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Roanoke rail cam

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RME
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    March 2016
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Posted by RME on Thursday, April 28, 2016 11:08 AM

Does anyone know the recent 'technical history' of this service?  When I checked it a few days ago, the video stream was either in a proprietary viewer or streamed using a different source - the slider bar at the bottom was very different from what YouTube provides, it buffered about 5 hours instead of 4, it did not seem to have the YouTube time and thumbnail displays, and it scrolled the visible image directly as the slider was moved.

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Posted by cessna 310 on Thursday, April 28, 2016 10:58 AM

Thanks for the enlightment. I now have it saved to my favorites.

OORAH, Semper Vaporo.

Cessna 310

RME
  • Member since
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Posted by RME on Thursday, April 28, 2016 10:02 AM

D.Carleton
On your computer go to YouTube.com and search for "RoanokeRailCam" and that should lead you to the feed.

The link to the black menu bar on the Trains site goes to the right place.  To recap what Semper Vaporo said with a bit more detail:  You can either click directly on the (paused} picture, and then the red arrow button to start the video, or click on the red hotlink "Visit the Roanoke VA Web cam" a couple of lines down (or if you are lazy just click http://www.roanokerailcam.com/ ...)  No stick or hardware of any kind is required if you have adequate Internet and device bandwidth, and a compatible browser or client, for YouTube streaming video.

The 'streaming' is accessed by mousing over the bottom of the image.  A red 'bar' will appear which you can manipulate to see the last four hours of the stream - drag the right hand end of the red line to scrub quickly, or click at any point (a negative time number will appear showing you how much earlier it was) to go directly there.  (You may have to wait a few seconds while YouTube gets the stream set up to send you.  But note the little thumbnail that shows you what's in the video at that point - you can easily spot the trains moving and 'zero in' on what matters to you even if your eyes aren't that sharp, as mine aren't...)

The one drawback of this arrangement is that you can't forum-post a time of day that you observed something, and have someone reading that post be able to go straight there by matching the time in the bar - they have to look at an accurate clock and calculate the offset.  I'm not complaining.

Can we pretty, pretty please get this arrangement set up for the cam at Rochelle???

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Posted by D.Carleton on Thursday, April 28, 2016 9:06 AM

cessna 310

Thanks for the information but I do not have a Roku stick. I watched the web cam through an IP address on my computer.

Cessna310

On your computer go to YouTube.com and search for "RoanokeRailCam" and that should lead you to the feed. You can also go to the Roanoke Rail Cam webpage and that will lead you to the same place. The only advantage of Roku is being able to watch the action on a larger screen. Right now, EB stacks heading to tidewater behind five motors.

Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak

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Posted by cessna 310 on Thursday, April 28, 2016 8:57 AM

Thanks for the information but I do not have a Roku stick. I watched the web cam through an IP address on my computer.

Cessna310

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, April 28, 2016 8:56 AM

The direct link is no longer viable.  It is now supplied as a live feed from YouTube.

In the BLACK bar at the  top of this page, hover the mouse over the "PHOTOS & VIDEOS" link and then click on the "Roanoke VA" link.  Then, on the page that displays, click on the "Visit the Roanoke, VA Web cam" link about the middle of the page.  THEN, click on the 'Play' icon in the middle of the video window.

You can save that page as a Favorites link in your browser to not have to do all that clicking.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by D.Carleton on Thursday, April 28, 2016 8:44 AM

I'm watching it right now, WB mixed freight behind four motors. It is now a YouTube channel, great if you have Roku.

Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak

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Roanoke rail cam
Posted by cessna 310 on Thursday, April 28, 2016 7:51 AM

Does anyone know what has happened to the Rail Cam at the Roanoke Hotel in Virginia? It has been off line for over a month now. Any information would be greatly appreaciated. Norflok Southern fan,

 

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