Resources for realism

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This is a page that lists many resources useful for achieving realism in your NIMBY Rail saves. It is split up by country and region for your convenience.

Worldwide

  • OpenRailwayMap is the definitive mapping resource. OpenRailwayMap displays up-to-date data on railway tracks, providing information on track gauge, speed, electrification, etc. This is an absolute must-have for any player aiming for realism.
  • OpenStreetMap is one of the best open source mapping resources, it often has more up-to-date and accurate map data compared to other mapping tools, with the only downside being a lack of satellite view. Use this if you want the most up-to-date mapping information.
  • Google Maps is a very useful tool, especially given the often highly detailed satellite view you can get with it. While Google Maps is not as up-to-date as OpenStreetMap, you can still usually rely on it for accurate mapping data except in some niche cases. Another benefit of Google Maps is the "Public Transport" or "Transit" layer along with public transport integration in general. The accuracy of this integration can vary between public transport operators but it is still very useful.
  • Wikipedia. While the accuracy of Wikipedia articles does vary quite a bit between lines and operators, it can be extremely helpful and useful with finding service patterns, station locations, rolling stock, etc. Wikipedia is a must-have for NIMBY Rails realism.
  • Transit.land is a tool which catalogues GTFS (realtime or static) data from transit operators around the world. This can help with finding specific routings for all transit modes, this is especially useful for visualising routings that may have seemed confusing in a non-map format.
  • Timetable World is a comprehensive source of historic timetables. Originally mainly UK in focus, it now has significant coverage worldwide. Some timetables are available to view online or download for free, others are available for a small fee.

Europe

United Kingdom

Note that the standard units of distance measurement on UK railways are miles and chains, expressed as 1m54c for 1 mile and 54 chains. There are exactly 80 chains in 1 mile, and 1 chain is approximately 20.1 meters.

Network Rail provides a number of live data feeds for timetables, train movements, etc. Websites showing live UK data will all be deriving it from the same source, so feel free to use whichever site works best.

Track and signalling

  • Network Rail's Sectional Appendix is the official description of every section of track managed by NR, showing track layouts, mileages, and all speed limits.
  • OpenTrainTimes provides live signalling maps for a range of areas, showing track and signal layouts.
  • Traksy also provides live signalling maps.
  • UK & Irish Railways is a website that essentially is a more accurate version of ORM for specifically the UK and Ireland. The website provides very accurate historical data, not just for station locations but also track layout. If you are looking to make a historically realistic UK save, this website is a must-have.

Historic

Timetables

Note that platform allocations in published timetables may be wrong - it is not too unusual to see a train planned to arrive on one platform and then somehow teleport to form a different service from a different platform. It is also common to see ad-hoc "set swaps" on any given day in historic data, where two inbound trains swap platforms and take up each other's outbound services, so train diagrams or rolling stock allocations can vary day to day.

  • Network Rail's Working Timetable is the official timetable for the national network, set over six month periods. However, you should consider using the online timetable feeds below - the format of the WTT makes it difficult to follow a single train across the network.
  • TfL's Working Timetable is the official timetable for the London Underground, also providing train allocations.
  • Realtime Trains provides full timetable data from NR data feeds - long-term planned timetables, short term alterations, and historic data up to 7 days in the past. RTT also provides live and historic train allocation data for most train operators (depending on the availability of data feeds).
  • OpenTrainTimes also provides full timetable data from NR data feeds.
  • Timetable World is a comprehensive source of historic public timetables, as well as some employee timetables. Some can be viewed online on the site, some as free downloads, and some as paid downloads at a reasonable price.

North America

United States

  • Rail.guide is a very useful tool for specifically American rails. While it isn't often the most accurate, it really depends on the region. Rail.guide often has data which ORM lacks, especially for historical data (either Current-Classic, Classic Owners or Early Owners map modes, abandoned is useful as well) which is by far the best feature of this website.
  • Nashua City Station is a railroad history website that provides very accurate and useful historical railroad data for mainly states in the New England region of the U.S. whether you want to know the exact location of a random station in Rhode Island or just want to see what trains used to run to Worcester, MA, this website has your back.
  • The Library of Congress has a large collection of historical railroad maps, the site can be hard to navigate but it's very useful.
  • American-Rails is a very useful site for U.S. railroad information, specifically historical. There are articles for almost every "Fallen Flag" of U.S. railroads, each one written in great detail often including a detailed map of the railroad at its peak, with other useful data to work from as well.
  • Vanshnookenraggen creates many highly realistic track maps for U.S. transit systems such as Chicago's "L" and the New York City Subway, as well as creating historical track maps and track maps with planned extensions built out.
  • Timetable World's Official Guide of the Railways collection provides historic passenger timetables for all of North America from 1868 to 1971. Follow guidance on the page for information on how to access the free online viewer.

New York

New York City

Illinois

Chicago

  • GreatThirdRail.org is the best site for anyone wanting to recreate the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban railroad. This site specifically covers the CA&E and in great detail, providing very high quality historical maps and timetables, accurate station locations, anything you would really need to recreate the CA&E.
  • Chicago-L.org is the best site for information about the Chicago L, past, present or future. The amount of data on this site is extraordinary and I would highly recommend this website in addition to Wikipedia.
  • Wikipedia's Chicago "L" system (all time) Track Diagram. While Wikipedia is already on this page, this track diagram is especially useful for Chicago's "L", it should be noted that this track diagram contains all of the tracks past and present on the system, along with almost all stations having a dedicated article.
  • Vanshnookenraggen's Chicago "L" Track Map See, first entry for why.
  • Wx4's Historical Maps & Timetables archive contains a very large collection of
  • Multimodalways provides an assorted archive of rail (and other) documentation.

Oceania

Australia

Victoria

  • victorianrailways.net has an amazing collection of historical railroad maps, timetables, line guides, etc for the state of Victoria, all in very high detail. This can help for historical recreations. This website is also in general a great collection of Victorian Railways history.
  • vicsig.net is another great website for information on Victorian railway infrastructure, rolling stock and history either past, present or even future. The line guides on this website are paired well with the maps from victorianrailways.net
  • Public Transport Victoria is a useful website for timetables, maps and live updates related to all public transport in Victoria.
  • transportvic.me is an unofficial website with trackers for all PTV vehicles (besides buses, due to a PTV data issue) and helpful information on frequencies, departure times, etc.
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