Freight Timetables!

[Beveridges]

Not sure why RTT wouldn't pick up reports (other than off-route reports) that do show up in TRUST though - always seems pretty reliable to me.

I was watching out for a Ballast train on RTT that had left Crewe for Carnforth. Other than the report of it leaving Crewe, there was no report until it arrived at its destination! A few hours later, all the passing times suddenly appeared! Too late as it has already ran. It ran booked route as well.

Thats the only time I've ever seen that happen, apart from when freight does not take its booked route that is the main reason it can disapear off RTT and it is a pain.



As for TRUST, it does not make me want to smash the keyboard in. Thats enough to please me as far as user-friendliness is concerned.

TRUST on a PC is very, very user-friendly compared to trying to use RTT on a mobile!!

 

[First1]

RTT is the way forward. Freightmaster is loosing members and will loose more. Freightlocate is £60 per year, £20 cheaper that Freightmaster. Freightlocate does much more that Freighmaster as you get up-to-date schedules and location lists for every location and full schedules. It's easy to navigate, you get headcodes and most freight that doesn't run will show as cancelled.

 

[Temple Meads]

Am I the only the person that finds Real Time Trains easy to use on a mobile?

It could just be my phone, and the fact that I just search using the tree letter code of the nearest station, but I've never had any issues using it on mobile.

 

[Freightmaster]

RTT is the way forward. Freightmaster is loosing members and will loose more....

I really must try to stop feeding the trolls :roll:, but I have to take exception
to the grossly inaccurate and potentially libellous comments which have been
appearing on this topic regarding Freightmaster.

Once again, for those who still seem to struggle with the concept of
Freightmaster: the reason FMonline costs £80 a year is because the
100+ timetables are manually checked and updated on a daily basis,
with lots of extra information manually added with is not available from
the Network Rail data feeds to create more user-friendly, accurate timetables
which is extremely labour intensive, so I have to do it as my full time job,
hence the cost to the end user...

RTT is completely different - it automatically displays 'raw' data direct from
the Network Rail open data feeds without any manual intervention, corrections
or embellishments, therefore it able to be provided free of charge (advertising
covers the bandwidth costs).

Both approaches have their pros and cons - in fact, I think that they
provide information in such a radically different way that any enthusiast
who is interested in railfreight traffic really needs to use both services to
get the whole picture, and several people have posted on this thread to
say that they do just that.

Of course, some people are not sufficiently interested to justify
spending their hard-earned cash on a Freightmaster subscription,
and I respect that, but that doesn't give such people the right
to slag off FMonline just because they don't want to pay for it,
especially when in most cases they have never used FMonline
in the first place!!


As for Freightmaster 'loosing'(sic) subscribers, while it's true that slightly
more people than normal decided not to renew their subscription this Spring,
feedback received from those who decided to let their subscriptions 'lapse'
indicates that their decisions were overwhelmingly due to personal financial
pressures rather than any dissatisfaction with the Freightmaster service itself.


Although I should be immune to it after these years, I'm still saddened by
the level of blatant hostility towards Freightmaster by many enthusiasts;
at one time, I naïvely thought that single handedly providing the only
freight timetable service for enthusiasts for the past two decades would
have earned me at least a modicum of grudging respect within the hobby,
but instead it seems that many people are fervently praying for Freightmaster
to go out of business! hock:


I would welcome people's feedback/opinions on the above,


MARK

 

[First1]

I really must try to stop feeding the trolls :roll:, but I have to take exception
to the grossly inaccurate and potentially libellous comments which have been
appearing on this topic regarding Freightmaster.

Once again, for those who still seem to struggle with the concept of
Freightmaster: the reason FMonline costs £80 a year is because the
100+ timetables are manually checked and updated on a daily basis,
with lots of extra information manually added with is not available from
the Network Rail data feeds to create more user-friendly, accurate timetables
which is extremely labour intensive, so I have to do it as my full time job,
hence the cost to the end user...

RTT is completely different - it automatically displays 'raw' data direct from
the Network Rail open data feeds without any manual intervention, corrections
or embellishments, therefore it able to be provided free of charge (advertising
covers the bandwidth costs).

