Railfan Technology > GPS Moving Maps (and snakes) on a Train

A recent posting on the passenger train thread asked about using a GPS on board Amtrak.  I am sure there have been other discussion boards in the past.  At the risk of duplication, here are some experiences and recommendations.  Modern GPS apps are mostly cell-phone based, tracking your position vis-a-vis cell phone towers.  For the app to work you must have cell phone coverage, which is still spotty in much of the country where Amtrak goes.  These apps also consume your data plan, run down your battery, and probably do not show railroads.  If you can use something independent of the cell phone system and your data plan, you are better off.

Decades ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, we had our laptops on board the train.  At least until the laptop battery died.  Now Amtrak has outlets at most of the seats. Microsoft put out a product called "streets and trips," with the earliest versions (before 2004 at least), still showing many existing and abandoned railroads.  This software was sold pretty cheap (less than $30 and a USB-ported GPS receiver was included).  The earliest ones were not very sensitive, but they got better in 2004.  You connected the receiver and the laptop with a snake (cable). If you wanted to you could turn on the tracking feature, and it would create a blue line showing your progress, that you could save to a file.  There are also other moving map displays for laptops that did the same thing.  Usually, having the outboard GPS receiver was critical...unless you wanted to hold your laptop up to the window for your whole trip.  I do not know about the versions after 2004, as I am still using my old software.  I've transplanted it several times when my laptops conked out and it still works well.  There is a suction cup on the receiver, which you can stick to the window, and it will always find satellites, except in some urban canyons in the east, and rural canyons and tunnels in the east.

This software was cheap to begin with, and is even cheaper now on the used market.  You can probably find the discs at a fleamarket for a couple of bucks, and maybe even get lucky enough to find the receiver that is not damaged.  The stuff is also sold on the used internet sales sites.

Another satellite-looking way to go is an aviation type moving map, such as sold by literally hundreds of different companies to general aviaton pilots, hunters, hikers, etc.  Often they do show railroads.  The oldest ones often showed abandoned prehistoric railroads!  I have found these to work on board trains, but not as well as the good old windows on a laptop with an external receiver module stuck to the window.  The aviation map people usually have a dual version on the same device, for use on aircraft with the sectional aviation charts, and for use in a vehicle with some type of ground map database.  Manytimes the versions for car and truck drivers do not include railroads on their maps, although sometimes they will put in railroad crossing coordinates for safety alerts.  These apps are for devices that have built in GPS satellite receivers, which most small android tablets now apparently do.  These tablets can be had on sale for less than $50 brand new.  People who are upgrading to the latest and greatest often have their old handme downs for sale cheap, and as long as the device is working, you don't care if the data base is up to date or not for rail-riding!

Have not had much experience with dash-board vehicle GPS' on a train, because usually they have a 12 volt cigarette lighter power plug, which requires you to carry a bunch of adapters and cables.  If somebody has found a car type unit that is sensitive enough to work inside a train car, has software showing the railroads, and a plug in for 110 vac, that would be of interest here.

   



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/15 09:06 by NewRiverGeorge.

Very good summary.  My first GPS had major roads and towns but that was about it.  It was a handheld unit.  Newer ones had more detail.  I have a Tom Tom that I've had for about two years and it shows railroads.  Haven't tried to use it on a train but a friend and I were on the Southwest Chief about four years ago and he had one that worked pretty good.  It tried to show that we were on a road next to the tracks at times but that was pretty close.  If the road was more than 100 or 150 feet away it tracked where we actually were.  Mine is powered by an internal battery that will run it for awhile... I have no idea how long, but at least a little while.  It's charged with a USB cable and with every seat having access to AC power you should be able to run it with an AC to USB charger.  I don't know if the 1" cube that comes with the I-phone will supply enough power to run it but the larger aftermarket type could, especially the larger ones that will charge two to four devices.  I don't see any reason for the receivers to not work in a rail car if you can stick them on the side window of your car and make them work.  That would have about the same obstruction to the birds that you would have on the train.  Today, the big question should be, "Does it show the railroads accurately?"  If it does, it should do a good job for your.

John

At least the GPS speedometer works well.  NEC 11-14-15 near Trenton

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

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Streets and Trips was (is) my favorite mapping program.  However, the 2013 version is the last--Microsoft discontinued it.  Their replacement is Bing maps on the web.  Not nearly as good, IMHO.
Paul