RailUK Forums

If you follow the rules, you'll get on fine - oh wait you can't because the moderators make up the rules and interpret them as they see fit. On a serious point though The moderators have a tough job with thousands of posts per day, but they and one in particular (who's screen name is that of a chocolate bar) need to lean some general politeness and manners, they also need to set out (and ideally simply their rules), posters are regularly told that they are in breach of rule #46 for example, despite there being no numbered list of rules and many seem to be made up very ad hoc. If the owner or his (and they area he) takes a shine to you, you'll be fine.

There's good contributors on here, but many leave after a short period of time because the forum staff are quite unpleasant, and the moderation is way too over-zealous. It really feels like the staff (one especially) enjoy berating people, and confusing "moderation" with censoring contributions which they don't personally agree with. Feels more like a political soap-box, not a serious forum.

Can only echo other comments that one of the moderators is very odd. Post something that they don't like and you'll very quickly get a long message about why in your DM's. I can only imagine they've not got much else to do in life.

I presume this is the reason why usage appears to have dropped off. A shame as there are some knowledgeable contributors.

Google brought me to this review page by chance and as I started to read the reviews I was amazed to find with each one "I could have written that". I have been reading the RailUK Forums on and off for about 10 years but a few weeks ago decided to register and contribute. My first new thread encountered the wrath of the dreaded "Yorkie" soon to be followed by other examples. The site has far too many sub forums and one of his favourite hobbies seems to be moving threads from a popular forum to some obscure part of the site for reasons obvious only to him. One post was deleted as "not constructive" even though another moderator had made a virtually identical comment without problems. When advised of this Yorkie came up with a totally meaningless justification.

I am a member of quite a few discussion boards, never have I come across such a rude, belligerent and generally stuck-up forum staff as this one. Threads get locked for no obvious reason just that an admin has come across it and decided that it has "run it's course". Woe betide if something is (deemed by them to be) "off topic" or posted in the wrong place, and of course conversation can never drift without a member of staff appearing within seconds, where you get spoken to as if you are at primary school. It seems the forum owner works in education so perhaps doesn't know how to behave in the actual real world dealing with adults? Some good people post here which is the one good thing, but equally plenty of good people don't stick around long, the reasons for which are quite obvious. All things have a shelf life and it seems this forum has passed its sell-by date.

This would be a decent forum, but there's a massive BUT.

The moderation is plain weird, and at times seems to border on harassment. One moderator in particular is compulsive to the point where it is creepy, especially the way he seems to obsess with certain people. It reminds me of a particularly unpleasant individual I know who hones in on certain people then just can't resist keep prodding, like a baby who has just learned a new word. It isn't normal behaviour - it's weird, and almost a bit disturbing that this individual seems to have nothing better to do.

Cannot recommend the forum until there's a complete clear-out of staff.

Not really a good forum as moderators have very strong personal and political views, and massage postings which don't align with this. There is a massive problem with bullying from moderators here, which won't ever be dealt with as the forum owner is ringleader of this. He is well known to be a rather strange individual who fails to be able to accept that not everyone has the same views as his own. I'm actually not quite sure what the point of the forum is as it's very clear that discussion is only welcome on certain very narrow terms, largely due to this one individual's odd behaviours. It's no wonder he spends his life hiding behind his keyboard as in the real world his behaviours would have him last barely five minutes in any mature adult workplace.

The idea of the forum is good. But you have to be seriously thick skinned to post here. Because the moderators abuse their role by using moderation as a tool to promote their own narrow view of the world. The classic case of keyboard tough guys, as they wouldn't dare behave like this in person, though one particular moderators likes to brag about how he starts in people in various real-life settings. So be prepared to find discussion is deemed as "off topic" (because of course discussion never finds new threads to talk about), or discussions get shut down having "run their course" when a moderator suddenly decides to stick their nose in to a perfectly constructive and civilised discussion. Or you'll be banned if you happen to disagree with Mr Yorkie, who just comes across as a very bitter and odd individual. A lot of good informed posters here but many don't stick around long because of the toxic atmosphere, so what's left is a poor quality echo chamber, and a bit of a laughing stock to the industry despite the forum's delusions of grandeur. The concept is good, but this particular rendition has gone stale and passed its sell by date. Needs a total refresh of the staff.

The site would be great, but one of the moderators completely wrecks it due to his attitude. Debate is only welcomed when it's on his own terms, and in accordance with his own views. There's quite a history of people being harassed, bullied or just digged at until they lose patience and leave. Railway staff in particular are very much not welcome, and are highly likely to incur the wrath of this particularly opinionated moderator. There are some great people on here, but really this one particular moderator could do everyone a favour and do one.

The main moderator who created the site (Username Yorkie) is one of the hardest people to have an adult discussion with that you will ever come across. He can never accept being wrong and has site rules that are blatant discrimination against those with disabilities which is even more disgusting when you consider that users with disabilities do exist on the site. Expect posts to be deleted if you make one typing error and then to be gaslighted by him if you dare to challenge this. I got banned for defending the fact that I am autistic.

Quite conspicuous how the moderating is extremely over-bearing. One foot out of line and it will be an instant dig from a moderator, which is always framed as a dig and a point score rather than constructive. With these digs coming so quickly it seems that at least some of the moderators don't have much of a life other than to monitor their precious forum. Shame as it's actually not a bad forum, but noticeable how few people from the industry post there, which is quite telling. Not a welcoming atmosphere.

I have been a member of Railforums UK for almost 10 years. I contribute a reasonable amount. Post count of course is not everything but I am now at over 6000 posts. Moderators do a great job of keeping stuff on topic and splitting off posts onto a new thread where necessary. I personally prefer the Infrastructure section though I do post in other areas also. Some extremely knowledgeable people on this site and some in particular I follow very carefully. Living in the USA I find photographs of progress really good and helpful. As with any website-internet forum it is best imho not to take things too personally. I personally can thoroughly recommend the forum. One of these days I will get to a forum meet/ meal but in the meantime I have met a few members on photographic trips.

I've been on lots of forums but this must be the worst forum I have ever joined. There's a certain administrator on here I won't name and he's just dam right awkward. 99% of what I post he doesn't like it and keeps punishing me. I post no different on other forums and never have the problems that I do here on Rail UK. When first joining the forum about 3 years ago after making my first post straight away he had a go at me saying that 5 things I'd wrote were wrong and removed my thread along with giving me a warning when I'd only been a member for about an hour. He also got annoyed as another member had just joined the forum with a similar username as mine and thought I was stealing it. I then tried just replying to other posts and not start my own threads only for that same grumpy old administrator to punish me yet again claiming the forum had no place for fantasy posts when I was only having a laugh and joke about if a certain train service ever ran into my town. The grumpy administrator clearly has no sense of humour there. I then got fed up and created a protest thread saying how ridiculous their rules and staff are. That did indeed get me the infraction after then. About 6 months later thinking everything had cooled down I came back to make a post asking about a disabled rail card. Within 30 minutes after posting it along came Mr Grumpy once again to punish me again claiming I had posted in the wrong context. Before I had a chance to edit the post to suit his liking he put my account on moderation meaning from that day forward anything I post now must be accepted by a moderator. Even today if some of their lower rank moderators are happy with my posts that administrator will still come along and punish me. What I can guess is that he must have mental issues to keep harassing someone the way he harasses me. Thousands of other people post there every single week without any problem. He's probably even just a grumpy retired 80 year old station master that's got nothing better than to upset the vulnerable.