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denmarks

denmarks

Train Travel Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 21, 2003
Messages
676
Location
Chico, CA
I'm still playing around with a web page containing all major Amtrak trains with station stops. It can be referenced by train name, train number, and station. I know the information is probably available at many other sites but I did this just to improve my javascript skills. Any criticism would be appreciated. There are no server side databases. All of the data is downloaded with the page so it may take a few seconds to load. Once loaded all inquiries should be very fast.

The page is at http://www.dcs-chico.com/~denmarks/amtrak.html

You can see the rest of my site at http://www.dcs-chico.com/~denmarks/.
 
Its fine from what I've seen, but a couple of points. The Silver Meteor and Silver Star (for now at least) has smoking in a designated portion of the lounge. The Cardinal was extended to NYP with the last schedule change.

Thanks for sharing the site. :)
 
unable to criticize - it might be OK with cable or DSL, but I have dialup and like a lot of sites, I aborted after waiting almost 4 minutes and the page still not loaded.
 
Very nice! You know, client-side Javascript is so similar to a number of back-end languages... judging by the code you wrote, I think this could all be pretty easily ported to a back-end language like Perl / PHP / even ASP Jscript, with all the data into a much faster database. That way, people wouldn't have to download all the data. :)
 
After a quick look, it looks like your sight could be a convenient cross referencing point for information about Amtrak trains. Since I am pretty knowledgeable about Amtrak, this information was not really new to me. However, you did a nice job creating a sight to manage the information that you have.
 
Neat site, but I too found a mistake just now. You have the Illini listed as having Superliner Coaches, Lounge, dining, and sleeping cars. This train does not have any of that, it is a simple Midwest train with Horizon and Amfleet equipment offering Coach, Cafe, and business class service.

It is possible, as with all Chicago Hub trains in the winter, to have this train equiped with Superliner Coaches and lounges because the Horizon cars are very prone to freeze ups and Superliners must be substituted.

Another mistake, the Ann Rutledge is listed as having dining car service, it only has the regular run of the mill cafe service.

Also, the Kentucky Cardinal is no more. There still is daily train service between Indy and Chicago via the Hoosier State and the Cardinal. The Hoosier State's numbers are 317 Westbound and 318 Eastbound. No Food service on this train execpt for the days it runs with the Cardinal.
 
Thanks for all your help. I will make corrections shortly. I have a dialup connection and the site downloads in about 15-30 seconds. Will others with dialup let me know the download time. I do not plan a server database since I do this for fun and that would cost me money.
 
I have dialup (we dont have cable here in boony land of Berkshire County) and your site loads up very quickly for an extensive site, at least it did on mine.
 
I checked loading time from my dial up and it loaded within 20 seconds. One thing I did notice (very, very, very minor) is for all the Capitol Corridor trains you have the station order reversed. Odd numbered trains head south (or RR West for the hardcore) from Sacramento/Auburn to the Bay Area Oakland/San Jose. All you would need to do it change the word odd to even and even to odd on the link and it's good. Other than that it's very nicely done.
 
Another good site to bookmark. Thanks.

A couple of minor points - on the Carolinian (trains 79 and 80) there is no dining car. Also, the stop in Salisbury is in North Carolina, not Maryland. Ditto the Piedmont.

Also, under the station listings, the Carolinian and Piedmont stop in Salisbury NC.
 
Thanks for your help. It seems that Californa routes have the odd and even reversed from the rest of the country. Strange! Continue to send me corrections.
 
denmarks said:
Thanks for your help. It seems that Californa routes have the odd and even reversed from the rest of the country. Strange!
Click to expand...
Well I think that is owed to an old SP (?) tradition that had the numbering backwards.
 
I checked out your website and thought it was very interesting and informative.

I have dial-up and as a matter of fact I connect at 26.4 most of the time(very primitive) and I had no problems opening your site, it was very quick.

One thing you might want to add to the Coast starlight details is 1st class passengers get the Pacific Parlour Car. That's pretty exclusive and somebody looking at your website might want to know that.

Diane
 
I just received my new Amtrak schedule and have decided not to revise my Amtrak web page. It's too bad that the entire Amtrak schedule is not available as a single file. Then I would be able to reformat it for my use. As it is now I don't want to spend a couple of weeks revising the tables. The first time was a challenge getting it to work. Now it would just be work.

If anyone has any ideas of other data that I could display without major changes twice a year please let me know.

I will leave the old page there.

:(
 
Don't forget to include the new Oregon City, Oregon, Amtrak station that opened a couple of weeks ago. It is the newest Amtrak station in the country. It is served by the Cascades trains (not the Coast Staright)--two morning trains northbound; two afternoon/evening trains southbound. It's a nice station.

I know you list the Pioneer as being discontinued, however, I do have photos of the station stops at Pendleton, La Grande (OR), and Laramie (WY) that may be of interest to you. Although the train is gone, it is not forgotten. You may want to have station listings for that train as a memorial to that train (as well as the others that are no longer around). Actually, the photos are of the station platforms (and trains) rather than the buildings themselves, but they might be of interest. Pioneer Stops
 
Wow, great site! Very informative for someone who even iknows quite a bit about Amtrak. Amtrak itself should direct passengers to a database like yours since it makes planning a trip easy since you can cross reference trains and sites.

A few other minor corrections:

Capitol Corridor trains are all Unreserved coach. Reservations are not allowed.

Check your Palm Springs stations. PSP (Palm Springs downtown) is the bus stop only for the San Joaquin train thruway connections, while PSN (Palm Springs North) is the rail station for the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle. Also, 21/22 do not operate west of San Antonio. The site shows them operating through all the stations from San Antonio to Los Angeles, while 421 and 422 are the only trains that do this.

I agree that it would be neat to see all the stops listed for the discontinued routes. I really don't remember them all that well.
 
Thank you for the last couple of corrections. Due to the overwhelming amount of work required to update the entire database myself, I will continue to take and make updates and corrections from any replies that I receive.
 
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