Trainer
Trainer is a desktop dashboard for train times with weather integration and astronomical events.
Problem → System → Outcome
Problem.
Regular travelers (e.g., consultants/trainers) often have messy or inconsistent travel logging.
A common pattern appears in travel tools. They optimise for finding a route, not for staying aligned with a real journey as it unfolds.
System.
Trainer Travel Tracker provides a clean interface and backend for routing travel events, timestamps and offers weather to plan.
Outcome. Journeys stayed consistent across planning and real travel: times, stops, weather and context were visible without bouncing between sites or losing state.
Rationale
I wanted a train scheduling app that let me look up times without the frustrating ads you see on sites like thetrainline.com.
Then I wanted to know if I needed an umbrella or coat ~ so I added weather support.
Finally, I tossed in astronomy visuals (moon phase, ISS tracking, etc.) for flair and personal interest ~ I have a degree in physics, after all.
Challenges Along the Way
- Curating every train stop and route (excluding Northern Ireland) was a massive task.
- Finding reliable astronomy sources was harder than expected.
- Weather APIs and moon phase integrations added UI complexity ~ but I pushed through until it felt right.
What it does
A modern PySide6 desktop app combining real-time departures with platforms, delays and calling points, route planning with interchanges, destination weather via Open-Meteo with no API key and an astronomy view with moon phases and a seven-day outlook, in one dark Material interface with a light mode a keystroke away. The full feature catalogue lives on the product site: ernster.dev/Trainer.
Simple. Efficient. Informative. Built to travel smart.
Screenshots
