As you can see, I haven't blogged in a while. But as you can also see, the website has been booming!

What with all the work needed on the website, I have been devoting all of my "website time" to that (ie, adding/updating articles, adding maps, etc). Which means I haven't had time to do other ancillary things, like update the blog. But I hope that will change in the future, because I would like to at least keep track of goings-on with the website from a technical standpoint, some of which the users see (like Maps), and other things that the user doesn't see (like database structure changes).

It's been over a year since my last post, so what all "technical improvements" have been added? A lot! The biggest enhancement, I think, are the maps. Using the Google Maps API, I am able to show the particular routing of the abandoned ROWs on this site. Not only that, but if the route includes any pictures, I can "locate" those pictures on the map, allowing for a more seamless experience.

I generate the maps using a number of mapping sites. The first stop are the USGS topographical maps, which show most of the railroad lines in America, whether abandoned or not. In addition, they show sidings, spurs, branchlines, etc. which may not otherwise show up in a standard map site (like Google Maps). Moreover, I have found the topo maps to be more accurate as far as specific routing of railroads; thus is you see any discrepancies between the routing presented on this site and the same routing on the underlying Google Map, my routing is typically the more accurate one. When topo maps are not available, or if they don't show the line in question, I then turn to satellite imagery to see if I can locate the route. If all else fails, then I just use the routing of the right-of-way on Google Maps.

I'm not the only one working on maps, though. So far, three other people have stepped forward and offered their own maps to be presented on my site, so a big thanks to them for helping me out!

As far as other technical improvements, I have a long list of stuff I would like to implement on the site. And when a particular feature is released, I hope to write about it here. So check back soon to see what's in the works at Abandoned Rails!