Ketech Cellia Drummond and Only Woman announcements publicly availible?

[jamieh27]

From what I heard in September 2022 was that Atos was installed on the GOBLIN, Gospel Oak and Stratford stations and then the rest it is unkown what supplier they wil chose this was from the FOI request from LO. If KeTech has Emma recordings it could make sense to switch it to them like they did with ScotRail, Irish Rail and Chiltern Railways.

 

[stadler]

From what I heard in September 2022 was that Atos was installed on the GOBLIN, Gospel Oak and Stratford stations and then the rest it is unkown what supplier they wil chose this was from the FOI request from LO. If KeTech has Emma recordings it could make sense to switch it to them like they did with ScotRail, Irish Rail and Chiltern Railways.

Yes indeed. The GOBLIN line stations and Gospel Oak station switched from Amey to Atos Worldline in July 2022. Stratford P1 P2 switched from Amey to Atos Worldline in September 2022. The ELL core stations switched from Thales to Atos Worldline in May 2020. The West Anglia lines stations have been with Atos Worldline since they took over from AGA who used the same system.

It would be nice if London Overground choose Ketech and continue using Emma Hignett at these stations. If they choose Ketech they could certainly continue with Emma Hignett as Ketech use professional voice over artists. Siemens is another choice as TFL use Siemens with Emma Hignett at the Crossrail core stations. But i think it is unlikely that TFL will pick anyone other than Atos Worldline as TFL probably want one system at all London Overground stations. Having just one system is much cheaper and simpler than a mixture of systems. Also it is well known Atos Worldline are the cheapest and TFL have been having lots of financial problems in recent years so they will probably want the cheapest option. But we will have to wait and see.

 

[polskism]

The "Only Woman" lady is the voice that was previously used at, Brighton, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, London Victoria, and all Virgin Trains managed stations from around 2012 up until around 2018 when she was very unfortunately removed. She was called "Only Woman" because when she was first installed they accidentally set up the system wrong so that she said "only" at the end of every announcement even if the train was calling at multiple stations. Nobody knows who she is. We have been unable to find out her real name. Personally she was my favourite voiceover artist. I loved her announcements. She sounded great.

Also for anyone who has not heard her before here is an example of an "Only Woman" voiced announcement attached below.

Isn't her real name Emma Topping?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Isn't her real name Emma Topping?

Not another Emma!

 

[stadler]

Isn't her real name Emma Topping?

It could possibly be. Emma Topping is the voice of the Red Funnel Ferries onboard announcements and she sounds very similar to "Only Woman" so that is where this suggestion has come from. However there is no confirmation that it is actually her. They do sound very similar but if you listen carefully there are some slight differences. So it is possible that Emma Topping could be the voice but personally i think it is probably someone else.

Not another Emma!

Lol. There are quite a lot of Emma's. I can think of Emma Clarke, Emma Hignett, Emma Lintern, who all do railway voiceovers. Similarly there are also a lot of Alison's. I can think of, Alison Forster, Alison Mckay, Alison Peckmore, who have all done railway voiceovers too.

 

[Jimini]

Ketech purchased Ditra which is why you can notice some similarities between Ketech and the Ditra based systems. Some of the scripts are a bit similar. But yes Ketech is a completely new system and is not a Ditra system.

Yes once London Overground switch that will truly be the end of an era. Ditra started in the early 1980s so it has been around for just over 40 years now. It will be a shame to see it go.

I guess London Overground will probably choose Atos Worldline as that is the system they went with on the West Anglia lines and GOBLIN line and ELL core so it would probably make sense to use the same supplier. There is a small chance they could pick someone else like ASL or Ketech or Siemens but it is unlikely.

Yes these days Atos Worldline are everywhere. They are not as good as the Ditra based systems but they are a lot cheaper. I have been told they are about half the cost of what Amey charged. Atos Worldline also use staff members instead of professional voice over artists which cuts down costs a lot.


The circus horn used to be at every Southern station and every Southeastern station at one point. It was used for both fast trains and platform alternations.

If anyone wants to hear the circus horn it is played at, Anerley, Clapham High Street, Crystal Palace, Brockley, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park, New Cross Gate, Norwood Junction, Penge West, Sydenham, Wandsworth Road, West Croydon, these are the last remaining stations that still have it. Norwood Junction is probably the best station to hear it as it has the largest amount of fast trains passing through the platforms.

