Google Maps and Railroads

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I’ve used Google maps to follow rail and transit lines in Southern California with great results. It’s very useful when you’re following an abandon Pacific Electric route (or other abandon rail lines), which becomes very clear when looking at the satellite photos.

Does anyone else have any contributions to interesting Google rail maps? I’ll add the following to get this started:

  1. Metro Gold Line Train: Go to Google Maps and type in “435 Fair Oaks Avenue, South Pasadena, California” and use the scale bar on the left of the map to zoom into the photo. You’ll see the northbound Gold Line train left of Fair Oaks Avenue.
  2. Deer Lodge Montana: Just type in “Deer Lodge Montana” on Google Maps and zoom in. Perhaps a Milwaukee Road fan can help me find the Little Joe in the town.
  3. 303 South Jackson Street, Seattle, WA: Zoom in on the Amtrak station and I think there’s a Talgo train in the station. You can type in “Amtrak Station City Name” to Google Maps and pull up just about all 450 stations.
2

I have done that before it’s really cool to see stuff like that. I also done that with my work i have seen my work place from space. It’s a really cool thing also when ever i use my G.P.S device to find an address it show where railroad tracks are or used to be. like when i go by mitchell yard here in milwaukee it shows all of the tracks and switch points but it does not show any trains.

3

The other day I was looking at Google Earth and I followed the South Pass Branch from Reliance all the way to the Atlantic City Iron Ore mine.

You can drive most of it in a truck until you hit where a bridge once was…

Althought I did find this cool loop, but its location is many, many miles away from either end of the line… This is a few miles befor South Pass City.

4

Here’s the Little Joe in Deer Lodge:

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=46.390736&lon=-112.736411&z=19.4&r=0&src=ggl

5

…Flash Earth is really a great one to find images. It’s instant as you type in the address.

6

I’ve had some success in using Google Maps to follow parts of the line of the St Joseph Valley - a northeastern Indiana “interurban” that never electrified and was abandoned in 1918. Interestingly enough, parts of the right-of-way are still visible on the satellite photos and other parts of the ROW can be spotted by features on the 7.5 minute topos.

7

Yes! Also, by clicking either Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo, its possible to see different seasons and even in some cases years of change in one location. Not only is it convenient, but its an excellent way to see all the numerous areas that Google Earth doesn’t cover. In fact, Google is so limited I can’t use it alone for my abandoned railroad researching.

Here’s just one example of the many things Google would never have seen. Its the old CRI&P roundhouse in Manly, IA:

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.297781&lon=-93.206326&z=17.1&r=0&src=msa

Here’s the Rockville Bridge discussed in the South Penn thread:

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=40.333946&lon=-76.910295&z=16.4&r=0&src=msa

Here are a couple historical photos for reference:

http://www.explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1607

http://www.explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1606