Railcam UK Limited is a company limited by guarantee operated on a not-for-profit basis entirely by volunteers which runs the site Railcam UK, with its sub-title "Bringing the lineside to your armchair" and offers live webcams and an astonishing range of railway data to supporters. You can log-in as a 'guest' for free to enjoy some of the facilities and get to understand the extensive site features but a modest annual subscription will give you 'supporter' status and unrestricted access.
Remote Train Watching
The 'Dashboard' of the cameras function lists over 80 webcams, viewing main lines throughout Great Britain (from cameras on adjacent private property), heritage lines and even international sites. Many of these cameras are linked to live data from Network Rail so that the pictures are supplemented by information alerting the viewer to approaching trains and their identity.
With modern smartphones, it's possible to view this information 'on the go' as well as from the comfort of an armchair.
Railcam.UK live camera at Crewe North Jn. showing train 1D54, operated by a Class 150, leaving for Chester, as viewed on my mobile from the front coach!
Remote Live Diagrams and Data
An amazing facility shows detailed track diagrams of most of the railways in Great Britain and most of these are linked to live feeds from Network Rail which display the location of trains with their headcodes together with main signal aspects in (almost) real time. Clicking on a displayed headcode brings up comprehensive timetable and other information on that working.
You don't have to use your armchair. The photograph below shows how you can track the progress of a train you're actually travelling on. As each signal is passed, the train headcode steps to occupy the next 'berth' on the diagram. When a berth is empty, the associated signal number is displayed instead. In the picture below, signal SC5643 has replaced to danger behind my train so the empty berth now shows a greyed-out '5643'.
Llandudno by Rail: The Railcam.UK live diagram shows 1F36 passing Madeley Jn. on the Down Slow as my train (1F36) actually passes Madeley Jn. The diagram also confirms that the signal behind us (5643) has been replaced to 'red' to protect the train.
Click here for larger versions of this image.
Other features of Railcam.UK
Open Rail railway data (supplied from Network Rail) lets you interrogate full timetable data in various ways and even check historical running data for the previous 2 weeks. There's also a Chat Room.
