Beta Welcome to the beta — poke at anything, nothing needs verifying. Got an idea or a bug? Hit ⚑ Beta Feedback up top. — JC
What’s different in beta? ›

Everyone has write permissions, and no car type or location is needed (or verified) — log freely. I’ll clear out the dummy cars when we move out of beta.

Railspotlight is best viewed on a desktop or laptop; logging cars is great on a phone. Send any comments or ideas with the ⚑ Beta Feedback button — I’ll get to them each evening as best I can. Have fun. — JC

Public-source · AAR · FRA · OpenRailwayMap

Railspotlight is an open, public-data reference for North American freight rail — car types, reporting marks, commodities, and the network itself — with a crowdsourced car-spotting and journey-tracing game built on top.

New to freight? Every car wears a stenciled code — its reporting mark. Railspotlight turns those codes into owners, specs, and a live map of where cars actually go.

Log a car →

Point your phone at any freight car's stenciled reporting mark — snap a photo and Railspotlight reads it, or just type it in.

At the desk

The Reference

Facts you can trust, drawn from public sources — useful with zero community activity.

  • MarksDecode a reporting mark to its owner — railroad, lessor, shipper, or private.
  • CarsAAR car types & specs — categories, mechanical designations, capacity, gross rail load.
  • LadingCommodity → car — what moves in what, typical versus restricted.
  • SizingCube-out / weigh-out — does a load fill the volume or hit the weight limit first.
  • NetworkYour position on the FRA network — nearest line, owner, and trackage.
Open the reference →

Trackside

The Tracing Game

Spot, log, and watch the network come alive as the crowd catches the same cars.

  • SpotLog the cars in front of you — one or a whole consist, typed or read from a photo.
  • JourneyWatch a car's journey build as others catch it downstream.
  • ConfirmWhen a second spotter catches the same car, it’s confirmed — multiply-confirmed cars stand out on the map.
  • BountyOpen bounties on cars gone dark — go find the ones that vanished.
  • RankEarn reputation, climb the rail-themed ranks (brakeman → CEO), and see where you stand on the leaderboard.
Enter Railspotlight Live →
Every tool, one place — the hub →