Despite the mixed weather over the last fortnight, we’ve been busy (but when are we not?) working on the site and answering emails. This, coupled with some really exciting new developments, means it may take a little longer than usual for us to reply to emails or fix map issues, but sit tight and we’ll definitely be in touch.

We’re getting ready to launch our Railway Systems Consultancy, offering professional services to the railway industry. Drop us a mail at hello@opentraintimes.com if you’re interested in finding out about our design, integration, troubleshooting and bespoke consultancy services.

Back on to this week’s updates. First off, to satisfy the huge number of people who ask for new maps, there are four under development right now:

• Wembley Freight will cover the numerous freight siding at Wembley on the West Coast Main Line
• Derby is going to bridge the gap on our Midland Main Line maps, covering the Derby station area and some of the line to Tamworth
• London Victoria (Southeastern) will add the platforms on the other side of London Victoria and join up with several other maps to give better coverage of Southeastern’s services
• Westbury extends our coverage of the Berks and Hants line to Westbury and further afield

Each of the maps is hand-drawn and anything from quite simple to ridiculously complex. It takes a number of hours to analyse the data we have available, work out where gaps are, lay out and finally draw the maps. From the feedback we’ve received, we know the maps are hugely popular and a viable alternative to other industry systems. Talk to us if you’re part of the rail industry and would like to engage us commercially to build a customised map of certain routes or stations – we’re happy to help!

This week, we have a whole heap of changes and updates for you:

• On the North Kent map, we’ve added route indications at Dartford, Sidcup and Lewisham, and over the next weeks we’ll be working on adding more
• The Norwood Junction map has an additional crossover by TL600 signal at Sydenham, which was missing
• One of the bridges at Windmill Bridge Junction on the London Victoria to East Croydon map was mis-drawn
• A number of fixes on the Hildenborough to Ashford International map – one of the platforms at Headcorn was drawn on the wrong side of the track…
• If you’re using the Merseyrail North Line map, there are now additional ground position light (GPL) signals and route indications
• The Liverpool Street to Romford map was missing a signal at Liverpool Street, which we’ve added back in
• Route indications from the Watford Workstation at Wembley Mainline are now on the London Euston to Wembley Central and Wembley Central to Tring maps for the area around Wembley.
• The North London Line map now has some routes showing on the West London Line, and the soon-to-be-reinstated depot connections at North Pole (plus routes) have been added
• At Redhill, the track layout has been revised and route indications added
• There are now route indications at Wivelsfield for the line to Lewes
• A few minor errors are fixed on the London Bridge map – a berth for signal TL1066 has been added, the ‘train ready to start’ indications on platforms 8 and 9 are now fixed, and some missing signal aspects have been added as well as a route at Cannon Street redrawn which showed when it shouldn’t have done
• New pointwork at Chislehurst has been added
• Track occupation indications now appear as a yellow dotted line when the track is occupied, and don’t appear when the track isn’t. These indications are only in a few places on the maps – such as the platforms at Leicester as well as Cannon Street and Charing Cross
• Route indications around Acton Wells and Bollo Lane Junctions have been fixed, as some were showing incorrectly
• Substantial rework of the Windsor Lines map has seen signal aspects replaced with route indications, as the indications we receive are routes not signals. This was the cause of many signals never returning to danger after a train passes them
• Southend Victoria now has route indications around the station area

Phew. Our next release is due in a couple of weeks, and there’s still lots to do. Keep sending in your emails letting us know what you like and what you don’t like – we really love reading them!