Thursday, September 09, 2021

Interactive Train Sets

Mapbox with Trains is a very impressive interactive map which allows you to watch a 3D train moving around on top of a map of Oakland, California. This fun interactive virtual train set includes a number of user options which allow you to control the number of carriages on the train and the camera's point of view.

In essence Mapbox with Trains animates a 3D model of a train on top of a Mapbox map, following the Bart train tracks in Oakland. The map is presented as an Observable Notebook which means you can fork the project and create your own interactive train set for your own town. You could even create a version of Mapbox with Trains so that the train simulates in real-time the actual location of a train on an actual transit network - something like Mini Tokyo 3D.



Mini Tokyo 3D is a live real-time map of Tokyo's public transit system. The map shows the live position of Tokyo's trains in 3D as they move around the city.

Mini Tokyo has two different map views. If you press the eye icon button you can switch between the 'underground' (pictured above) and 'overground' layers. The underground mode highlights the city's subway system with colored subway lines on top of a dark base map. In this mode the overground trains are shown faded out on the map. The overground mode shows all the city's buildings in 3D. In this mode all the subway trains are shown faded out as they move around under the city and all of Tokyo's overground trains are shown in full color.

If you hover over a train on the map you can view details about its number and when it will arrive at its next stop. If you double click on a train you can center the map on the train and the map will track the train as it moves around the city.

No comments: