[aprssig] UP 3985 Steam Train tracker question

[rcluster at rgisp.com]

OK, this is for all you fellow railfans out there (you know who you are.....)

The UP is running its Challenger Steam locomotive on a tour of the western
states. It's currently on display in Ogden, UT bound for Portola,
Roseville, Dunsmuir, Klamath Falls, Eugene, Portland, LaGrande, Boise and
Council Bluffs.

The cool thing is the UP has installed a tracker on the train. You can get
it's updated position on their website:

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

Now for the APRS part of this message......

I can find the Lat/Long numbers on the website if I get "Properties" for
the map. Looks like this (all on one line):

/opt_wms/MapImage.jas?cLat=41.221771240234375&cLon=-111.97998809814453&extLon=25&extLat=25&imgW=560&imgH=420&rtMinExt=1.0&dbPool=upPool&units=UP3985

Any of you have the programming skills to write something that will
automatically extract this info every couple of minutes and create an APRS
object that could be placed into the APRS-IS system? It could then be
gated to RF by a few iGate operators which would put the current train
location on the maps of mobile APRS users.

Yep, I admit this a selfish request. I'll be out photographing this train
as it makes it's way through Oregon and I would LOVE to have it's (fairly)
current position displayed on my UI-View/Precision Mapping laptop in the
van.

Alternatively, somebody could volunteer to manually create positions for
the train. There's one right now that I did, take a look at downtown
Ogden, UT.

Any takers?

Anybody else planning on chasing the train in Oregon? (Offlist reply is
fine to rcluster AT rgisp.com)

73.....Ron.....AC7TK.....(-9 when mobile)
UI-View32 iGate in Eugene, OR