Well, that was a summer and a half. Several months not travelling anywhere by train, plenty of cycling and some really hot weeks. The founder of the site, Peter Hicks, recorded a video with Geoff Marshall about the site – warning: it includes a very lovely Italian Greyhound. Go check out out.

Since our last big update in April, we’ve made numerous updates to the site. But first, September’s update. We proudly unveil a new map covering Wakefield Kirkgate to Castleford, Knottingley and Hensall. It covers Drax and Eggborough Power Stations, Knottingley, Castleford and Hunslet and Stourton freight terminals near Leeds.

We also released another new map of Salford (Manchester), covering the boundary with Rochdale and Stalybridge, Manchester Victoria, Salford and the two routes to Crow Nest Junction and Warrington Central.

In due course, we’ll extend other maps to link up with these.

As for the minor updates, we’ve added some signals, additional route indications and fixed some smaller bugs. This takes a lot of time – all our maps are are drawn by hand. Whilst this takes time, we’re frequently told they are more complete and look better than other sites offering the same service. If you’re one of the people who’ve been in touch to say that – thank you, we really appreciate the feedback.

Work continues on a new version of the site. We’re involved in a number of industry projects which are helping to build new components. We’re also working with the Emergent Alliance on the post-COVID-19 recovery of the rail industry, and hopefully there will be some data off the back of that which we can share.

Finally, several people have asked why we don’t show train formations, as some other sites do. The simple answer is that the data isn’t open, and we don’t want to work on a way of getting it for just us. Why shouldn’t everyone benefit? Watch this space though.

There will be more regular updates over the next few months, and more maps. In the meantime, watch this space, follow us on Twitter and Facebook so you’re up-to-date with what we’re doing.