Between 2012 and 2018 there was also an updated trumpet horn at East Croydon station. It was a more electronic sounding one. East Croydon was the only station that had this noise. I think it was a newer version that the newer Data Display (Daktronics) boards had. I think they were trialling it as an updated version. I have attached both versions below to compare.

SWT also had a couple of fast train jingles on their Ferrograph CIS boards when they had their Amey system. But these are all long gone now.


I agree. You can tell she is not a professional voice over artist when listening to her announcements. She sounds decent enough but she is not on the same level as the professional voice over artists. She always sounds like she has a slight estuary accent. I am not much of a fan of any of the Atos Worldline voices except maybe Ruth Mitchell and Eryl Jones who both sound quite good.

Fascinating; thanks for sharing. I remember hearing the old one at the likes of Carshalton Beeches and Waddon back in the ‘90s / early ‘00s, when the old West Croydon SWT services passed through non-stop.

 

[londonmidland]

I guess London Overground will probably choose Atos Worldline as that is the system they went with on the West Anglia lines and GOBLIN line and ELL core so it would probably make sense to use the same supplier. There is a small chance they could pick someone else like ASL or Ketech or Siemens but it is unlikely.

Have London Overground said when they're planning on replacing the current Ditra system?

 

[stadler]

Fascinating; thanks for sharing. I remember hearing the old one at the likes of Carshalton Beeches and Waddon back in the ‘90s / early ‘00s, when the old West Croydon SWT services passed through non-stop.

Ah i forgot about the old SWT services to West Croydon back then. Those stations do not get many fast trains passing through any more.

Have London Overground said when they're planning on replacing the current Ditra system?

No they have not said exactly when. All they have said is that they have issued a tender to replace it. That was at the beginning of this year but i have not heard any more updates since. Considering they have issued a tender to replace it i presume it will happen any time now. I am not sure how long it takes to award the contract to a new supplier but it should be any time now. I can not imagine the Amey system being around for more than another year or so.

 

[jamieh27]

The Amey system was installed in 2001 at those station and are 22 years old with circus horn and the chimes I actually downloaded those sound files and put them on my phone so I have set the notifications to 3-4 chimes and Circus horn on certain apps so if I get SMS text it wlll go off, I do hope its KeTech because it means we still have Emma Hignett I wonder if they will have her record "Carriages" for This train is formed of X carriages as KeTech seems to be going for that than coaches.

 

[stadler]

The Amey system was installed in 2001 at those station and are 22 years old with circus horn and the chimes I actually downloaded those sound files and put them on my phone so I have set the notifications to 3-4 chimes and Circus horn on certain apps so if I get SMS text it wlll go off, I do hope its KeTech because it means we still have Emma Hignett I wonder if they will have her record "Carriages" for This train is formed of X carriages as KeTech seems to be going for that than coaches.

Ah good idea using those jingles for notifications on your phone. I think i might do the same on my phone. Much more interesting than the default notification tones that most phones come with.

I hope that London Overground go with Ketech too but we will have to wait and see. It would be a nice surprise if they choose to switch to Ketech rather than the Atos Worldline system that is spreading everywhere these days. Yes it seems that Ketech prefer "carriages" rather than "coaches" on their system.

 

[jamieh27]

It is and creative too I have the files saved on my email too so if I get a new phone in a couple of years I can apply them on there. They do seem to now and also for delays it would be interesting if Emma says "This service is currently at/between/not yet departed/now departed from"

 

[stadler]

It is and creative too I have the files saved on my email too so if I get a new phone in a couple of years I can apply them on there. They do seem to now and also for delays it would be interesting if Emma says "This service is currently at/between/not yet departed/now departed from"

Emma Hignett is still working as a voiceover so they could certainly get her to record those if TFL were to choose the Ketech system. I imagine that they would probably add all of the "the train is currently at" etc announcements as that seems to be getting added to most Ketech systems these days. I hope they keep Emma Hignett as she has become such a well known and well liked transport voice in London so it would be nice to keep her at LO stations.

