Looking out of the train window ?
Wonder what the building is that you can see ?
Want to know something about the places you pass through ?
Need to keep children entertained ?
AboutMyJourney is designed just for you.
What is AboutMyJourney?
I often see things out of the window while I am travelling and wonder what they are. When friends said the same thing to me, it inspired me to create AboutMyJourney.
The AboutMyJourney website displays a map of your route and tracks your location as you travel. Icons on the map mark places of interest, and you just click an icon when you are nearby to find out more about the things you can see – maybe a building, a town, a landscape feature.
Alternatively, the AboutMyJourney app, available on Google PlayStore, will track your location as you go, and when you are near something interesting it will pop up with information about it. It may also have a simple quiz related to what you can see, to entertain you as you travel. The rest of the time, it leaves you to use your mobile device for other things, or you can just relax and look at the view from your train window.
The app is completely free, and neither the app nor this website carry any advertising. We will never try to sell you anything or fill your screen with annoying pop-ups and advertisements!
The AboutMyJourney website
You can follow your journey and find out about the places along the way using the interactive maps in this website. Just go to the “The Routes” page (Click HERE), select your route, start the location tracking process, and follow your journey on the map as your location marker updates using geolocation. You can click on markers on the map that highlight places along the route and read about them.
If you don’t have a geolocation capability (GPS or mobile network based) you can still view the maps and click on the places of interest.
Maps are based on MapsMarkerPro software. Copyright applies: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
The AboutMyJourney app
If you have an Android mobile device, you can use our app, which will pop up and alert you when you are near somewhere of interest instead of following your route on a map.
To use the app, use the link button above to download it from the Goole Playstore. Then all you have to do is start it, select your train route from those available and enter a few details about where you are sitting. The app will disappear from your mobile device’s screen but will start to monitor your location using GPS. When you are within range of an interesting building, feature or town it will pop up with some information about it. Optionally, there may also be a simple quiz, with a multiple choice question for each place, to keep you entertained; the app tracks the answers for up to three players and allows you to see your score at the end.
When you start the app, you must have either wi-fi or mobile network access to download the data about your chosen route, but after that it doesn’t matter if you lose network access; all you need is a GPS signal with GPS enabled on your device.
Photograph of InterCity 125 HST in British Rail (pre-privatisation) livery, courtesy of hondawanderer.com