Geographic coordinate database

[denmarks]

Is there a database of geographic coordinates of the California Zephyr route? I am playing around with mapping the route on Google maps. I have all the station coordinates but I would like to plot a more accurate route. Since this is for fun the data must be free.

In case anyone cares here is what I have so far.

http://dmmarks.com/California%20Zephyr.html

Hover over a station for scheduled departure times.

I know this has been done by Train Status - Transitdocs

It is just for fun.

 

[niemi24s]

The "Streets" map option of this website ... http://fragis.fra.dot.gov/GISFRASafety/ ...will show you the exact route. Google Earth will give the coordinates of any location you can find.

 

[denmarks]

I do not understand how I get get coordinates from that site. I do not want to try to overlay the route and then try for find each point. I want a list of points. It will probably be a list of a few hundred latitude and longitude points.

 

[snvboy]

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1O9B5FCxvwUv29k1RzZmK5N8Yh5M&hl=en&ll=39.75750376324401%2C-105.01672099999996&z=6

Looks like you aren't the first.

 

[niemi24s]

This... https://www.google.com/earth/ ...is the site that gives the coordinates and altitude of the place where you position the cursor. This is not the same as Google Maps. Don't know where you could find a list of them except for perhaps the survey files of the railroad owning the track.

 

[fixj]

I was able to add the Amtrak system map to Google Earth going to "My Places" and add it. You can alos add Amtrak trips by train name.

 

[west point]

Depends on when you need it. Marked many stations on a high end GPS when train stopped at station. Did try to mark center of station. Saved the locations to memory and stored on the cloud, Found it interesting about some discrepancies using other data bases noted. Continental drift is not that much.

 

[TinCan782]

Perhaps, here...

http://www.openrailwaymap.org/

 

[TinCan782]

If you go to Amtrak Track-A-Train http://asm.transitdocs.com/and zoom way in, you will see many place names along the routes. You could search those names on Google Maps, Topoquest, etc. and find the latitude and longitude.

I always run my Garmin GPSmap 64s continously on my trips and save the "track logs" which may be displayed on Google Earth to show where you have been. The image attached is a collection of tracks from my trips. This is a screenshot from the program ExpertGPS. In the actual program, you can zoom all the way in to show every little turn in your journey. The routes shown are from the trips listed in my signature with the exception of the White Pass and Yukon Skagway to Carcross.

 

[denmarks]

Someone must have the data points in a list somewhere. All the sites I have been pointed have the final map but even looking at the source gets me nowhere. I have the coordinates of all the stations. I just need hundreds of intermediate points. I don't want to go along the route clicking every fraction of an inch when someone else must have already done it.

I did find the file that opens in Google Earth but I see no way to export the data. I am using Google Maps.

 

[TinCan782]

Go to GpsFileDepot.com....here is a pair of files for Amtrak...one is a "gpx" file which will provide points, the other an "img" which will overlay routes on your displayed map. I have used the img file on my Garmin hand held.

Here is the page specific to the Amtrak downloads...

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/493/

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Try this? http://fragis.fra.dot.gov/GISFRASafety/

Click on the 2nd link on the left side - Zoom to Point - a box asking for Longitude and Latitude will pop up. Then move your mouse around on the map and the coordinates will show in the box.

 

[TinCan782]

Someone must have the data points in a list somewhere. All the sites I have been pointed have the final map but even looking at the source gets me nowhere. I have the coordinates of all the stations. I just need hundreds of intermediate points. I don't want to go along the route clicking every fraction of an inch when someone else must have already done it.

I did find the file that opens in Google Earth but I see no way to export the data. I am using Google Maps.

You will probably have to follow the route on a map with locations names and the ability to copy and paste latitude and longitude into another file. Google Earth, Google Maps and Bing maps will allow you to do this. Once you have compiled the points you want, you will need to put into a format that Google Earth/Maps will display as a route.

 

[denmarks]

Go to GpsFileDepot.com....here is a pair of files for Amtrak...one is a "gpx" file which will provide points, the other an "img" which will overlay routes on your displayed map. I have used the img file on my Garmin hand held.

Here is the page specific to the Amtrak downloads...

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/493/

Getting closer but still no good. The IMG file is not text. The GPX file does have data points but there is no indication of what they are. I only need a single route and converting that entire file to the correct format and then deleting what I don't need would take forever.

 

[TinCan782]

The other way will be to find someone who has a tracklog of the CZ route (which I don't, yet) A tracklog for this route will probably contain 10 to 20,000 points depending on the settings.

What I do is create a route, point-to-point using the stations and just ride along. Looking at the route, I will create and add "points of interest" (POI) along the way that I would like to look for. In my GPS, I can set proximity alarms to alert me as we approach the POI. I can set the distance radius to a value I determine.

I think I am straying too far from your original inquiry so, I'll wish you luck with your endeavor.

 

[acelafan]

I have some GPX files that I created years ago when I rode a few Amtrak routes, but I am unsure of the format; they just have lines like this:

<trkpt lat="41.861233" lon="-87.637167"><name><![CDATA[tp148758]]></name></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="41.861268" lon="-87.637130"><name><![CDATA[tp148759]]></name></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="41.861318" lon="-87.637085"><name><![CDATA[tp148760]]></name></trkpt>

I guess a program could be written to pull out the lat/lon points for a very long list?

Feel free to download them from https://juckins.net/misc_au/gis/

Unfortunately the California Zephyr route was on the Wyoming detour when I recorded it.

 

[KmH]

I was able to add the Amtrak system map to Google Earth going to "My Places" and add it. You can alos add Amtrak trips by train name.

It took me some searching to find "My Places" on Google Earth.

 

[Train2104]

This is all the data points I have for 5 of Feb 1...it's not as granular as you'd like, but it's a start. I'm not going to try to break that shapefile up into a text list of points for one route only.

zephyr.txt

 

[denmarks]

Thanks for your help. I finally found one of your links led to a Google Earth overlay which I was able to extract and edit.

The current website is here. You can zoom to see detail of the route. Hover over a station for name and departure times.

The file with all the coordinates is www.dmmarks/California Zephyr.js

I know is was already done but no one is doing it directly with HTML and Javascript.