By
@vertriwayz
Rail Board is a digital departure board baked into your browser that uses open-source train data to show live times and train positions.
I made RailBoard, which is a departure board which is built to suit a browser, and contains live train data and such using open-source train data sourced from Transport Victoria, and even has an interactive map that shows these colourful dots on the map that are the various trains. It was challenging getting the train dots to work because originally the dots were very inaccurate and they were clipping over the map and all over the place, but I managed to find a better api/dataset which suits the map. I’m proud of my newfound knowledge of API fetching, Leaflet, and also designing a snazzy departure board that looks straight out of an old retro train station with those flipping time boards.
Feel free to visit https://railboard.onrender.com to see the map in action. I haven’t really configured for the maps to work entirely for all of Australia yet, as it would be such a collossal file/api for me to use, and it might crash the site with so many requests going from the api, but I might try in the future to do so. Right now, it’s currently configured to my home state, Victoria, Australia.
1h 10m 28s logged
So I basically fixed the map since it was pixelated, as Leaflet.js is very basic but doesn’t have as good and crisp as Stadia Maps. I also had a problem with the timings as I didn’t realise that there were more than one code for the train station (like GWY for Glen Waverley, but there is also GWV). After I did some train research and figured out that Transport Victoria (State Department of Transportation in Victoria, Australia), had hidden codes for trains and the API was using those, so after adding them into the code, they actually started appearing fine. Next, I also configured categories, like a Metro and V/Line tab respectively, and one tab with all mixed. I originally intended to get platform data, but I quickly realised that Transport Victoria wouldn’t simply give out platform data, so I removed that column.
Additionally, I noticed how the dots (the live train positions) were actually going all over the place and not on their respective roads, so I found a better API run by the same Transport Victoria that gathered all the train positions, so that was resolved, and I also added this cool fly-in feature that when you select from one of the trains that is running (not the ones on time), the map will fly from whatever position it is in to a smooth transition to the station.
Overall I am proud of this result so far for the map.
2h 59m 36s logged
So I am currently working on RailBoard, which will be this cool app which allows people to see the trains currently in my state (Victoria, Australia). There are currently limitations with data and stuff, which is why I am only focusing on my state’s train data. Best of all, it’s completely open-source! Here’s a summary of what I’ve done:
I’ve got yet to work more :D