Both approaches have their pros and cons - in fact, I think that they
provide information in such a radically different way that any enthusiast
who is interested in railfreight traffic really needs to use both services to
get the whole picture, and several people have posted on this thread to
say that they do just that.

Of course, some people are not sufficiently interested to justify
spending their hard-earned cash on a Freightmaster subscription,
and I respect that, but that doesn't give such people the right
to slag off FMonline just because they don't want to pay for it,
especially when in most cases they have never used FMonline
in the first place!!


As for Freightmaster 'loosing'(sic) subscribers, while it's true that slightly
more people than normal decided not to renew their subscription this Spring,
feedback received from those who decided to let their subscriptions 'lapse'
indicates that their decisions were overwhelmingly due to personal financial
pressures rather than any dissatisfaction with the Freightmaster service itself.


Although I should be immune to it after these years, I'm still saddened by
the level of blatant hostility towards Freightmaster by many enthusiasts;
at one time, I naïvely thought that single handedly providing the only
freight timetable service for enthusiasts for the past two decades would
have earned me at least a modicum of grudging respect within the hobby,
but instead it seems that many people are fervently praying for Freightmaster
to go out of business! hock:


I would welcome people's feedback/opinions on the above,


MARK

Having used Freightmaster as a summer subscription I was disappointed with the lack of locations. I know you edit them all by hand so fair play but that has it's problems as the locations aren't updated to show STP workings. These are likely to run and often run with interesting consists (eg railtours). This is where Freightlocate is your biggest rivial as it costs £20 less, offeres many more locations across the whole of the UK and has updated STP schedules. You also get full schedules which is great. Without much knowledge anybody could easily say which freight is likely to run, especially as Freightlocate shows which schedules are cancelled. You need to move with the times Mark, real time train tracking on Freightmaster may help get some of your subscribers back.

 

[Tomnick]

I wish I could say reliably which freights were likely to run. My experience, using TRUST, is that a good proportion just sit there going further and further overdue. Even the others often aren't cancelled until a little while before it's booked to depart - possibly useless for anyone hoping to see it somewhere. Personally Freightmaster's not my cup of tea (apart from the odd interesting charter, I don't go out looking for trains!), but I appreciate the huge amount of work that obviously goes into it to provide a useful tool for those who do indulge in such activities!

 

[wbbminerals]

RTT is the way forward. Freightmaster is loosing members and will loose more. Freightlocate is £60 per year, £20 cheaper that Freightmaster. Freightlocate does much more that Freighmaster as you get up-to-date schedules and location lists for every location and full schedules. It's easy to navigate, you get headcodes and most freight that doesn't run will show as cancelled.

£60 a year for headcodes?!

 

[Beveridges]

Never heard of Freight Locate. Is it that much better than Real Time Trains to be worth the £60?
Is it user-friendly and does it do a good job at filtering out all the junk that isn't running from the main display?


It does claim to be "the most useful tool for railway enthusiasts in the UK today" but to me it just looks like RTT with headcodes. The usability looks the same.

I can live without knowing the headcode or consist type. I know what type of train every train is based on the destination and origin. For example, if it starts at Humber Oil Refinery, it does not take a genius to work out that its going to be oil tanks. All I want to know is when the thing is going to show up at the desired location.

RTT despite its drawbacks is still a good tool. I don't know how they can cover the bandwidth for free, lets hope the site does not end its service any time soon.

 

[Freightmaster]

RTT despite its drawbacks is still a good tool. I don't know how they can cover the bandwidth for free...

It's not free as such, it's an advertising supported website - just like this forum, in fact!

MARK

 

[Temple Meads]

Although RTT has adverts I've always found them to be very unobtrusive, as they're usually (maybe even always) hidden at the bottom of the page.

 

[Condor7]

Never heard of Freight Locate. Is it that much better than Real Time Trains to be worth the £60?
Is it user-friendly and does it do a good job at filtering out all the junk that isn't running from the main display?


It does claim to be "the most useful tool for railway enthusiasts in the UK today" but to me it just looks like RTT with headcodes. The usability looks the same.

