Railfan Technology > any train location aps out there

dose such an ap exist for your phone, for a specific stretch of track,
was trackside earlier in the tehachapis, looked around on my phone but didnt come up with anything, just curios

Posted from Android

ATCS MON for Windows is the only thing out there. And it has spotty coverage, but is amazing cool.
http://www.atcsmon.com/
But you need to run it on Windows. Which means either a Widows phone or tablet, OR, run it on you home PC and do a remote desktop on your phone.

That is about it. No real train tracker apps for any phone.

Scott Schifer
Torrance, CA
TinyTrains Website

Just a small correction, to run ATCS Monitor, you need a full version of windows, not the mobile version.

ATCS Monitor IS a great tool, it makes my train chasing much easier. You can use your phone with a remote desktop app (like TeamViewer) to view the active layout running at home on your PC. That's what most people do.

There are also online scanner feeds to help with the audio. Look at railroadradio.net

Ryan Wilkerson
Fair Oaks, CA

For the technically savvy fan who runs linux or Mac/Apple,
ATCSMon.exe runs in wine. I've got it up now watching the
lack of activity on the CN's Flint sub :-)

John.

PS Get wine at winehq.org

J.

Many linux distros (Ubuntu, Mint etc.) install Wine by default.

So has anyone taken their laptop with them and have a hotspot in the vehicle to get data?  Wondering about the data load in that sort of operation. 

 

ATCS data is relatively light when compared to other internet activity. It depends on the amount of activity you are monitoring and the location but it would likely be less than 10MB/hour. What area are you wanting to monitor?

Cumbres Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So has anyone taken their laptop with them and
> have a hotspot in the vehicle to get data?
>  Wondering about the data load in that sort of
> operation. 
>

Ryan Wilkerson
Fair Oaks, CA

I typically monitor the BNSF rails in south central Kansas.  Mainly the La Junta/Ark City sub layout and then the Emporia Sub West layout.  

I always thought it used a lot of data from what I could see being transmitted back and forth.  

currenlty my hotspot is with TMobile, when I signed up for it I received 10 Gig of data for $50/month.  this was to replace our internet provider who could not get me a reliable signal. (the hazards of a rural lifestyle).  I found it to be faster, more reliable and cheaper then the wireless system I had used until the antenna was damaged in a storm.  the other item that I found was curious is that they don't charge any data usage towards streaming video/audio for most of the common sites like Youtube, Netflix, Etc.  Also no extra charges if used in Mexico and Canada. I don't see that ATCS data is free however.  ;)

Sounds like something I may try.  Have always been nervous about intentionally opening paths into the home network.  

 

RyanWilkerson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ATCS data is relatively light when compared to
> other internet activity. It depends on the amount
> of activity you are monitoring and the location
> but it would likely be less than 10MB/hour. What
> area are you wanting to monitor?
>
> Cumbres Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So has anyone taken their laptop with them and
> > have a hotspot in the vehicle to get data?
> >  Wondering about the data load in that sort of
> > operation. 
> >

I have taken a laptop and hotspot out on occasion and it is quite convenient watching atcs as between that and a scanner it takes all the guesswork out of the equation.  It doesn't use much data at all but I'd only use it a couple hours.  Since in my area CSX went to satellite control I can't benefit from atcs any more.

this web address wont open on my home pc do i need to have something special installed before i attempt to open it