 

[jamieh27]

It would be if they do keep Emma using the KeTech system depends if KeTech will bid the tender or not and wether they have Emma recordings (possibly yes if they bought Ditra) but we shall see. I know Siemens isn't everyones favourite system but Emma over that system has improved significantly rather than the other two. I rather prefer KeTech for the LO stations if they are looking to keep Emma.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

While I don't mind Anne - and certainly prefer her to Matt and Neil - she hardly sounds like a professional VA either. More like the mother of a TOWIE star.

I know exactly what you mean. I've never liked Anne having grown up with Leila, the formers voice isn't authoritative at all and sounds a bit wishy washy.

Plus, the Anne system, along with her male counterpart, sounds horribly clunky and robotic, particularly on SWR.

 

[GarethW]

Cor we had one of these threads a few years back - fascinating.

Didn’t realise Phil Sayer had passed so long ago - tempus fugit.

Who was the Boofay woman heard on the WR? back in the day?

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Mark Stutter sadly passed away in 2017. He moved to Spain in his later years and can still be heard at some Spanish airports doing the English language automated announcements.

Is he the one who GWR still use at Bristol Temple Meads? If so, then the announcement for Portway will be a "cut n shut" job from Portsmouth Harbour and Bristol Parkway if he is voicing it.

Shame Mark passed away in 2017 a year after Phil Sayer passed away. I had no idea Funkwerk used Phil in the early 2000s there were archive videos of trains at Clapham Junction when they were using Robert Lister using Infomat at all platforms. In 2001 when Phil was installed (Originally Connex Screens) on the Southern platforms it was a mix of Robert Lister and Phil Sayer. Yes GN used Amey as Finsbury Park used Amey using both Phil and then Celia and then back to Phil. KeTech is now the only surviving Ditra system left but whether it will carry on for more years to come now Celia has passed away is unknown or whether a new voice will be annoucing on that system. Northern don't plan to ditch theirs anytime soon.

More likely new voices will be added, providing that the voice artist has some level of professionalism.

 

[Parallel]

Is he the one who GWR still use at Bristol Temple Meads? If so, then the announcement for Portway will be a "cut n shut" job from Portsmouth Harbour and Bristol Parkway if he is voicing it.

Nope, that’s Rodger at Bristol Temple Meads who was apparently a former GWR employee. He is still alive and has a full proper ‘Portway Park & Ride’ recording in use. They have bodged one for Marsh Barton however, which sounds terrible! He’s also in use on SWR but they’ve sped him up so he sounds a bit odd.

Roger (Mark Stutter) was a professional voiceover artist who provided announcements at Southeastern stations for a few years from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. You can hear his voice at 3:51 in the video below.

 

[stadler]

It would be if they do keep Emma using the KeTech system depends if KeTech will bid the tender or not and wether they have Emma recordings (possibly yes if they bought Ditra) but we shall see. I know Siemens isn't everyones favourite system but Emma over that system has improved significantly rather than the other two. I rather prefer KeTech for the LO stations if they are looking to keep Emma.

Even if Ketech did not have the Emma Hignett recordings they could easily get new ones. Emma Hignett is still doing voiceovers so she could easily record new ones if necessary. Plus it is worth noting that TFL also hold the Emma Hignett recordings from the Amey system so they might be able to give them to Ketech should they win the tender.

I agree Ketech with Emma Hignett would be my first choice and Siemens with Emma Hignett would be my second choice but unfortunately i think that the Atos Worldline system using Anne is the most likely option. That seems to be what most TOCs are using these days. But we will have to see.

I know exactly what you mean. I've never liked Anne having grown up with Leila, the formers voice isn't authoritative at all and sounds a bit wishy washy.

Plus, the Anne system, along with her male counterpart, sounds horribly clunky and robotic, particularly on SWR.

For some reason SWR choose a different slowed down version of Anne instead of her usual announcements. They also use a different script. I agree it does not sound as good.

Cor we had one of these threads a few years back - fascinating.

Didn’t realise Phil Sayer had passed so long ago - tempus fugit.

Who was the Boofay woman heard on the WR? back in the day?

Nobody knows who "Boofay" was. She was used at FGE and FGW and SE stations in the early 2000s. It was a Racal system. We have never managed to find out the name of her. I did ask Racal but they did not know as it was well over a decade ago that the system was removed and they are no longer involved with CIS systems.

