quicker. Use this: File:STATION NAME.PNG Note the pixel size and the .png at the end. Also station names with two or more words do have spaces between them. Lakeyboy 10:10, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I have another idea. You could use a template instead of an image, simply with a base image of the blue+black+logo, and lay the name over the top. Sure, it won't be in Helvetica Neue, but Arial's close enough, LOL! It will make updating A LOT easier, and even reduce the amount of data to transfer a little (not that it'd be much to worry about). --Evan C (Talk) 10:21, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That sounds like a great idea but there is 2 problems. The first is I have no idea how to do that and second, what happens with the long station names: The font shrinks but the sign stays the same and it won't look good. With the pictures, I create the signs with the amount of pixels it needs to fit the arial size 35 font in paint + 50px on the left side. Also, about 40-50 of these have already been created and I don't want that work going down the drain. Lakeyboy 10:28, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Arial is what's being used anyway. :-) I don't quite know how to write a template to do that though. --ozzmosis 10:34, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe two templates are required, one for short names and one for long names. It's a bit of a compromise but should work. --ozzmosis 10:34, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And I realise it will feel like your work going "down the drain", but if we can use a template instead it will mean we can save a lot of time in the longer term, and also anybody can do it.
Incidentally it should probably just be added to the existing template. I'm not sure we need nested templates. --ozzmosis 10:36, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Updated version see: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Melbourne#Updated design, slightly --Evan C (Talk) 12:38, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Station navigation infoboxes

(diff) (hist) . . m Glenhuntly railway station, Melbourne; 21:13:30 . . Lakeyboy (Talk | contribs) (fixed station navagation box)

Hang on .. Firstly, you've mispelled "navigation", but the other reason I changed this was because the navigation box was previously a template. Now with your edit it's back to messy HTML codes. If you want to change the look of infobox, change the Template:MelbourneStations template, not each article. Templates make it all very easy to make infoboxes uniform across similar articles. --ozzmosis 10:56, 20 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Whoops! Didn't realise I was spelling it wrong. I will fix them as soon as I can but I can't right now. And for the navigation boxes, I will fix the template so it looks like the ones that I have been replacing. But one thing, you might know how to do this because I don't but the template is fine for regular stations but what about stations with branching lines? How can you do it in multiples for the line branching stations. Thanks for all your help with this. Really appreciated. I even gave you credit with the infoboxes above. Lakeyboy 12:01, 20 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure, maybe more than one template is required there for branch lines. I'll look if any other cities have dealt with that before, and perhaps experiment a bit.
I did notice the credit, although it's not really necessary! :-) Thanks though.
--ozzmosis 16:11, 20 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
OK, I've made a template for stations with two branch lines at Template:MelbourneStations2. I'm using this template for Caulfield. There are some stations (eg. North Melbourne) that have more than two branch lines, but probably no need to make a template for them, because there are so few. --ozzmosis 11:12, 21 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that. Much easier to use for the line branch stations. And for the stations with 3 or more line branches (eg: most inner city stations), I also think it's good to keep the HTML code for them. And you deserve the credit. You've done virtually the whole Frankston line! I am now making station signs for the whole line. Lakeyboy 23:16, 21 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Whoa on the images

I noticed you placed quite a lot of images on Boronia railway station, Melbourne - I think they're going a bit overboard. When editing Wikipedia it's often useful to think about what would be put in a print encyclopedia. Large numbers of images (as well as detailed information on station facilities, etc) would probably not make it to print. Things like this are best suited to enthusiast sites (and Metlink, etc for the facilities info). As such, I've removed most of them. Thank you for your efforts though - tis great work! --Evan C (Talk) 14:43, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My sentiments, also. Two images should be enough, ie. platform view and station front entrance. --ozzmosis 14:49, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe it was abit overboard. I saw other station articles with about 5 each so I thought I would add to it but now I remember that words, not pictures are the main ingredient in a wikipedia article. Which means the saying 'A picture is worth a thousand words' is no use here! So I am going by what Ozzmosis has said. One platform view and one whole station/station entry view. Lakeyboy 10:39, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

We need to agree here

What basis do you have for using the jumbo-sized signs? My latest version is the most accurate to the real signs, whilst still fitting in appropriately, and (most importantly) being consistent. --Evan C (Talk) 09:43, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I just don't think that the other ones didn't look all that good. These ones are much easier to read and it's easy to change it from 1 to 2 for longer station names. Nothing else in either infobox template needs to be touched. Just change the numbers: 1 for short name and 2 for long name. I don't know how we're going to sort this mess out! Lakeyboy
Hehe - I don't think these ones look all that good! ;) --Evan C (Talk) 09:49, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
LOL! I have uploaded a better looking version of my sign now. A less thick white line. Lakeyboy 09:51, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Explaining Boronia Station

Dear Luke:
Thank you for doing what I had failed to do and explaining how Boronia was divided by that dreadful crossing.
What about Maguire Park? That was where Boronia Junction (the shopping centre) is now.
I really appreciated your writing on this page.
--Bronwyn Gannan 03:43, 27 April 2006 (UTC).[reply]
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