That signal on the left right now...is that red? it doesn't seem red to me. It seems that another train will come down that far left track from the bottom of the screen, then pause at the signal bridge, if I read this correctly. Am I right?
EDIT-I was right, though I saw the other signal a bit later...the coal train came through at a somewhat slow speed.
2nd EDIT-The constant signals continue to indicate movements on the way, and sure enough, they're happening. Although it's dark, this is clearly not the time to close out of the action yet.
Most of those trains last night were coal trains...they must run them heavy at night. NS generally runs heavy at night anyhow, but that might just as well be prime coal time.
Well, in only an hour of being here, i already got some great shots today, including more pics of the red 55555 caboose (and is that a lowercase "L" at the end?), along with a large mixed freight running 10 locos, including a switcher and 2 UP locos!
Saw a really interesting car pass through in the middle of a mixed freight this morning. It was read and almost looked like a flat car but it was super long and then on the end it had a cab that looked very similar to a Jordan spreader. Any ideas what it might have been.
I simply love this cam.....sit at my desk having coffee watching the trains and people walking to work in the morning. Last week I had the occasion to sneak up to Roanoke for a few days. Spent better part of the day within view of the webcam and from the foot bridge seen in the distance is a great place to watch and shoot. The weather didnt cooperate with staying another 2 days so another trip up there soon is in the cards. On nasty weekends I have a PC hooked to my TV and kick back....fire up the Roanoke cam and the scanner feed from railroadradio.net and armchair railfan :)
A few Roanoke and VMT pics:
http://s1085.photobucket.com/albums/j425/WNC_Railfan/Roanoke%20Virginia%2003082011/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ32
Seems like more traffic than usual this evening . I haven`t been able to watch for a few days . Computer problems that i finally got fixed . RON
CNW, that sounds like a piece of MOW equipment, more commonly seen on MOW trains, but not always.
Nice pics, WNC! I did grab a snapshot of a Conrail loco on the cam today.
Slow morning . Seems like most of the action is at night lately . I saw a lot of trains late last night . RON
I had a split screen thing going on this morning with Curling in one window and the hotel cam in the other. Saw only three coal trains.
I did notice a new long term parker in the lot. A white car that has been there for most of the past week now. I have been dealing with some browser issues this past week so I have been using the web cam as a test, and that car has been there for some time now. Things on the Roanoke end seem to be working well lately.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
I was only a moment too late to grab a screenshot of that person in the silver van waving to the camera. That would've made a nice shot. I wonder if he's reading this and will do it again?
I didn't see the silver van or person, but I have seen others wave at times; never captured an image of them except that one I posted earlier in this thread from the VMT cam of the fellows with the poster of the three locomotives.
Too often I have seen what I think is someone waving, but they are not far enough from the camera to have much more than the top of their head and one waiving hand visible at the bottom of the image. I have seen that on both the VMT and Hotel cameras.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Turned it on this morning and immediately caught a long train of autoracks . Weather is supposed to worsen as the day progresses . RON
.....Just checked it out and enjoy watching those trees across the tracks get their new green leaves....Spring...!!
The ones at the near sidwalk seem to have some pink colors coming out. Those across the tracks seemed to come out all at once....about 4 days ago was the first i noticed them.
Quentin
Snow at Roanoke. it really shows up on the VMT cam. It appears to be off and on showers.
I guess my comment tanked the performance of the VMT cam, heh. Snow's done anyhow. Still good variety, including a Conrail loco and red caboose. Guys, looking at the VMT cam, a number of radio towers of some sort may be visible in a few locations, though it varies whether they can be seen or not. What info does anyone have regarding those towers?
Also, in comparing the 2 video links below, which picture is actually the better one? Teh second link appears a bit smaller, but sharper. Is the second one the actual resolution? Does that mean the first is enlarged a slight bit? Links below:
http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCMovhttp://www.vidiwave.com/popup/feed.html
This is , without a doubt , the slowest forum on the internet . RON
....That parking lot appears to be filling up more recently...Wonder if that means local employment is increasing.
Looks like a bit of rain has visited Roanoke overnight.
Last night, the distant tower lighting was very visible. First for some time that I've seen them that clear.
How long has that white car been sitting there ? Didn`t this happen once before with a minivan ? RON
You mean the 4th vehicle closest to the cam? Perhaps. Though as it is facing inward, I doubt it's being hidden from any repo men. Who knows what its story is...well, besides the owner.
EDIT-Who was the guy who had some kind of program that can clock speeds? Would admin rights be needed for it? How simple is it to run? Perhaps I may take it for a test drive. I also notice those utility carts that go by can do a good bit of speed. Interesting that not only is there plenty of variety in the trains, but the traffic has about as much variety!
I am still wondering if anyone has compared the 2 links for video feeds, and what people think about them (which is better). Also, I'm still wondering if anyone knows how to prevent the black bars from appearing in WMP, as they are really annoying.
Hi, I'm the guy that wrote the speed program. I am still playing with it, (and "playing" is the operative word!) but you are welcome to the latest incarnation of it.
