Resources for realism

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.

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.

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