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ROANOKE RAIL CAM

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  • Member since
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  • From: morganton north carolina
  • 515 posts
Posted by j610 on Saturday, June 12, 2010 12:11 PM

Seems like a lot more traffic than usual today . Its nice to have the cam back,but who knows for how long .    RON

J610
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  • From: Muncie, Indiana...Orig. from Pennsylvania
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Posted by Modelcar on Saturday, June 12, 2010 9:27 PM

Rail cam still up and running and at this late evening hour, still in color.

Congratulation to those making it possible.

Quentin

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Posted by j610 on Sunday, June 13, 2010 5:19 AM

 Try going to railroadradio.net and loading the roanoke radio and the railcam at the same time. Very interesting .     RON

J610
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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, June 13, 2010 11:41 AM

Now that sounds like a good idea....I just tried the cam and didn't get it so will try the radio later.  That should make it more interesting.

Quentin

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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, June 13, 2010 5:25 PM

Along with seeing a couple of trains in the last hour, just witnessed workers on elevated mobile platform, installing American flags on street light poles.  Must be for up coming 4th of July programs.....or just to have them flying for that holiday.

Listening to the railroad audio chatter in Roanoke too.....{Railroadradio}.

Quentin

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Posted by j610 on Sunday, June 13, 2010 6:56 PM

 Big surprise, its down again.   RON

J610
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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, June 13, 2010 7:17 PM

Yes, at 8:20....I just found that out. 

Quentin

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Posted by j610 on Sunday, June 13, 2010 9:32 PM

Why do we even bother with this. It doesn`t say much for us.    RON

J610
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  • From: Cordes Jct Ariz.
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Posted by switch7frg on Sunday, June 13, 2010 9:42 PM

Laugh  WOW! 7:30 pm mst . Flags in place , lights shining on them. 1 -18wheeler turning leftoff the boluvard then a fuel tanker toodling up the  street . ~~~ A good thing there is " slosh baffles" in the tank when the truck lurches forward. Has any body seen the spider friend lately??

             Now trying to get R.R. Radio.   Jim

Y6bs evergreen in my mind

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Posted by j610 on Monday, June 14, 2010 12:02 AM

Saw the spider yesterday.   RON

J610
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Posted by Heiter on Monday, June 14, 2010 4:12 AM

 

Hi Ron,

How are you keeping??

That spider sure has been busy!!    Perhaps soon they'll call it an Arachno-Cam.. Laugh     Surely the camera is accessible for maintenance..??

Cheers,

Heiter.

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Posted by j610 on Monday, June 14, 2010 7:39 AM

 Good point. Surely they would not have mounted the camera in a position where it wasn`t accessible for maintainence . I think it they probably thought it was a good idea at first , but then found out it was more trouble than they were willing to deal with . Our loss.   RON

J610
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Posted by Great Western on Monday, June 14, 2010 8:20 AM

 The spider was around briefly early this morning (6am EDT) but didnt stay long. Some long trains passed through including one with three boxcars lettered MD&W which were colored green and I take to be of the Minnesota, Dakota and Western RR.

I noticed two flags near the overbridge.  I wondered what event they signified: I found out later that it is Flag Day today in the States. 

Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad

https://www.buckfast.org.uk/

If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, June 14, 2010 9:22 AM

......Sorry, in my earlier post of the installation of flags....I missed "it's Flag Day"...!

Quentin

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, June 14, 2010 9:29 AM

......A nice morning in Roanoke with Old Glory {several visible}, flying in the breeze.  No trains at this check in...

Quentin

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Posted by j610 on Monday, June 14, 2010 11:08 AM

Not many trains, but a lot of activity on the radio.      RON

J610
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, June 14, 2010 11:17 AM

Saw a baby blue "Schnabell" (sp?) type car go by with matching caboose.  Car was empty, but looked like it might be for transporting large transformers.

Too bad we can't issue traffic tickets to the automobiles that blow through that 3-way stop on the right!  I'd be rich!

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by j610 on Monday, June 14, 2010 11:26 AM

Maybe we could make enough to maintain the camera. LOL    RON

J610
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, June 14, 2010 8:37 PM

Switched from color to B&W at about 8:36 PM CDT (I assume 9:36 PM EDT - Roanoke time?).

