Train Location History

[Train2104]

I've been collecting train location history since mid-December, now I finally built a front-end for it. Data goes as far back 12/10/2016 departures. There are a few (< 100) rows missing from the historical data due to some bugs that have since been fixed.

http://asm.transitdocs.com/trainDetail.html?train=5&year=2017&month=7&day=19

You can change the URL, or it's accessible for current trains by clicking the train number at the top of the left column of the main asm.transitdocs.com.

 

[willem]

Thank you. That looks like a fair amount of work for what will be, for me, some fun.

How much disk space do you need to save one week's worth of data? How much of that do you need to save the information (time, speed, direction) between station stops?

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I like that the shade of red on the location history map changes based on speed!

The table with estimated/actual times is color-coded and easy to read.

Thanks!

 

[Train2104]

Thank you. That looks like a fair amount of work for what will be, for me, some fun.

How much disk space do you need to save one week's worth of data? How much of that do you need to save the information (time, speed, direction) between station stops?

Everything combined since December (locations, schedules, actuals, estimate updates) totals around 18.6 million rows, which if mySQL is correct, only takes up 1.7GB of space.

 

[Lonestar648]

Looks great. I need to play a little with it.

 

[willem]

Wow. I'm showing my age, but using the word "only" with "1.7 GB" seems incongruous.

 

[Big Iron]

Wow. I'm showing my age, but using the word "only" with "1.7 GB" seems incongruous.

"only" about 1200 floppy disks needed to store 1.7GB.

 

[ehbowen]

Wow. I'm showing my age, but using the word "only" with "1.7 GB" seems incongruous.

"only" about 1200 floppy disks needed to store 1.7GB.

Google "Tarbell" and "Kansas City Standard".

 

[Bob Dylan]

How many IBM Punch Cards??

Ask your grandfather kiddies!

 

[chakk]

Wow. I'm showing my age, but using the word "only" with "1.7 GB" seems incongruous.

"only" about 1200 floppy disks needed to store 1.7GB.

Those are the hard plastic discs. The REAL floppy disks (5-1/4 inch or 8 inch) initially held about 1/10th as much.

 

[printman2000]

The 3.5's were also floppy. It was referring to the actual disk INSIDE that is floppy. Not the exterior.

 

[ehbowen]

Who else here remembers 8" floppy disks?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Who else here remembers 8" floppy disks?

Can't remember if I've ever seen one in person, but i vaguely remember hearing about them.

 

[jis]

Who else here remembers 8" floppy disks?

Sure.
Who remembers punched paper tapes and Hollerith cards. and those washing machine sized 100M disk drives?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Who else here remembers 8" floppy disks?

Sure.
Who remembers punched paper tapes and Hollerith cards. and those washing machine sized 100M disk drives?

I worked in a teletype room where most of the teletypes were done on a computer, but some still used the tapes. And I took an Assembler class and had the punched cards. So glad I got into computer programming around the time PC's were becoming standard equipment.

 

[Train2104]

While everyone on this forum continues to pointlessly bicker over the proper descriptor for 1.7GB, I've added a miles column. As I'm storing miles between consecutive stations, including local ones on corridors bypassed by LD's, there may be a couple miles' difference between these and the ones in Amtrak's timetables.

If something doesn't look right, clear your cache.

 

[acelafan]

Very nicely done! Impressive.

 

[willem]

Who else here remembers 8" floppy disks?

(Raises hand.) The first computer I owned used the 5.25 inch floppy disks. Earlier, I used a computer that used the 8 inch floppy disks.

Who remembers punched paper tapes and Hollerith cards. and those washing machine sized 100M disk drives?

(Raises hand again for the 80 column cards.) I don't believe I ever saw the punched paper tape other than in a movie, and I don't believe I have ever been conscious of seeing a "washing machine sized 100M disk drive". But there are many years in the past and the memory is not what it used to be.

Who used the little rectangles from the Hollerith cards as confetti?

 

[TheOldMan]

Thank you ! I really enjoyed watching the east bound Zephyr working it's way across Nevada this evening. I am taking the Zephyr in mid August, so glad to see what its run times have been like.

The Old Man TOM

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Thank you. That looks like a fair amount of work for what will be, for me, some fun.

Yeah, thanks to the OP for this new service! Always nice to have another analysis tool at our disposal.

The 3.5's were also floppy. It was referring to the actual disk INSIDE that is floppy. Not the exterior.

Even if you understood the whys and wherefores it was still a rather incongruous naming convention that didn't make much sense to most people.

Who else here remembers 8" floppy disks?

I remember seeing 8" drives in offices but by the time I was using computers in school nearly everything had transitioned to 5.25" discs. But both of those devices were extremely common for their era. Who here remembers the far less common Superdisk and Microdrive?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Who else here remembers 8" floppy disks?

(Raises hand.) The first computer I owned used the 5.25 inch floppy disks. Earlier, I used a computer that used the 8 inch floppy disks.

Who used the little rectangles from the Hollerith cards as confetti?

I remember the confetti (sister would bring it home)

I also remember my sister making a wreath from the cards.

 

[Amy in TX]

I used the punch cards in college. I don't think we had access to the "confetti". The first (sort of) personal computer I used was a dedicated word processor with 8" floppies. I still have a desktop computer that has a 3.5" floppy drive but it's been off for so long I'm afraid to turn it on!

PS Love the location history maps! This will be fun!