Follow London Trains in 3D
Consumer and social
transport tracking visualiser
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
11 positive, 12 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 12 critical, out of 39 comments about the project. Thread score +0.01.
Execution: 0 for, 7 againstDesign: 1 for, 5 againstIdea: 3 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fun and impressive visualisation with deck.gl
From 3 comments
There seems to be some parallax issues between your trip layer and your 3D Tiles layer, but nice usage of deck.gl.
hokkos on HNThis is incredibly cool. I had it open on my desktop for most of the day.
ohjeez on HNmodel rough but amazing. i cant do this
Leewen on HN
Good idea to see the tube network in 3D
From 2 comments
I'd love to see a view with all/many trains. In London I was constantly wondering what the criss-cross of underground lines looked like.
darknavi on HNThis is scary. I literally just had a dream last night wishing I could see the metro trains from above the ground in order to follow where the tunnels are under the buildings and…
Liquidor on HN
Objections
Map and train layers are misaligned
From 4 comments
Very nice, but the map seems to be in the wrong position vs. the trains/3d elements.
fredley on HNThere seems to be some parallax issues between your trip layer and your 3D Tiles layer, but nice usage of deck.gl.
hokkos on HNthe tracks arent grounded to the map, they slide all over, and would it cool if we could use satellite view
purplecats on HNThere's also something wrong with the map alignment. I think the tiles are being rendered with the wrong placement - the underlying map doesn't match reality.
leoedin on HN
Trains render underground incorrectly, appearing to float over buildings
From 3 comments
The rendering is a bit weird. It's disorienting to have the trains simultaneously underneath the map and occluding it. It also seems like the z-buffer is not being used correctly…
modeless on HNNeat! I chose victoria one and it was flying over the buildings!
tamimio on HNThe train paths are drawn on a 2D layer above the buildings, not at z-index that matches the proper 3-D position. So the paths appear to weave around and over the tops of…
gowld on HN
Missing several line branches
From 3 comments
It would appear you are missing the High Barnet branch of the Northern line.
dmazin on HNAnd the Reading branch of the Elizabeth line
uukelele on HNLooks like many (all?) branches are missing. Central line doesn't have the Ealing Broadway branch.
jdswain on HN
Panning is restricted and interaction is buggy
From 1 comment
Interesting but quite buggy. Example: mouse dragging seems trapped in a fairly small area.
TheOtherHobbes on HN
Requests
Free-form view not locked to a single train
From 1 comment
This is frustratingly close to amazing. Obviously you went through all the trouble of pulling all the data from all the trains and displaying them in 3d, but then lock our view…
IIAOPSW on HN
Show all trains or many trains at once
From 1 comment
I'd love to see a view with all/many trains. In London I was constantly wondering what the criss-cross of underground lines looked like.
darknavi on HN
Satellite or realistic 3D tiles
From 2 comments
it would be EVEN cooler if you used cesium and google map tiles api to have realistic looking buildings
idbnstra on HNthe tracks arent grounded to the map, they slide all over, and would it cool if we could use satellite view
purplecats on HN
Touch support
From 1 comment
Can you add support for touch?
ampdepolymerase on HN
Scale bar
From 1 comment
Like on most other digital maps today, what's direly missing is a scale bar.. cool feat though, thanks for showing!
eMPee584 on HN
Questions
Is there a repo to look at
From 1 comment
Having just taken the Elisabeth Line to LHR T5 and sitting here, this was fun. Thanks. Edit: Is there a Repo to look at and learn from this?
sdoering on HN
Where does the 3D model data come from
From 1 comment
I'm curious what the 3D model source is - the Gherkin is kinda weird.
philipwhiuk on HN