TrackDiagrams.fetch_catalogue

TrackDiagrams.fetch_catalogue(update=False, dump_dir=None, verbose=False, **kwargs)[source]

Fetch the catalogue of railway track diagrams.

This method retrieves the structured track diagram catalogue either from a local file cache or by parsing the live online platform source.

Parameters:

  • update (bool) – Whether to check for updates to the package data. Defaults to False.

  • dump_dir (str | None) – The path to a directory where the data file will be saved. Defaults to None.

  • verbose (bool | int) – Whether to print relevant information to the console. Defaults to False.

Returns:

A dictionary containing the catalogue of railway track diagrams and the date it was last updated.

Return type:

dict

Examples:

>>> from pyrcs.line_data import TrackDiagrams  # from pyrcs import TrackDiagrams

>>> td = TrackDiagrams()

>>> track_diagrams_catalogue = td.fetch_catalogue()

>>> type(track_diagrams_catalogue)
dict
>>> list(track_diagrams_catalogue.keys())
['Track diagrams', 'Last updated date']

>>> td_dat = track_diagrams_catalogue['Track diagrams']
>>> list(td_dat.keys())
['Main line diagrams', 'Tram systems', 'London Underground', 'Miscellaneous']

>>> main_line_diagrams = td_dat['Main line diagrams']
>>> type(main_line_diagrams)
tuple
>>> type(main_line_diagrams[1])
pandas.core.frame.DataFrame
>>> main_line_diagrams[1]
                           description                                       file_url
0  South Central area(1985)10.4Mb file  http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/line/track/...
1   South Eastern area(1976)5.4Mb file  http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/line/track/...