Here is a bit more explanation as it relates to Last Sightings vs All Sightings.
You can think of Last Sightings as 'the last thing we detected' and All Sightings as 'a history of things we detected' for the given Search criteria.
When created the system was primarily focused on the 'Train' level details, and Last Sightings – which is the default. In January 2023 we introduced the 'All sightings' as a means of being able to pull together a history of detections.
A couple examples are:
If looking at the ‘Trains’ tab:
With a search of August 10 - 14 and, and a Train ID of 123456, the Last Sightings would show me we saw it at Albion, BC at 08-14-2024 at 4:05 AM (as an example)
With a search of August 10 - 14 and, and a Train ID of 123456, the All Sightings would show me we saw it at Albion, BC at 08-14-2024 at 4:05 AM, Chilliwack, BC at 08-14-2024 at 2:38 AM, at Savona, BC at 08-13-2024 at 5:48 PM, at Kamloops, BC at 08-13-2024 at 4:20 AM etc, etc, as far back as we can go with that Train ID (as an example)
If looking at the ‘Cars’ tab:
If filtering on a car attribute, such as a Car ID, the functionality works a little differently. Because of that 'Train' level focus, we associate car attributes to a Train ID it was on, and as such for the given filter criteria we would show any Train ID that that equipment was shown on for that day. A couple examples are:
With a search of August 10 - 14, and an Equipment ID of ABCD123456, Last Sightings would show me the last TRAINS that car was on on that last day (the 14th). So it was on Train ID 693400 at 08-14-2024 at 4:05 AM at Albion, BC, BUT EARLIER on 695414 at 08-14-2024 at 12:14 AM at Delta, BC (as an example) - so we would show both.
With a search of August 10 - 14, and an Equipment ID of ABCD123456, All Sightings would show me all the movements of those last TRAINS that the car was on any of those days (10-14th). So it was on Train ID 693400 at 08-14-2024 at 4:05 AM at Albion, BC plus we would show all other sensor sightings for Train ID 693400 in the date range, BUT EARLIER ALSO on 695414 at 08-14-2024 at 12:14 AM at Delta, BC, plus we would show all other sensor sightings for Train ID 695414 for the date range (as an example).
Seeing an example on a map can sometimes make it clearer.
1. Last sighting: One train ID 966718, and ‘Today’. Today the last place we saw that train at was the highlighted sensor location:
2. All sightings: One train ID 966718, and ‘Today’. Today we saw that train at each of these sensor locations:
Some notes to consider: The main thing to keep an eye on is that this is all driven by your filter tokens in your Search bar. So if you have a date range, or a sensor site, or a direction specified, we will display the data based on those details (meaning if there is more recent info, but it was on a later date, or it was at another sensor, or in a different direction, you will not see it). It is important to be aware of your filters when expecting results - so we suggest at first go broad on the filters. If filtered on a date that included today, then you are seeing the most recent thing we know of a train.
As it relates to 'Cars' the reason we took the approach of associating the equipment to the train is that many moves are geographically close, so we need to be able to not filter out trips (for other scenarios) that are moving in short corridors - which focusing on equipment alone might do.
We point out the difference between Trains and Cars tab searches as when focused on the equipment level views, is that at times one would have to extract the data and eliminate all but the max date/time record per equipment ID.
Note: RailState is working on a potential third selection option that would simply give the last sensor detection we have on an equipment ID PERIOD. We will keep users abridged as that progresses.