skimi3d Grid Log in Visit the grid
Railway

Snowpeak Express

A single track across the continent, from Damson Dale over the high ground and down to Fox Heath. Two cars work the line. Open at the sides, and stopping 30 seconds wherever a platform board hangs · long enough to get on without hurrying. Between the boards nothing stops at all: you step aboard as it passes, take a seat, ride as far as you like, and step off where it suits you.

This page shows where the cars are right now. Each car reports its own position, so what you read here is what is happening on the rails.

photograph to come
A fifties railbus with a diesel heart and no doors to wait for. Editorial shot: on the line, not on the rig.
Asking the line
Fetching the latest report from the car.
Damson Dale Fox Heath
Route

Where the cars are right now

The continent from above. The line is the surveyed route, the dots are the cars, live.

Drawn from the 5,964 surveyed points, on the grid's own map tiles. A stop appears wherever a passenger board hangs · take the board down and the stop goes with it.

Position
Region
.
Route point
.
Elevation
.
Distance left
.
Where the numbers come from

The car reads the route itself and reports its position every six seconds. When the reports stop, this page goes quiet with it. Nothing here is painted on.

Plan a hop

When does it pass your place?

A fixed line, a known pace, and cars that say where they are. So this is arithmetic, not a promise: pick the region you are standing in.

One full run takes about 31 minutes including the stops. With two cars on the line, something passes any given point roughly every 16 minutes.

Damson DaleFox Heath
The answer appears here. Nothing to sign up for · the line already knows.
Route

The climb

From Damson Dale at 30 m up over the high ground at Silver Dale and down again to Fox Heath. The dots are the cars.

Damson DaleFox Heath
11.9 km
of single track
Measured along the rails, not as the crow flies.
54 regions
on the way
3 of them are only clipped at a corner and sit quieter.
30 to 95 m
above the water
Lowest at Damson Dale, the summit at Silver Dale.
5,964 points
surveyed
On a two metre grid. The map and the climb are drawn from them, not sketched.
Riding it

30 seconds, no door, no ticket.

A car waits 30 seconds wherever a platform board hangs, and 45 seconds at Damson Dale and at Fox Heath before setting off the other way. Everywhere else it does not stop at all · and it does not need to, because the sides are open.

1
Find the line

The track crosses 54 regions between the dale and the sea. It is never far, and the map above says where the car is this minute.

2
Step on as it passes

At a platform board it waits 30 seconds, which is plenty. Anywhere else it moves at a brisk walk and the sides are open: stand by the rails, step aboard, sit down. Riding is free.

3
Step off anywhere

When your place drifts past, walk out the open side. Miss one and another comes · roughly every 16 minutes at any point on the line.

Where it stands
Stations 4 stops with a platform board, and at Damson Dale and Fox Heath as well. Thorn Bank has two platforms and a passing loop, and a diagram showing where every car is. built
More cars two cars on the line at once. They pass each other at the Thorn Bank loop, and a signal holds one until the other is clear · so the wait is minutes, not an hour. running
The line's story How it was built · the bridges, the viaducts, the survey · is a Groundwork piece of its own. being written