Frustration with USGS Seamless Server

[flatlander]

I've spent the last hour trying to get the topology information for the last 70 miles of a route I'm modeling from the USGS Seamless Server. A week or two ago I was able to click-click-click on anything I want and it worked and downloaded immediately.

Today 9 times out of 10 when I use the Downloads/Define download area, I get a box that says "There are no available products in the area that you indicated" I want 1" NED, but have tried 1/3 and 1/9 selecting everything from a mile square to 100 miles square and still get "There are no available products in the area that you indicated".

Am I doing something wrong or is the server overloaded? It would make my evening a whole lot better if I could figure this out.

-- Jim

 

[backyard]

Sometimes this happens...

If the mask(box) you made was red, you requested too much data.

If the mask was green & you didn't get a download, the server may be in repair.

The USGS server is updated every three months on the average. "No data for the area you requested" is the typical response.

 

[flatlander]

Thanks, so I guess it's in repair. Last weekend I believe was when I got the 'the server's down' message, so maybe its ongoing updates.

The route's for no one but me, so I'm in no large hurry. Maybe I'll keep trying every hour and see what happens. Getting the Web Mapping maps is no problem.

-Jim

 

[rwk]

It's still down. I need a DEM map from south of Martinsburg, WV to just north of Roanoke, VA to join two DEM maps together that I downloaded, Hagerstown MD to Martinsburg WV and Roanoke to Lynchburg of mostly the Norfolk Southern lines. Can someone help me? Are there any other sites you can get DEM data from and TIGER lines? I'm gonna build a huge route of Norfolk Southern lines and do steam excursions on it with the 4501. They are going to do steam excursions again across their system for real. Next year, steam locomotive #630 will operate 1,800 miles on Norfolk Southern. Is there anyone here that can do a map for me because fishlipsatwork (Paul) doesn't do them any more. I was using TranzDEM with maps generated from the Seamless Server, but the Seamless Server doesn't work and I have an older version of TranzDEM and it won't download topo maps from terraserver anymore, I need the newer version of TranzDEM. I also need a map from north of Hagerstown approx. the PA state line to Shippensburg/Carlisle, PA. I actually prefer the TIGER lines because the topo maps are so hard to see in Trainz because they turn out bright white, like snow. I also want maps from Roanoke south to Chattanooga, TN and from Chattanooga toward Atlanta GA, Birmingham AL, Oneida TN, and Summerville GA following Norfolk Southern lines except to Summerville GA which is a shortline.

 

[Vern]

If the Seamless Server is down, you can go to the other part of Public Data Distribution and download the pre-packaged hgt files. Some of the V2.1 stuff is approaching the quality and resolution of the seamless stuff.

 

[rwk]

I found a page on the site that works. USGS TNM 2.0 Viewer. I downloaded a couple counties with road/rail files for lines on the terrain. I'm going to try this to see if it works. I downloaded three counties in northern Ohio from Cleveland to Canton to model an excursion line that is running NKP 765 this month.

 

[JCitron]

I found a page on the site that works. USGS TNM 2.0 Viewer. I downloaded a couple counties with road/rail files for lines on the terrain. I'm going to try this to see if it works. I downloaded three counties in northern Ohio from Cleveland to Canton to model an excursion line that is running NKP 765 this month.

I'll have to give this a try too. It was driving me crazy yesterday. I've been trying to get some areas around near me for inclusion in my route I'm working on.

I wonder if it's all the Trainz route builders clogging the bandwidth just like we do to the DLS. Hmm... does this mean the US Government needs an FCT server to support us.

John

 

[rwk]

Yes, it worked, the files are sent via email and now I have some DEM to work with in TranzDEM. Next is trying to get roads and rails on the map, I did find route data on the same site but it all comes out the same color, I want the roads red and the rails light blue, like the DEM maps with TIGER lines. How do I do this? I just want a simple way of putting map data on the ground, so that I can lay rails and roads. Topo maps are hard to see because they come out bright white, like snow. Some places it's almost impossible to follow a rail line if it's too light or something. So for this route, I decided against topo maps since the topo map server for WMS isn't working for me anyways, so I'm going to use the basic vector data for roads and rails.

 

[rwk]

Ok, I am mad!! The National Map Viewer isn't working! I try to go to it and get the "service unavailable" page.

 

[aardvark1]

Comment removed by me.

 

[Vern]

Just to reiterate the point I made. You can get DEM in hgt format from the other section of the NASA site. It does involves a modest bit of brainwork to establish which files you need, but I downloaded a file for a route I'm working on (think it was N44W75) and the resolution was 20m - more than adequate for building a Trainz route.

If you're using Transdem then several options are available to make an overlay from existing map servers or alternatively go to a site such as Libre Maps and download the sheets you need. These can be georeferenced and used as the overlay on your terrain.

 

[JCitron]

The server is back up, but very busy so we can't download. There is now an error message regarding this issue. At least we've made progress.

Thanks Vern for your link. This site is useful as well for some older topomaps, which have been chopped up into little bits over at places such as MapTech and other map-sites out there on the web.

John

 

[backyard]

Crosstown Traffic...

Sometimes the Seamless Server get's overloaded....