Style Guide

Introduction

This document ensures consistency within and across pages within the Enthusiast's Guide to Travelling the Railways of the Rest of the World (EGTROW). It is intended for use both by editors, for creating and modifying pages, and by readers, to help with understanding the content of EGTROW.

It is a 'work in progress' and will be added to or amended from time to time.

Train Times

Use the format hours:minutes (hh:mm), using a colon character as separator, and using two digits for each part.

Examples:
04:12
12:09
23:59

The local time, appropriate to the country or region, shall be used. References to other time zones, or summer/winter time changes, to be added only where necessary for clarity.

Dates

Use the format Date-in-Month Full-Name-of-Month Four-Digits-of-Year, using a space character as separator.

Examples:
23 September 2008
5 July 2023

For a range of dates:
5 April 2010 to 16 April 2010

Notes:

• No ordinals (e.g. 3rd); no abbreviated months; always use the full four figures for the year; no punctuation.
• Dates are always inclusive.
• Always include the year unless the context is VERY clear, otherwise mistakes can be made when editing older pages - even where there is a section heading e.g. “Changes in 2015”.

Days of the Week

Where needed. If not specified, defaults to ‘daily’.

Day names are shown as plurals unless the context absolutely requires otherwise, for example to specify a train that runs on one day per year.

Days are ordered Mondays, ... Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays.

Single days: use ‘only’ or ‘not’ as a prefix as appropriate.

Multiple consecutive days: use the word ‘to’, no need for the prefix ‘only’ (but ‘not’ could be used if desired).

Multiple non-consecutive days: use ‘only’ or ‘not’ as a prefix as appropriate, and separate the day names with ‘comma’ characters. Maximum of three day names.

Examples:
only Mondays
Mondays to Fridays
only Saturdays, Sundays
not Sundays
only Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sundays
not Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sundays

Train Details

Details to be listed, only as required, in the following order:

1. Train name, if any (and it must be well-recognised from being published in timetables etc.), in italics.
2. The word train or trains, following by appropriate train numbers, all in parentheses () if the train name is listed. Use ‘comma’ characters and the word ‘and’, as required, to separate the numbers for multiple trains, not the ‘slash’ ‘/’ character. However, if a train changes number en route, use separating ‘slash’ characters. Do not abbreviate train numbers, e.g. use 264/265/266 not 264/5/6.
3. A ‘comma’ character if more data follows.
4. Optional list of running days, as described above under ‘Days of the Week’. Defaults to 'daily' if no list of running days is given.
5. Train timing details, with times as described above under ‘Train Times’.
6. Optional further details, in parentheses (), to clarify start and points or similar. Use ‘to’ or ‘from’ rather than ‘dash’ characters.

Use bullet points to separate multiple trains where needed, rather than in the body of the text.

Examples:
Southwest Chief (trains 3 and 4)
Northern Spirit (train 5), only Mondays 09:00 Newtown - Oldtown
train 5, Mondays to Fridays 09:00 Newtown - Oldtown
train 345, 09:00 Newtown – Oldtown
train 432, 09:00 Newtown – Oldtown (12:34 from Middletown)
train B264/265/266, 06:15 Ain Kermes – Oran

• train 123, 09:00 Newtown – Oldtown
• train 456, 23:59 Oldtown – Newtown