I can live without knowing the headcode or consist type. I know what type of train every train is based on the destination and origin. For example, if it starts at Humber Oil Refinery, it does not take a genius to work out that its going to be oil tanks. All I want to know is when the thing is going to show up at the desired location.

RTT despite its drawbacks is still a good tool. I don't know how they can cover the bandwidth for free, lets hope the site does not end its service any time soon.

Well of course we all love something for nothing.
However despite RTT and OTT having advertising, the income from these are usually quite small.

In the end these sites are run by individuals who are doing it as a hobby, or for some other motivation, and while we are forever grateful, in the end unless someone turns it into a business and we are prepared to pay for it, it will eventually fizzle out, as few people can continue to devote so much time to it over a prolonged period, with all the demands that every day life brings.

 

[46100ROYALSCOT]

Never heard of Freight Locate. Is it that much better than Real Time Trains to be worth the £60?
Is it user-friendly and does it do a good job at filtering out all the junk that isn't running from the main display?


It does claim to be "the most useful tool for railway enthusiasts in the UK today" but to me it just looks like RTT with headcodes. The usability looks the same.

I can live without knowing the headcode or consist type. I know what type of train every train is based on the destination and origin. For example, if it starts at Humber Oil Refinery, it does not take a genius to work out that its going to be oil tanks. All I want to know is when the thing is going to show up at the desired location.

RTT despite its drawbacks is still a good tool. I don't know how they can cover the bandwidth for free, lets hope the site does not end its service any time soon.

I am a past subscriber to Rail Locate, originally it was very good but for the last 6months or more the owners seem to disappeared into the ether as there have been no updates and no communication from them, my advice stay away if you need a good reference then Mark's Freightmaster is the best.

 

[Poggs]

I am a past subscriber to Rail Locate, originally it was very good but for the last 6months or more the owners seem to disappeared into the ether as there have been no updates and no communication from them, my advice stay away if you need a good reference then Mark's Freightmaster is the best.

I second this - paid for a subscription to FreightLocate (actually, I have no interest in freight trains, I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about), and the site is out-of-date, anonymous to the point of being suspicious and the owner doesn't reply to email.

Don't bother signing up to FL

 

[Phil H]

Can I suggest that Mark from Freightmaster and Tom from Realtimetrains get together to create stronger offer combining their individual skills, therefore more accurate info, showing likely traction, type of train ie intermodal or tankers or cars etc etc etc. Even a Mickey Mouse yellow tamper, which are as welcome as my mother in law on the phone when I've got the wife in a passionate embrace !!!
I would pay a smaller subscription to get advanced info, as the cost of FM online I cannot justify as I'm hand to mouth with two kids and a mortgage.

 

[Freightmaster]

Can I suggest that Mark from Freightmaster and Tom from Realtimetrains get together to create stronger offer combining their individual skills...

Stangely enough, I'm working on exactly such a joint project as we speak!!



To be honest, I was inspired by this 'harsh but fair' comment earlier in this discussion:

You need to move with the times Mark, real time train tracking on Freightmaster may help get some of your subscribers back.

...I realised that he was right, so I am planning to add customised,
enhanced RTT feeds to the FMonline timetables in the near future.


MARK

 

[Boothby97]

Stangely enough, I'm working on exactly such a joint project as we speak!!



To be honest, I was inspired by this 'harsh but fair' comment earlier in this discussion:

...I realised that he was right, so I am planning to add customised,
enhanced RTT feeds to the FMonline timetables in the near future.


MARK

Mark, you've started that already haven't you, I noticed the link on the Carlisle table
Thanks, Sam

 

[Freightmaster]

Mark, you've started that already haven't you, I noticed the link on the Carlisle table

That's just the tip of the iceburg!

The final version will have a lot more functionality...

MARK

 

[Beveridges]

even though RTT is already excellent it would be better still if it highlighted trains that have left their origin that way you can quickly glance at the table and realise whats running and whats not

 

[Freightmaster]

even though RTT is already excellent it would be better still if it highlighted trains that have left their origin that way you can quickly glance at the table and realise whats running and whats not

That's one of the exclusive features I am hoping to implement in the Freightmater
version of RTT!

MARK