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, June 14, 2010 8:44 PM

It was in color later last evening.  I just clicked on it a few min. ago to catch the flags under the street lights.  I must have caught it right before it went to B/W.

Quentin

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Posted by j610 on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 7:48 AM

Flags are down . Back to abnormal .lots of radio traffic this morning .    RON

J610
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Posted by Modelcar on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 10:19 AM

Inspection crew....?  At the switch in the left side of cam pic at 11:17 this morning.  3 NS trucks setting in that parking area near that part of the railroad.

Quentin

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Posted by squeeze on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:52 PM

 

I used to view the cam in Firefox. I just tried latest edition of IE. Boy what a difference. Anyone else notice the difference or is it my computer? Seems as though I get a wide screen on IE and just a small view in Firefox. The controls are different also. Makes a major difference in viewing. Firefox gives me a view of the closest signal bridge at the edge of the picture, and IE gets me about triple the view on width. Almost like it's a panoramic shot!

Jim

PS: Just tried full screen on both and they are the same. Must be why there is a difference in browsers as they differ in normal view.
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 3:12 PM

I haven't seen it with any other browser than IE-6 and it runs the Windows Media Player to do the display.  No controls other than STOP and then it is hard to get it started again... Have to close the window and restart from the link on the Trains.com Webcams page.

The image I get is wider than normal for most videos.  I can only measure it by running Paint and then trying to create a window of the same size and I get about 800x450 pixels.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by Great Western on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 3:26 PM

 Charles,

   I found that browsers seemed to automatically select Windows MP to view the Cam.  Not good Shock

I therefore just use a media player, in my case VLC, which gives pretty good, unbroken coverage when the Cam is operational.  This allows a browser to be used as well as viewing by using the split screen facility of Windows.

I saw the maintenance guys out there today.  They seemed to check all the switches: maybe there was an issue with train/track circuiting.

One thing that I thought unusual by European standards: none of the guys were wearing high visibility clothing of any type. I imagine that all trains were held either side of the Roanoke 'neck' area that we see on the cam but legislation over here demands workers be visible at all times whenever on, or near,  track.  Even on low speed Heritage lines it is required.

 

 

 

 

Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad

https://www.buckfast.org.uk/

If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)

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Posted by Heiter on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 4:34 PM

 

The maintenance people don't seem to be bothered about HSE or Hi-Vis as I've seen them walking up and down the tracks, on and off, for the past few months.    Most of the attention being given to the cross-over from left to right switches/points.

Heiter.

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Posted by j610 on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 10:41 PM

I have IE8 and get a full screen picture . I can`t get that in firefox .   RON 

J610
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Posted by Heiter on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 2:28 AM

 That's strange!    Try right-click and look for full-screen option or just try a double left-click on the screen image.    These options work on both browsers for me.

Heiter.

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Posted by Modelcar on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 11:59 AM

IE 7 brings a pic in the center of my screen, covering about 1/3 of it.

right click on the pic., and then click on zoom, and that brings a full screen on my 18" flat monitor.  A nice panoramic like view.

Quentin

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 6:40 PM

Just for those that might not know...

Using Windows Media Player, you can adjust the size of the viewed image a couple of ways, but it will never allow the displayed image to be bigger than the window it is being displayed in (parts of the image will not be lost beyond an edge). This also means you cannot "zoom-in" to view a small portion of the image.

The program has three defined sizes of 50%, 100% and 200% of the size it is transmitted as.  You can access these through the "Size" menu or by typing "Alt 1", "Alt 2", or "Alt 3" (respectively).

If the Media Player window is larger than the selected image size, a black border will appear around the image.

If the window is smaller than the selected size, the image will shrink to fit; i.e.: if you select 200% and the window is too small for that, it will not enlarge to 200%, it might be only 199% or maybe 101%... it might be even smaller, like only 32%, if the window is too small even to hold it at full (100%) size.

You can set the window size the same way as most any other Windows program. i.e.: Dragging the sizing borders or using the "Maximize" button (2nd from the right in the Title Bar.)

You can also type "Alt-Enter" to change the window to "Full Screen".  This mode removes the window border, the Title Bar and menus to allow more room for the displayed image.  You can also get this Full Screen mode from the "Size" menu.

Just remember that the viewed image can never be bigger than the window in which it is displayed.

The Roanoke Webcam appears to be 800 by 450, so if your screen is 640x480, you won't even see it at full size.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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