In Which Direction Does This Train Travel?

delprete train illusionDear Scott! Now this is an illusion! Hmm… I wasn’t trying to impersonate Doc. Emmet Brown from Back to The Future, just wanted to literally thank Scott for sending me this awesome animation below. When I first saw it, I almost tossed it down the trash can, but in the last moment I noticed what is so special about it. Just like the spinning lady was spinning in both directions, same thing goes for this cargo train. First I saw it travel towards the left, but when I (by accident) noticed it’s wheels, I started seeing it move towards right. Great fun starts when you try to switch it’s direction each second. Can you also do it, or is it only me being a pro by now? If you ask yourself why did I add another train image in the upper right corner, well its because of the Mac Widget. Apparently, when the animations are shown in the widget it uses much of your CPU power, so I set it to show the first (static) image instead. Do you see how I look after you? Hope its appreciated :) And this is Scott’s original email: “Hello, I saw this animation posted to a picture community I’m part of, and it reminded me of the “which way is it turning?” illusions you’ve posted. At first I saw it moving to the left, then going to the right, and it took some work to get it going left again. Here you go. Thanks for the site!”

86 Replies to “In Which Direction Does This Train Travel?”

  1. I just realized that I can make it switch every second by looking at the wheels. This way it is sort of trapped in the center.

  2. Once I got it stuck bouncing back and forth, that seems the only way I can see it now. I’ll check again later.

  3. well, duh, i, of course, know exactly what’s happening
    so your little “optical illusion” isn’t fooling me @ all i mean, i may b blond but i’m not stupid. and because some of u aren’t as smart as moi, then i guess i am forced to tell u what the trick is, right? Whatever

    its not going 1 way or the other, its just 2 pics switching back and forth. That’s how it seems 2 b moving. DUH. any moron could figure that out so IDK what that means u r… whatever. Maybe i’ll do another blog like this if u want… just post a note saying ja want moi, anyhoo, c ya!!

    1. your statement in and of its self proves your stupidity, no s**t its two pics alternating. its the visual effect created by the switching of the images that creates the illusion of motion, the direction of which is ambiguous.
      go go blond, you out did yourself this time

  4. That is way cool. And there is no way to determine which is the ‘correct’ direction of travel.

  5. It’s probably not going where I want to go anyway so it really doesn’t matter to me. Great illusion, though.

  6. it moves in both directions, this is because it is not moving it is just sort of switchng if you know what i mean lol!!! :)

  7. I found it easy to switch direction by looking at one side of the picture, then the other. Looking at the left side makes the train move to the right and vice versa.

  8. Ok, I get it going both ways, can change it at will and can also make it change every second by looking at the wheels.

    BUT……!

    Give this a try. Use the barrier as a sort of screen divider, and it is possible to see the wheels going one way and the tops of the train going the other at the same time!
    There are all sorts of cominations you can see if you look at this long enough using the “divider” technique. For example, can you see the wheels moving, but the tops just switching back and forth? Or vice versa? The possibilites are endless! Well, there are a few anyhow.

    Enjoy!

  9. I can see it move in both directions also, but when I looked at the GIF file, I could tell that first it moves left, then back, then left and so on. You can see that one car is #239, and it is to the right in the first image, then it is to the left in the second, but it repeats itself so it is to the right again.

    Very cool illusion, very cool site.

  10. They are just the same trains going back and forth sooo they are just switching places, not going in any direction

  11. Emma, 13

    Of course we all got that… that’s what an illusion is… It looks like something it’s not.

    What was the point of your comments…

  12. cool illusion but if you break it down the train was going that way ——>

    If you don't break it down by looking at the codes on the cars then it can appear to go in both directions.

  13. to me if i look at the left of the screen the train is moving to the right and if I look to the right it’s moving to teh left. But it’s abviously just two pictures switching between each other.

  14. it not travelling at all
    it goin from side to side vwey fast
    which makes it seem like it goin in both directions

  15. ummm guys ttly obvious!!!
    DUHHHH
    2 pictures switching back and forth. yu can see the grafitti is the same every second image so… pretty obvios

  16. There is no direction… the “illusion” is composed of two stills. Point A and Point B. The train is not travelling in any directions. But if you want to treat it as an illusion.. then it can be seen in both directions. there is no correct answer.

  17. I don’t see it moving, I just see it jumping back and forth. Like 2 pictures where the train is at two different spots, flashing again and again. Now I have a headache.

