Taskbar Express draws a pixel-art train along the bottom of your screen, at the time of the real departures from the station you pick.
Free version included · One payment, no subscription
How it works
Search Paris Gare de Lyon, Montréal, Chicago Union Station or Berlin Hbf. Your station and its timetable are saved.
When a real train departs, a pixel-art train crosses your screen. Between two departures, nothing runs.
Pick the scenery, the speed, the sound, the night look. Or drop in a mod and change everything.
Features
One small program, drawn by its own renderer. No video, no web page: real pixels, laid on your desktop.
Departures come from the public data of six operators, plus the Shinkansen, refreshed every night. Your train leaves when the real one does. Live delays are not supported yet.
A TGV for a TGV, a regional for a regional, a freight for a freight. The train that crosses is chosen to match.
From 7 pm, windows light up, headlights cast a beam and the ballast glows. The desktop is never darkened.
Countryside with overhead wires, falling snow, drifting autumn leaves. Each terrain is a mod you can swap in a click.
Trains, containers, terrain and fonts are folders of JSON and PNG. Behaviour is written in Lua and reloads as soon as you save. Scripts can't touch your files or the internet. This is the whole day-and-night cycle:
-- Night from 7 pm to 7 am, PC time. local EVENING, MORNING = 19, 7 local function update(h) rail.set_night(h >= EVENING or h < MORNING) end function on_load() update(rail.state().hour) end function on_hour(h) update(h) end
Pick a station, a train and a scenery, then close the window. The train keeps running behind your apps, at the time of the real departures.
Pricing
The free version runs forever. Premium unlocks real timetables, the right train for each departure and the Workshop, for a single payment.
$0
$5one-time
No subscription. Payment and licence key handled by Lemon Squeezy.
Workshop · coming soon
Today a mod is a folder you drop into mods/. The Workshop will let you browse, install and publish mods from the app, without an account to publish. Included in Premium.
FAQ
Windows 10 and Windows 11. A macOS version is planned for later.
Between two trains the program sleeps at 0% CPU. It only wakes up to draw a train crossing the screen.
No. It sits just above the desktop, under all your windows, and hides itself on a screen where a window is maximised or full screen.
| Network | Country |
|---|---|
| SNCF Voyageurs | France |
| VIA Rail | Canada |
| Amtrak | USA |
| Deutsche Bahn, long-distance | Germany |
| Renfe, high-speed and long-distance | Spain |
| Toei subway | Tokyo, Japan |
| Shinkansen (typical timetable) | Japan |
Real timetables from your station, the right train picked to match each departure, any frequency and Workshop access. One payment of $5, no subscription.
Yes. A mod is a folder: JSON describes trains, containers, terrain and fonts, and Lua scripts drive the behaviour. Scripts can't touch your files or the internet. A Workshop to share mods is planned.
No. Those names belong to their owners. Taskbar Express is an independent project; timetables come from the public data each operator publishes.
Start with the free version. Switch to Premium when you want your own station on the clock.
