How To Create A Route In Garmin Basecamp

How to Load a KMZ Track onto your Garmin GPS Device Using Garmin BaseCamp

These instructions are for Ghost Railroad hunters. Ever look for a ghost railroad while driving the backroads of Indiana and lose track where the grade went? This is the reason I created "Butch's Indiana Railroad Maps" site. It's much easier to track the route of a ghost railroad from Google Earth than tracking it from a car. After I created the ghost railroad routes on GE, I had to find a means of transferring routes from the GE kmz files to my Garmin nuvi 2595. This proved to be easy using Garmin's free software – BaseCamp . Regretfully, I cannot get BaseCamp to run on Linux, but it runs great on Windows. Here's how to do it..

Go to Butch's Indiana Railroad Maps and download the desired kmz file. IMPORTANT – the tracks of the kmz file must run in one direction. Many kmz files on the net do not meet this criteria, so be careful when downloading from another site.
Connect your Garmin to your PC, wait for your PC to recognize your Garmin, and open BaseCamp. The initial window will appear similar as shown below:

Import the downloaded kmz file into "My Collection" by:

Click on "My Collection"
Select File/'Import into my collection' from the top menu and select the downloaded kmz file. In this example, I am selecting " CSX – Monon – Bedford to Bloomfield(1).kmz " from my Downloads folder.

The window will appear similar to the image below – a bunch of waypoints and a track. Now, use BaseCamp to create the route that your Garmin can recognize.

Right Click on the track shown on the map
Select "Create Route from Selected Track" as shown below

Almost done. BaseCamp will create a highlighted route (as shown below). Transfer this route to your Garmin:

Right Click on the new route BaseCamp created and select "Send To". In this example, my Garmin nuvi 2595 is shown under the "Devices" folder, so I select it and click OK.
The route is now stored on the Garmin. I've owned 3 Garmins and every one of them has been different. I display the route on my nuvi 2595 by selecting Apps/Trip Planner and selecting the desired route.
Personally, I usually wait until I'm close to the ghost railroad I am going to follow before turning on the trip planner.
If you're poor like me, your Garmin may have limited memory. I usually remove the route from my Garmin's "Trip Planner" after the excursion.