Is he the one who GWR still use at Bristol Temple Meads? If so, then the announcement for Portway will be a "cut n shut" job from Portsmouth Harbour and Bristol Parkway if he is voicing it.


More likely new voices will be added, providing that the voice artist has some level of professionalism.

No as Parallel mentioned Rodger on GWR and SWR and "Roger" (Mark Stutter) are different people. Mark Stutter sounded far better as he was a professional voice over artist. He had a very nice posh well spoken RP voice.

Nope, that’s Rodger at Bristol Temple Meads who was apparently a former GWR employee. He is still alive and has a full proper ‘Portway Park & Ride’ recording in use. They have bodged one for Marsh Barton however, which sounds terrible! He’s also in use on SWR but they’ve sped him up so he sounds a bit odd.

Roger (Mark Stutter) was a professional voiceover artist who provided announcements at Southeastern stations for a few years from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. You can hear his voice at 3:51 in the video below.

Are there any recordings of Rodger doing his Marsh Barton announcement? I would be interested to hear that? If he was able to record Portway Park & Ride then i wonder why on earth they had to bodge the Marsh Barton recording?

 

[jonny5532]

@stadler - I had a look at those SEG files you uploaded, it seems to be possible to convert them fairly easily. After some experimentation, the format seems to be raw 8-bit A-law PCM, bit-reversed (LSB-first), at about 16kHz as per my best guess.

Linux users can convert them with the following command:

find -iname "*.SEG" -exec sox -t raw -b 8 -r 16000 -e a-law -X \{\} \{\}.wav \;

They seem to be Irish, and possibly named wrong? Attached is Male3/396.seg (which is an Irish female voice).
View attachment 396.mp3

And here is Female2/11454.SEG which seems to be Scottish:
View attachment 11454.mp3

And here is Female1/14243.seg with an RP accent:
View attachment 14243.mp3

And finally Male1/7899.seg who is actually male-sounding this time:
View attachment 7899.mp3

 

[Sad Sprinter]

@stadler - I had a look at those SEG files you uploaded, it seems to be possible to convert them fairly easily. After some experimentation, the format seems to be raw 8-bit A-law PCM, bit-reversed (LSB-first), at about 16kHz as per my best guess.

Linux users can convert them with the following command:

find -iname "*.SEG" -exec sox -t raw -b 8 -r 16000 -e a-law -X \{\} \{\}.wav \;

They seem to be Irish, and possibly named wrong? Attached is Male3/396.seg (which is an Irish female voice).
View attachment 142727

Amazing thread, I wonder where they came from??

 

[stadler]

@stadler - I had a look at those SEG files you uploaded, it seems to be possible to convert them fairly easily. After some experimentation, the format seems to be raw 8-bit A-law PCM, bit-reversed (LSB-first), at about 16kHz as per my best guess.

Linux users can convert them with the following command:

find -iname "*.SEG" -exec sox -t raw -b 8 -r 16000 -e a-law -X \{\} \{\}.wav \;

They seem to be Irish, and possibly named wrong? Attached is Male3/396.seg (which is an Irish female voice).
View attachment 142727

And here is Female2/11454.SEG which seems to be Scottish:
View attachment 142728

And here is Female1/14243.seg with an RP accent:
View attachment 142729

And finally Male1/7899.seg who is actually male-sounding this time:
View attachment 142730

Thank you so much for that! You are amazing! I have spent hours and hours and hours over the last month trying to gain access to them. I have downloaded over 150 different softwares to try and convert them. I was completely stuck. That is hugely appreciated. Is there any way to convert them for Windows users? Or is using Linux the only way?

Amazing thread, I wonder where they came from??

They came from me. I made an FOI request to Irish Rail and they gave me the entire collection of Ketech sound files including for the UK network. So it was Irish Rail who originally gave them to me. There are about 30,000 sound files in total.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Thank you so much for that! You are amazing! I have spent hours and hours and hours over the last month trying to gain access to them. I have downloaded over 150 different softwares to try and convert them. I was completely stuck. That is hugely appreciated. Is there any way to convert them for Windows users? Or is using Linux the only way?


