Station Seeking, Structure Peaking | Gralhix OSINT Exercise #002
It brings me great pleasure to bring to you yet another OSINT challenge walkthrough courtesy of the fun OSINT puzzle master, Sofia Santos (aka Gralhix). As always, you can find the link to her challenges here and the link to #002 here.
In this challenge, we are tasked with using a single photo to locate a train station and then determine the highest structure in the image.
So, without further ado...
Task briefing:
The photo below was shared on social media. It clearly depicts a train station. Please answer the following questions:
- What is the name of the train station seen in the photo?
- What is the name and height of the tallest structure seen in the photo?
Source: Sofia Santos
To begin, let's pull out as much information as possible from this image.
Part 1: Image Analysis
Before I show you what I did to analyse the image, take a moment to try this for yourself. Start by looking at the photo and asking yourself what you see. At first you might see the obvious details: train platforms, people, big signs with the station name. These are obviously important, but the subtler details are often where the money is.
For instance, you might want to ask yourself:
- How could I tell this train station apart from another train station?
- What are the colors of the train station?
- How many platforms, tracks, and trains can I see?
- What can I see beyond the train station?
Also it will help if you draw on the image (you can use GIMP, MS Paint, Flameshot, or any other image editing tool) to highlight important information.
Once you've done that, you can click away the spoiler guard to show my marked up image and description.
Image Overview
This image shows 5 platforms of a train station (cyan numbers). Signs hanging from the platform roofs (red rectangles) display the name "Flinders Street", almost certainly the name of the station. At the furthest platform there is a blue and white painted train (green rectangle) beyond which are a line of trees and further again, 6 tall structures.
Train Station Details
The photo was taken from the 5th platform back from the row of trees. The awning above the platform has a wavy design (pink rectangle) that is present on all the platforms in the image. The ground consists of large tiles with 4 lines running parallel to the train tracks at the edge of the tiles (pink lines).
The second and third platforms show metal benches with large clear screens behind them (orange rectangles) displaying the name of the station. There is also a clear bin with a red lid (small orange rectangle). The columns which hold up the station roofs are painted in a dark red from the ground to around 4/5 of their height (white rectangle), with the remainder painted a cream colour (yellow rectangle).
Large screens hang from the roofs (magenta rectangles) of the platforms.
Distant Structure Details
Beyond the station are 6 tall structures (numbered 1 to 6). From right to left they are:
- A shorter cream building consisting of multiple towers
- A taller, more distant dark-blue building with red signs and white lettering
- A closer brown tall building with square windows and the letters "IBM" at the top.
- A shorter brown building similar in design to 3, with the letters "HWT" at the top.
- A shorter curved white building with illegible red-lettering
- A thin tower resembling a radio tower
Did you miss anything that I pointed out? Did I miss anything that you pointed out? This might seem like overkill right now (and admittedly, it is a little), but this really does help to pre-load your mind with things to look for as we verify our findings.
Part 2: Geolocation
Now that we have a good idea of what we've actually been looking at, let's try to geolocate the train station.
Use Google Images to verify the train station name and location
Unless they installed those signs as some kind of elaborate prank, the station name is almost certainly "Flinders Street". A quick Google search reveals many images of an ornately designed station located in Melbourne, Australia.
Since I couldn't tell if this was the right station from the outside, I added Flinders Street Station Platform to my search.
I found a few images that confirmed this was the right station. Have another go at marking them up using the same colours/shapes as you did for the first picture and highlighting anything new.
Once you've done that, you can click each image to toggle my marked-up copies and see the summary notes.
Source: Image Source 1
In this first image of the platform, we see again the distinctive "Flinders Street" signs (red rectangles) from the initial image. We also see clear bins with red lids, monitors hanging from platform roofs, the distinctive roof edging, and the structural beam paint job. In this photo we also see blue and white signs with platform numbers (teal rectangles): 9 (closest to the camera) to 1 (furthest away). Just behind the platform edge we see a narrow textured floor pattern which runs parallel to the tracks (teal).
However, behind the furthest platform, in place of the row of trees and skyline we saw in the first image, we have what appears to be a building with red and cream stripes and small windows interspersed with larger arched windows (green rectangle).
Source: Image Source 2
This next image shows us Platform 3 as per the blue and white sign. We again see the common features with both the previous images that you can easily recognise, including the re-emergence of the metal bench/screens (orange) from the challenge image. From this angle, we can see back above the platform where a windowed box is positioned (blue) and beyond that, a distinctive cream and red building (green). On the roof of the building we see faded green towers.
Note: I believe we can also see the small white building positioned under the platform on the left of the image in the far right of the previous image. I didn't notice it while I was marking the pictures up, but the building is clearly on Platform 3 there too.
Source: Image Source 3
Aerial shots are fantastic for gaining additional context. Here we can see the train station in its entirety, from the row of trees (pink) to the red and cream building (green). Based on the previous images, we can confidently predict the numbers of each platform (teal) by counting across from Platform 1. We can see the blue windowed box on the top of Platform 3 and by extension, roughly estimate the position from which each of the 3 photos above were taken. The clock tower and the circular roof domes (green) are particularly distinctive and will be useful for further verification from outside.
Source: Image Source 4
And voila! We can now see the station's distinct architecture (green) against the skyline and who is that in the background but candidates 3 through 6 for tallest structure in the challenge image.
Conclusion
I hope you can agree that all of these images are verifiably of the same train station. The platforms match with our primary photo as do the surroundings, including the line of trees and the buildings of interest for the second challenge question.
And so, we can very comfortably confirm that the station is Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia.
Part 3: Locate the Tallest Structure
The second question of the challenge asks us: What is the name and height of the tallest structure seen in the photo?
To remind you, here are the candidates from earlier:
- A shorter cream building consisting of multiple towers
- A taller, more distant dark-blue building with red signs and white lettering
- A closer brown tall building with square windows and the letters "IBM" at the top.
- A shorter brown building similar in design to 3, with the letters "HWT" at the top.
- A shorter curved white building with illegible red-lettering
- A thin tower resembling a radio tower
To answer this question, we need to first find the names of the structures.
Use Google Maps to Identify Each Structure of Interest
In the Google Maps screenshot below, you can see the station in the top third of the image, above the river. Below it, you can see the skyscrapers which make up the skyline. Clicking the image reveals the six candidate structures from the challenge photo.
And here's another view from street level
Now we can see what is written a bit more clearly:
- Langham
- Central Equity
- IBM
- HWT
- Quay West
- Arts Centre Melbourne Spire (from Google Maps)
And after a quick google of "name + building height", we have our answers.
| Name | Height (m) | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Focus Apartments by Central Equity | 166m | CTBUH |
| 2 | Arts Centre Melbourne Spire (from Google Maps) | 162m | Wikipedia |
| 3 | IBM Australia | 131m | CTBUH |
| 4 | Herald & Weekly (HWT) Times Tower | 111m | CTBUH |
| 5 | The Langham, Melbourne | 88m | CTBUH |
| - | Quay West Suites Melbourne | Unknown | - |
Unfortunately, the height of Quay West Suites Melbourne was a real mystery to crack, but from the images we have and the relative distance from the train station, I think it's safe to say that that building wasn't in contention for the tallest anyway.
Conclusion
Through the combination of streetview, satellite imagery, and some quick googling, we identified the name of the tallest building as Focus Apartments by Central Equity at 166m tall.
Fin
This was a lot of fun to put together, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
As always, I really appreciate feedback or comments from anyone reading. You can find me on X/Twitter, Bluesky, and LinkedIn at the handle @rgmarchant. I'd love to hear from you, especially if you found the answer a completely different way to me!
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