What’s That Train?
Hear a train. Know what it is.
Point your phone at a passing service and LopoRail listens to the sound of the engine — the “prime mover” — and suggests the class. It runs entirely on your device; no audio is ever uploaded.
Listen
Match
Confirm
The listening room
Listen to the prime mover.
Capture a few seconds of a passing train. Everything runs on your device — nothing is uploaded, and the result is a suggestion.
Acoustic ID
Listen to the prime mover
Best guess
The reference library is still being built from labelled recordings, so not every class can be named yet — where it can’t, LopoRail will say so rather than guess.
Then confirm it
Check the class, log the catch.
Look up the class
Every locomotive, unit and carriage on the register — match the suggestion against the real fleet, with liveries and observations.
Open the fleet → CommunityShare the catch
Post the sighting, ask the community to confirm a tricky one, and add it to your record.
Open the community →Why it works
Every engine has a signature
A diesel prime mover, an electric traction motor and a steam locomotive each make a very different sound — a distinctive mix of frequencies that stays recognisable as the train passes. When you record a few seconds, LopoRail measures the energy across a spread of frequency bands (a Goertzel filter bank) and compares that pattern against labelled reference profiles. It is the same idea as reading a spectrum analyser, tuned to the sounds trains actually make.
Honest by design. If nothing matches closely enough, LopoRail says it can't identify the train rather than guess. A wrong name is worse than no name — you can always fall back on the unit number or headcode.
Take part
Help build the reference library
- Record or upload a train you can identify.
- Tag the class and submit it for checking.
- Approved clips become reference profiles — so every later identification gets a little better.
The library grows from the community: the more clips the community contributes, the more classes LopoRail can name. Check a suggestion against the fleet directory, and share finds in the community.