They came from me. I made an FOI request to Irish Rail and they gave me the entire collection of Ketech sound files including for the UK network. So it was Irish Rail who originally gave them to me. There are about 30,000 sound files in total.

So Irish Rail hold UK announcement files too?

@stadler - I had a look at those SEG files you uploaded, it seems to be possible to convert them fairly easily. After some experimentation, the format seems to be raw 8-bit A-law PCM, bit-reversed (LSB-first), at about 16kHz as per my best guess.

Linux users can convert them with the following command:

find -iname "*.SEG" -exec sox -t raw -b 8 -r 16000 -e a-law -X \{\} \{\}.wav \;

They seem to be Irish, and possibly named wrong? Attached is Male3/396.seg (which is an Irish female voice).
View attachment 142727

And here is Female2/11454.SEG which seems to be Scottish:
View attachment 142728

And here is Female1/14243.seg with an RP accent:
View attachment 142729

And finally Male1/7899.seg who is actually male-sounding this time:
View attachment 142730

Ah, the final two are Celila and Phill respectively Can the conversion work on Mac?

 

[jonny5532]

Is there any way to convert them for Windows users? Or is using Linux the only way?

I'm sure there's lots of software that can convert 8-bit A-law PCM, although the bit-reversal is a bit odd. I'm using 'sox' on Linux, which you can probably install on Windows (and certainly on MacOS) but it will be fiddly to use if you're not familiar with the command line.

Here are all the SEG files you uploaded converted:

converted

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

 

[stadler]

So Irish Rail hold UK announcement files too?



Ah, the final two are Celila and Phill respectively Can the conversion work on Mac?

Irish Rail have all of the Ketech files. It is the same supplier so they have access to all of them.

I'm sure there's lots of software that can convert 8-bit A-law PCM, although the bit-reversal is a bit odd. I'm using 'sox' on Linux, which you can probably install on Windows (and certainly on MacOS) but it will be fiddly to use if you're not familiar with the command line.

Here are all the SEG files you uploaded converted:

converted

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

Thank you so much! That is hugely appreciated! That is amazing to finally have access to these. These are such an important part of railway history.

 

[MrJeeves]

Riiight... time to spin up rail announcements tonight

 

[TonyMW]

Riiight... time to spin up rail announcements tonight

 

[jonny5532]

@stadler - before you get too far into the nearly-four-hours-of-Phil-Sayer, I noticed that the files all have a 48 byte header, which doesn't contain anything interesting, but creates an audible click which you don't really want.

Here are the files with that stripped off:

converted2

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

Edit - and for anyone playing along at home, this is the requisite hideous command line:

find -iname "*.SEG" -exec bash -c "dd if=\""\{\}"\" of=/dev/stdout bs=1 skip=48 status=none | sox -t raw -b 8 -r 16000 -e a-law -X - output/\""\{\}"\".wav" \;

 

[MrJeeves]

That's what I was going to remove when converting them, but guess there's no point now you've already done that too! :P

Thanks for this, by the way. I had tried various raw imports in audacity but I hadn't really expected the sample rate and bits per sample to be so incredibly low!

Myself and another user were suspecting they could actually be some proprietary instructions for a hardware synthesizer of some form because of how small the files were!

 

[stadler]

@stadler - before you get too far into the nearly-four-hours-of-Phil-Sayer, I noticed that the files all have a 48 byte header, which doesn't contain anything interesting, but creates an audible click which you don't really want.

Here are the files with that stripped off:

converted2

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

Thank you! Much appreciated! I was wondering what that clicking sound was. That is perfect.

Also there are a few .seg files missing that i have not yet uploaded. There is 11,384 "male1" (Phil Sayer) files and 10,575 "female1" (Celia Drummond) files but only 10,000 of each downloaded as Share Point has a 10,000 file download limit. You can see a list of files that failed to download in the ___all_errors.txt in the original zips that i uploaded. You can not download more than 10,000 files in a zip on the Share Point site. Irish Rail are sending me the files again on a USB so i can get the full collection. I should get it next week. Once i get those would it be possible to convert the rest if you do not mind.

Thank you again so much for your help. This is amazing to finally get access to them.

 

[MrJeeves]

Once i get those would it be possible to convert the rest if you do not mind.

I'll do it anyway for the announcement site