About GB Trains

How the figures are checked

Every figure comes from a source, and each line and train page lists its sources at the foot, including those for its history. A figure counts as checked once it matches TfL, Network Rail, the Office of Rail and Road, a builder’s or operator’s published data, or a reputable history. Where no source gives a figure, the page usually leaves it blank rather than guessing. A few figures are worked out from sourced ones, or carried over from a closely related train; those are tagged at the foot of the page, which says how.

What “unverified” means

On a line, train or station page, the unverified tag can appear in two places. In a note after the facts, it means some of the page’s figures haven’t yet been checked against one of the sources above; a record that rests only on Wikipedia or the press stays tagged. At the foot of the page, it lists what’s still in doubt there: a figure not yet confirmed, sources that disagree, a figure worked out from others or carried over from another train, or one that no source gives. The tag comes off once those have been checked against one of the sources above. Until then, treat them as leads rather than facts.

The drawings

The train drawings are schematics, not engineering drawings. Every one is drawn at the same scale, 10 px per metre, with its proportions taken from the data: car lengths, heights, doors and bogies. Where a builder’s or TfL’s dimensioned drawing exists, the page says which one it was measured from. Details are simplified. Each train is drawn from one side. Where a car runs turned round in its formation, it’s shown mirrored rather than from its other side, whose equipment can differ.

Drawings labelled indicative are estimates: drawn from photographs and published figures where no dimensioned drawing has been published, or, for trains not yet built, drawn as the train they’re expected to resemble, and shown faded. Their captions say what was estimated.

The line diagrams are schematic too: stations in order, evenly spaced, not to scale.

Using the drawings

The train drawings, the line diagrams, the poster and the animations on How trains work are free to use, change and share, in print or online, commercially too, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). Please credit them:

For a line diagram or the poster, start the credit “Map:” or “Poster:” instead. Online, link the words to the drawing’s page. Each train page’s Download SVG gives the drawing with the credit and licence already on it, in a grey line under the rail and inside the file; please leave them on, and say if you’ve changed the drawing. The drawings are schematics: their proportions come from the data, and details are simplified.

The licence covers the drawings, diagrams, poster and animations only. The figures and facts come from the sources listed on each page and keep their own terms (see Data and credits), and the site’s text isn’t covered, nor are the GB Trains name, wordmark and icon. Copyright stays with Kyle Barnard, who makes GB Trains; the credit names the site.

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Independent

GB Trains isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Transport for London, Network Rail, Great British Railways or any train operator, and it doesn’t use their logos or map designs. Line colours are used only to identify the lines.

Privacy

GB Trains counts visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies, doesn’t track you from site to site and collects no personal data: only page views, the page you came from and the kind of browser and device. Nothing else is recorded.

Also by me

GB Electricity, a site about Britain’s electricity system.

Data and credits

Station data: Powered by TfL Open Data. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2016. Geomni UK Map data © and database rights [2019]. Operator figures (route kilometres, stations managed, journeys) are the Office of Rail and Road’s, except Eurostar’s, which are its own; light rail figures are the Department for Transport’s.

Why the wordmark forks

The line under the name is the Bakerloo as it ran from 20 November 1939 to 1 May 1979. The ring is Baker Street, an interchange. The branch dropping away under it is the line to Stanmore: from 1939 Bakerloo trains reached it through new tunnels from Baker Street to Finchley Road, and on 1 May 1979 it passed to the new Jubilee line. The 1972 Stock in the icon was built for the Northern line and runs on the Bakerloo today. It’s a diagram, not to scale. On a line or operator page, the line under the name takes that line’s colour.

Who makes it

GB Trains is made by Kyle Barnard.

Feedback

Spotted a mistake, or know a source we could use? Tell us (opens in a new tab). Messages go to Kyle Barnard through Tally, a form service that stores them in the EU. An email address is optional and used only to reply. Each link to the form tells it which page it was on, and nothing else.

Sources 3492

Every source on file, grouped by who published it, with the number of pages citing each. A few aren’t cited on a page yet. Open a group to see its sources.