I'm busily adding things to steamlocomotive.info, and there's a project that I'm not sure is worth doing. I think it's a neat idea, but unless there's some interest in it, I think I'll put it on the back burner.

We just finished installing a map server in our network and it seems to work pretty well. We're thinking about adding a feature to the site so that when you click on a thumbnail to view the details of a locomotive there'll be a little map icon, and that icon will generate a nice printable map showing the location of the locomotive.

The big work would be adding street addresses (or lat/long) to the database for each locomotive. Would this be of sufficient interest to folks that it would be worth the estimated 80 to 100 hours of programming time?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Doug

I'll begin by thanking you for the very excellent resource that steamlocomotive.com is and mention I use it on a regular bases, particularly as engines are referred to here on RyPN.

Regarding your question about maps, I would suggest that it would be a back burner enhancement. For those very few engines within driving distance of my location, half the fun is trying to find it once I know that it exists. A good street address in one of the text entries would serve the same purpose with the added step of looking it up in MapQuest.com or the Yahoo map program.

But it would be really nice if you could attach a little map of the RR routes that engine saw service on. Recently we had a posting that the McCloud RR was for sale. It took several web searches before I learned more than that it was located in California. A nice little route map of the maximum extent of the principal owning rail road would be an extremely useful enhancement. But of course I bet that's not something that your map server is programed to support.

Ed

Doug;

I don't have a definite answer for you, just more stuff to chew on.

That would be a neat feature; another variation on it might be to given the lattitude and longitude of the locomotive, so that folks with GPS units can find it. I found a "geocaching" webpage where non-steam folks shared the coordinates of steam vehicles they found, along with a picture:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f079f475-8dc6-45e7-bd00-3f95d4e7db54&log=y&decrypt=

However, having said that; I know you are working as I have to expand your database to include more and more locomotives worldwide. As you do so, I think you will find yourself increasingly torn between trying to keep the locations (which would then include your map and/or coordinates) current, and adding new entries.

My "Surviving World Steam" Project consumes a tremendous amount of time in trying to keep locations and dispositions current while trying to make the entire project complete. A map and/or co-ordinates would be great, but not if the locomotive was moved to another location two or three years ago. I have estimated a third or more of the locomotives listed in J. David Conrad's "Directory of North American Steam Locomotives" have moved since the directory was published in 1988.

As Ed said, half the fun is "hunting for steam", and the three-hour search for the locomotives at Long Leaf, LA (before it was made a museum, with proper signage) on an all-night drive from one end of Louisiana to other is the stuff of Hefner family lore. But, I have also experienced the frustration of looking in vain for steam locomotives even in small towns such as the ones in Mississippi. In most cases, the street address and/or the name of the park would have helped, I could then ask locals where it was.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

I think this would be an interesting addition but probably not worth the time required. If you manage to have an address or name of the park in which the engine is located, someone could always look it up on a map themself.

You have done a terrific job on your site and I visit it regularly. Keep up the good work.

Am I correct in assuming that the map would automatically generate once you had entered all of the addresses? I suppose I would vote that this would be a useful feature; I've included as many physical addresses as possible in my website to help people find the places, though I don't have any links to maps. I suppose I would say that once you provide the address, people can use Mapquest to generate their own maps; but if the maps generate automatically then it wouldn't be any extra work so it would be a nice perk. Just a thought. I know how much work it is to search for addresses, but I suppose I think it would be helpful. Just my two cents.