The UP does it again, you can now follow 844's tour on Twitter. This is a very cool way to use today's technology and culture to gain the interest of new fans.

http://twitter.com/UP_Steam

I'm not necessarily a fan of Twitter, but apparently a certain steam locomotive that I work on became a member a few months ago: http://twitter.com/nickelplate765

And whattya know, here's a familiar name too: http://twitter.com/sp4449

John Craft did a little write up on the fusing of Web 2.0 tech and steam:
http://steamcentral.com/2009/04/13/up-s ... es-web-20/

KL

What would be better is to integrate this into a sit with some maps. Forget twitter.

Have a GPS on the locomotive, or one of the cars, constantly updating with the location every few seconds. Connection to the net would be via the cellular network.

I have also always thought it would be neat to have a webcam onboard (maybe one in the cab, one facing forward on the running board or something, etc...), feeding live video to the website via 3g cellular networks, and also a feed into something like the gift shop car or something. I have been shot down with the idea in the past, so kinda forgot about it, but still think it would be really neat to do.

Seems like they have both. Not sure if it is GPS fed or not.

http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/excurs/trace.cfm

Regards,
Chris

The thing that makes twitter better than the current map that UP uses is that twitter can be sent to your cell phone. Now you can be anywhere and be updated on 844's movement.

Your moderator was among the hoards chasing 844 today... well, not so much chasing... instead I parked near Hearst on the former WP, where the Niles Canyon Railway connects to the UP. The two museum groups on site, the Golden Gate Railroad Museum (SP Pacific 2472 ) and the Pacific Locomotive Association (Robert Dollar tank prairie No 3) each fired up a loco and met the UP train. The site was along a 2 lane county road and a Freeway... A nice mix of public and foamers with lots of polite police presence made for a festival atmosphere. The photo lines didn't hold up well, but such is life. An ACE commuter train made an appearance as well. They went to quite an effort to line up the three hot steamers then allow the public on the tracks for photos.

I had the UP trace site on my phone but found it overloaded and useless... As it was earlier at work on a T-1, but at least they tried. I didn't try the twitter site.

Apparently the spectacle had an effect on the traffic as people pulled off onto the shoulder of the nearby freeway to take photos.