Best train tracker sites

[lagarr]

Hello, my 9 year old is obsessed by trains, routes & times & maps, I was wondering what the best sites/apps are for him to look at what is currently moving about on the network? Many thanks.

 

[Mojo]

I think Traksy.uk is the best.

 

[Peter C]

If he doesn't want a map view of where trains are, but instead wants to see what trains are going through his local station and where they are going, www.realtimetrains.co.uk could be of interest. You can find the timings for every service on the railway network (I think bar a few such as Royal Trains), including freight. There's little things that come up saying "At Platform" when a train is in the station, etc.
For where trains are going, www.opentraintimes.com is also very good - the diagrams are in the style of a signalling centre and therefore only the headcodes are given for where trains are. These are the 4-character descriptions used for trains and can be found on OpenTrainTimes or RealTimeTrains.

Hope this helps and it isn't too much.

-Peter

 

[Jamie Price]

I think Traksy.uk is the best.

In terms of track layout and actually seeing the trains going where, I have to agree I use traksy in work if we're being held at a signal for example. Very handy tool, although there are a lot of places that aren't tracked on there. Tiger gives you a sort of CIS on your phone and you can change the page so it gives different information on each view. And obviously Realtime Trains is a handy site which gives pretty accurate information on train running times and details of the type of service/train that is pathed to work it. Hope your young man enjoys all these sites!

 

[yorkie]

Traksy is the most comprehensive, but some areas are covered in greater detail by OpenTrainTimes

Here is the link to Tiger: http://iris2.rail.co.uk/tiger/
e.g. CIS summary departure board for York: http://iris2.rail.co.uk/tiger/rendercissod.asp?file=3001E1.xml

 

[Triumph]

Where does Traksy get the information from as I have just had a look and at the Northern London Line and the times shown are a normal Sunday service which is not operating.
Only 4 trains an hour instead of 8 are running? RTT are showing the correct service in line with what is shown on the Darwin CCLCB.

Stratford (London) to Willesden Junction
«
Traksy Departures today??

13:05
13:13
13:20
13:28
13:35
13:43
13:50

Actual Departures today from Darwin

13:20
13:43
13:50
14:13
14:20

 

[yorkie]

@takno may be able to answer this....

 

[takno]

Where does Traksy get the information from as I have just had a look and at the Northern London Line and the times shown are a normal Sunday service which is not operating.
Only 4 trains an hour instead of 8 are running? RTT are showing the correct service in line with what is shown on the Darwin CCLCB.

Stratford (London) to Willesden Junction
«
Traksy Departures today??

13:05
13:13
13:20
13:28
13:35
13:43
13:50

Actual Departures today from Darwin

13:20
13:43
13:50
14:13
14:20

The schedules on Traksy are a mess right now. There was an interruption to the data feed right about the time when they were all being changed to the lockdown timetable. I really need to clear the database and get it all reloaded. Unlikely to get it sorted until next week sadly.

In terms of where the data is from, it's the Network Rail open data feed which is the same one being used for realtimetrains. Schedules are obviously a higher priority for Tom though, so he has better tools for recovering when the feed goes wrong!

 

[Triumph]

The schedules on Traksy are a mess right now. There was an interruption to the data feed right about the time when they were all being changed to the lockdown timetable. I really need to clear the database and get it all reloaded. Unlikely to get it sorted until next week sadly.

In terms of where the data is from, it's the Network Rail open data feed which is the same one being used for realtimetrains. Schedules are obviously a higher priority for Tom though, so he has better tools for recovering when the feed goes wrong!

O thank you, that's interesting to know.

 

[takno]

O thank you, that's interesting to know.

I have cleared the database, and I think that the schedules should be correct again from tomorrow. Unfortunately that means that schedule lookups aren't available at all for the rest of today. Feel free to let me know if the info for tomorrow is still incorrect

 

[GB]

I’ve said it before but signalmaps.co.uk is the best for me. Might not have the largest coverage but the particular area I use has full route information (points and signal states etc), you can see when a route has been set even if the signal hasn’t cleared and the visual delay boxes around the head codes are great.

 

[Tom]

Schedules are obviously a higher priority for Tom though, so he has better tools for recovering when the feed goes wrong!

I hadn't even noticed that there was a problem in all honesty - all the schedule handling is entirely automatic. I don't think I've looked altering my schedule feed arrangements in about four years...

 

[takno]

I hadn't even noticed that there was a problem in all honesty - all the schedule handling is entirely automatic. I don't think I've looked altering my schedule feed arrangements in about four years...

There was a couple of days when the CIF files didn't make it through and were then delivered later which might have caused it, but it's not impossible it was a disk space issue at my end. My schedule handling is pretty brittle right now, and the way they get stored in the database is a mess. Sadly I'm flat out with other projects to keep the lights on, so I haven't had the chance to sort it.

 

[66Yorks]

Traksy for me as well in conjunction with Realtime Trains on mobile device.

On a PC, Open Train Times works better Traksy.

 

[55002]

Get him a subscription for Railcam UK only £7 for 3 months I think, go on their dashboard page to see all the cams, you can see the activity and click on the camera to see the trains. Crewe, Leyland, Peterborough Thankerton and Watford are very good for freight