  18. This looks like it uses the same technique that old cartoon artist used to make objects such as trains and cars move. You can see that train car number 239 is always in the picture, it just moves back and forth.

  19. dang whoever this Emma is, needs to calm down.
    seriously i think if people do not like some of the things on this sight, they shouldn’t be giving the person crap, they should be giving them advice

    but awesome illusion
    i thought at first it was moving to the right but then it started to look like two different pictures

  20. I at first just saw it continuously go back and forward as if it was jumping,
    but then when i looked to the left of the screen it looked like it was to the right,
    and when i looked to the right it looked like it was going to the left,
    this is awesome love it :)

  21. thats awesome, it really does work when you close your eyes and think it is in this direction it will be going in that direction if you close them again and then think it is in the other direction it will be in that direction. haha very cool. Great Site!

  22. It’s two images switching back and forth.
    Unless you know which was taken first, you can’t tell which direction the train is moving.

  23. Emma,
    you’re like, duh, kinda stupid, whatever. Nobody cares if, duh, you’re blonde or whatever. This said, I saw a similar illusion once, a long time ago.
    Cheers!

  24. wow, Greg u r right!!!!!! by now I managed only to make the weels to go right while the top was going left, but I’ll try also other combinations. U had a gr8 idea!!! i can switch the direction when I want, but only if I move my eyes a bit from one side to another (it goes left when I move my eyes on the left and viceversa)but I don’t know if there are other methods, what do u guys do to switch the direction?

  25. Two things, one, it seems to go back and forth no matter how I look at it, until now!! I have the comment-posting window covering half the picture by chance and I can switch it back and forth.. Guess that was kinda redundant..

    Anyways I thought Macs were supposed to be superior to PCs. I wouldn’t think an animated gif on a widget would really cause that much cpu usage.. maybe I’m wrong…

    Either way, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this site rocks and keep up the good work.

  26. Well, I can see three things:
    -The train is oscillating
    -The train is moving from left to right
    -The train is moving from right to left

    It’s weird. If you want to see a particular image you don’t always see it so (eg you want to see the train moving, but all you do is seeing it oscillating ..)

  27. As there are only two frames to this animation, the reasonable explanation is that this train is not making any progress in either direction, it is just going back and forth, over and over! You’ll be sitting at that street crossing for a loooong time at this rate, buddy!

  28. When I am looking directly at it, the train is not moving in either direction but just kinda jerks side to side but when I look away I can make it change to moving whichever way I want it to… neat in a way

  29. The only thing I can see is that it moves a little bit to the left when it changes to the other photo and when the first photo returns it moves a little bit to the right and so I can’t see it riding to one side for more than one photo.

  30. I believe the train is going left because its shows a clean wagon on the right and and after it switches its at the far left of the screen

  31. Love this illusion and love this site – but please get rid of the floating ad – very annoying!!!

  32. Wow That was wacky! I saw it move in both directions ! I could actually get it to move at will!

  33. i wish all the people bragging that they “got it so quickly” making fun of those who didn’t get it right away would shut up.
    some people have an imagination and would rather believe it as an illusion without you spoling it.
    i partically mean Emma who commented towards the top. stop acting all superior idiot.

    1. The illusion is the train is moving, when in all actuality, the image is PS’d and cut and pasted to make it seem as if it was moving. If you look at the wheels, there is a set that doesn’t move at all. I get the illusion and such, but it is still a bit cheesy. :/

  34. if your having trouble figuring out how to make it switch, move your concentration of the picture from one side to the other. if you look at the left side the train appears to move to the right and vice versa

  35. I don’t see the train moving but i see it flashing instead
    the girl silhouette one is better
    and the colour of the pics great! like old photos

  36. calm down, sarah.
    and sorry guys but it actually isn’t doing either- it’s a gif it’s flashing between two static images…

  37. If you can view the picture by itself in a separate browser, hit [Esc] to stop the picture. I did this a couple times and got it to stop on both frames (there are only 2 pictures). The train is traveling to the left, but you can get your brain to think it is going right as well.

  38. it’s not moving, their are 2 photos of train taken one just after the first one and used flash to make the images shift rapidly giving the impression of the train moving, but there’s only 2 static images

  39. it is actually going one step back and one step forward very quickly, which creates an illusion that is goes in both the direction

  40. It’s moving to the right. I first thought it was moving to the left, but I saved it and looked at it in Windows Live Photo Gallery, since I knew I could go frame by frame. I noticed the white figure on the second cart moving to the right.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *