Rail Map Project

[ColuGav]

Hello,

Just a brief introduction, my name is Gav, and I'm a keen amateur web developer, and I am currently working on a geographical rail map of the United Kingdom. I spent ages looking for a true geographical representation of the UK railway network and was unable to find anything that was suitable, so I decided to make my own!

I have set up a website that details my progress in the project and has a little background information on, and basically would just like some feedback on the idea. And perhaps to promote the project a little bit really!

The URL is: http://www.gav-smith.co.uk/rail/index.php

If you could spare 5 mins giving an opinion or idea then I'd greatly appreciate it.

Regards,

Gav

 

[Dai.]

What is going to be included?

Is it just going to be stations or will you be able to get station information, location and things?

 

[ColuGav]

Initially, just a map showing the stations. However, they will hopefully be clickable to take the user to a page detailing the main properties/statistics of the station. I.e. Platforms, Passenger Numbers (although is likely to be slightly outdated) and other things that are requested!

Not to mention hopefully looking at a route finding algorithm to find the shortest distance between two stations.

Regards

Gav

 

[generalvegitable]

the easiest way to do this would probably do what the guy did here except for the whole network if you just want to do stations and track location, if you want more detail, you should speak to network rail about it

 

[ColuGav]

Thanks for your comment!

I think even that would go into a bit too much detail for what I'm looking at reproducing, not to mention, It would take a long time to map the network this way.

Instead I have decided to trace openstreetmap at a suitable resolution. This allows the map to be put out as an image thats not constrained to a google maps interface. (albeit the google interface is very good!)

Regards

Gav

 

[dee_davis]

Hi Gav,

Have you considered OS OpenSpace as base map?

Dee

 

[ColuGav]

Hi,

No I hadn't as a matter of fact, however, I am now going to look into it to see what it's about!

Gav

 

[Lee_Again]

Take a look at this...

Rail Map

It isn't finshed but would be a good start if you could work with them.

 

[ColuGav]

Hi,

If I'm honest, that is what gave me a little bit of inspiration...

Wanted to do something like that but with more detail (on current lines) and a bit of interactivity! Not to mention it appears that development on that map has ceased unfortunately , was shaping up to be a nice map!

Gav

 

[b0b]

Gav,

where are you getting your data from? I've love any info on how you are determining routes between stations

Station locations are easy, if you get the NAPTan data from data.gov.uk

 

[ColuGav]

Hi,

Thanks for the info about the NaPTAN data! Looking into that now...

As for at the moment, just using maps to find where the stations are! The other data, well if you have any ideas from where I can obtain things that would be good to include then feel free to suggest!

Gav

 

[b0b]

btw: the map page doesn't work for me either in firefox or chrome....

 

[ColuGav]

That will be because I haven't uploaded anything to it yet... I hope to get a small area of the map up later tonight.

Gav

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I've love any info on how you are determining routes between stations

There can be more than one route.
So doesn't the project need to, either, refer to a list of all possible routes between stations and another list of routes used by known scheduled services, or, make the primary nodes the junctions (and leave stations as useful points of reference which may be at or between some nodes). That allows you to calculate every possible route between junctions that could be taken in all possible circumstances (excepting impossible reversals due to signalling limitations or train lengths, perhaps).

Also, are you limiting yourself to normal, scheduled passenger services, or including less used, diversionary, freight and other routes (and preserved, PTE and disused railway)? If the latter, then what mechanism is there for selecting which route a passenger service will actually take?

 

[Invincibles]

Now that would be really good, a map that calculates all the permitted routes between two stations. I know it would be a nightmare to create but it would be brilliant to see what was possible

Good luck with the project anyway

 

[ColuGav]

To start with it will be using every route that currently exists. However in the future it could possibly expand to include pax only routes and possible routes for ticketing purposes... but that is out of my realm for now and i believe it may be a bit too much for online application.

 

[At_traction]

To start with it will be using every route that currently exists. However in the future it could possibly expand to include pax only routes and possible routes for ticketing purposes...

If you are indeed getting yourself wilfully into a maze by replicating every possible passenger route combination (as normally operated by the TOCs, diversions shouldn't IMO come into this):

It would of course need a vast amount of timetabling information for all the TOCs as opposed to a simple information of the shortest route between two stations (if needed, spanning several TOCs if I assume correctly) as you originally have thought, according to your website.

As a result, it possibly should show:
- direct routes, sorted by TOCs
- the routes with train changes operated by single TOCs
- the routes with train changes operated by multiple TOCs (possibly separated by colours)
And all with related timetable information for a timespan or departure/arrival times or something thereof. That's because all the relevant (and fastest) routings would be time-related: sometimes the best option being a direct route, an hour later it would require change(s). And of course the bag of worms of connection times.

As an alternative to long listings of abovementioned routings (and for those roaming from Land's End to the Orkneys via Dover and Skye ), there would have to be a possibility to add stations to go through or to avoid along the route.

What I'm getting at, is that the thingies suggested here would require essentially the National Rail routes database worth of data on top of the in itself relatively simple(?) mapping scripting for station-to-station (in miles). Which is a helluva achievement to pull off.

But all the luck for the undertaking.

 

[ColuGav]

Like i mentioned in my previous post, I think it would be far too much of a challenge in both my mental power and computation power for the web, it would need something offline which is outside of my capability... I'll settle for a shortest mileage between two stations.

 

[Zoe]

I spent ages looking for a true geographical representation of the UK railway network and was unable to find anything that was suitable, so I decided to make my own!

So you'll be including Northern Ireland then?

 

[ColuGav]

There is now a small sample on the map page... or here if this works:

10 bonus points for anyone who can tell me where this is!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Northern Ireland could be a possibility... how extensive is the network there?

 

[Invincibles]

Starting in the bottom left of the UK?

 

[Zoe]

There is now a small sample on the map page... or here if this works:

10 bonus points for anyone who can tell me where this is!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Northern Ireland could be a possibility... how extensive is the network there?

Not very, if you are going to call it a UK rail map though you should include Northern Ireland.

The diagram above shows the GWML (MLN) from Penzance to Redruth and the St Ives Branch (SIV) from St Erth to St Ives.

 

[ColuGav]

It does indeed, and this is what the map looks like with names...

Any recommendations for positioning of text?

 

[MCR247]

What font are you planning to use?

 

[ColuGav]

At the moment its using the standard font within illustrator, will try a few more out as I go along... Shan't be using wingdings though

 

[Zoe]

Any recommendations for positioning of text?

It may be an idea to include Engineer's Line References on each line like you would see road names on a road map. To start you off the GWML is MLN and the St Ives branch is SIV. Some ELRs have changed of mileage en route and to show this a number is added to the end of the ELR. If you wanted to show this I can tell you that the GWML is MLN4 from Penzance to the mileage change point east of Chacewater.

 

[ColuGav]

Zoe, do you have a list of what each line is called?

 

[Bastiaan]

Actually I was hoping for an updated version of the map from SystemeD (www.systemed.net/atlas) as it hasn't been updated since more than a year. It's a great idea though and your work look very good, but a lot of work has been done already. I can imagine the maker of this map wouldn't answer questions like "when is it finished", but maybe you could try to get in contact with him. Otherwise we could end up with two half finished maps (purely observed from the viewpoint of the spoilt user ). But of course this depends on how much motivation you have and how much time you want to spend on it

 

[Zoe]

Zoe, do you have a list of what each line is called?

I don't but I know a person that does: http://deaves47.users.btopenworld.com/ELRs/ELR0.htm

 

[At_traction]

It may be an idea to include Engineer's Line References on each line like you would see road names on a road map. To start you off the GWML is MLN and the St Ives branch is SIV.

Although these may not give much to a casual traveller (if the map is for general consumption), as long as the line ref text doesn't distract from the station names, a good addition in itself for 'spotters. Although there are a whole lot of them...

Actually I was hoping for an updated version of the map from SystemeD (www.systemed.net/atlas) as it hasn't been updated since more than a year. It's a great idea though and your work look very good, but a lot of work has been done already.

I thought about the same Adlestorp map as I saw ColuGaw's Riviera teaser (before visiting the link). It would indeed be much easier to build/modify on an existing map, especially as both have a consensus of the outlook of the lines/stations. Have to say that especially the "lost lines" in grey give an idea of the amount of axed connections/stations... Hint.