I have sent you a "Conversation" (or Private Message) via this site with instructions on how to get a copy of the program... I decided not to post it all here as I am not sure of the rules about doing so. The program is FREE and I only guarantee that it works for ME... and I assume it should work for you too.
You should get a notification of the message somehow or look to the right side for the word "Conversations" and click on it.
As for the difference in the various feeds.
I am not sure of which is the "rawest" form of the video nor which is the "native" resolution. One version is slightly larger than the other but since I forgot to copy the links before I started this reply I don't remember which is which and I am too lazy to go open a new window to read them.
As to which is "better" that is very subjective. Both are derived from a JPG encoding, so neither of them has zero loss in clarity, but one (the larger) has more pixels than the other, but that doesn't mean it has any more clarity!
The black bars you mention I assume are the ones that come when you have the mouse over the window and show the controls for a while, and then dissappear when the mouse has been still for about 1 second (and not over the controls). The only way to get rid of them is to configure WMV to shrink the image to fit between the bar which will reduce the clarity of the image. It also depends on which version of WMV and Winders itself and your video display card and how they are configured.
They can be annoying, but allow a larger image in the window since they do not permanently take up real-estate in the window when not being actively used.
Right now, what's going on on the camera!? What's with the workers and the flashing lights!?
EDIT-I read Semper's post. Thanks for all the good info! I'll try out that program in a little bit and get back to you on it.
I think those are not RR workers. They keep wandering out in the street intersection of Shennandoah and N. Jefferson, blocking traffic andt then wandering back to the trucks. Looked for a minute there that they were trying to open some sort of (small) hatch in the street, like maybe a water dept valve in the street.
It is a bit disparaging to say this but they were walking too fast to be RR MOW or City Streets dept workers.
Ooops. while typing this they all left the scene.
Yeah. At first, they were wandering all over the tracks, and then, just about everywhere. As the left, the drove down to teh close end of teh camera. I never knew the RR to use flashing lights just parked there, so I agree with yoru assessment (and nice joke, BTW). Plus, the trucks both lacked railgear. Update: They are now on teh opposite side of teh street, across teh tracks.
Just now, another red caboose came by on the train being pulled by the Conrail loco. That caboose was not the 55555I one, but another NS one with a different number, and some altered paint on its roof. I could not make out its number, but I got the livecam screenshot of it.
Here comes the rain!
I'll never tire of the variety of this cam. I hope it lasts a long time!
ADDITION-a UP loco just came by, with the UP crossed out on the side. Underneath it, it said, "We will deliver".
I think there are a couple of U.P. engines in the area with the name crossed out. ("Union Pacific"). U.P. had (or still has) the motto, "We will deliver" and it appears on most engines.
I wonder why they crossed out the name. BTW, a couple firetrucks went by a little bit ago. They approached from the far side and turned at the stop sign. I was too late to check the VMT cam to see which road they took after that.
kolechovskiI wonder why they crossed out the name.
That's the quick and dirty method for saying "we don't own it any more."
Later on, someone will probably actually paint over the name, or else repaint the entire locomotive.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
I kinda figured, though I am a bit surprised that UP is shedding some of its loco fleet. BTW, is anyone else noticing just how sucky the focus is on the VMT cam? I know it usually ain't spectacular anyhow, but it clearly got much worse! It seems to change at times...another camera that preferably should be locked into a close-up focus. Both cams have changing focus. Perhaps someone can shoot off an email recommendation to the VMT about this.
kolechovski I kinda figured, though I am a bit surprised that UP is shedding some of its loco fleet. BTW, is anyone else noticing just how sucky the focus is on the VMT cam? I know it usually ain't spectacular anyhow, but it clearly got much worse! It seems to change at times...another camera that preferably should be locked into a close-up focus. Both cams have changing focus. Perhaps someone can shoot off an email recommendation to the VMT about this.
Uh, no, you want it locked into distant focus (infinity). The closest thing you would want in-focus on the VMT cam is at least 20 ft. away... close focus would is like 3 to 5 ft. which is where it tends to be focused now.
I have a video surveillance system at my house (cheap homebrew system!) and one camera of the different brands/models I have has a feature where it attempts to auto-focus (too frequently!). I can turn that feature off and set the focus where I want it, so I set it to infinity. Unfortunately, I have to reboot the PC sometimes and sometimes (not always) something resets my selection and I have to do it again.
As for contacting the Museum... Please, don't let us stop you. The more that do so, the more apt they are to pay attention to the request. I am sure they'd appreciate the feedback as to how well it works and what would improve it.
I'll see when I can get around to contacting them. For now, I notice on the VMT cam a single antenna in the opening on the left, and 3 structures (perhaps antennas) in the opening on the right. Any idea what these are linked to? I also see that the live feed cam in indeed outside, as the wind is shaking it around a good bit today. i also notice more people looking up around the (live) camera, as if they know it's around there somewhere, but don't know its exact location. Could the locals be getting aware of its gaining popularity?
This forum is hardly worth the effort anymore . It took me almost 15 minutes to post this . Very disappointing . RON
kolechovski I'll see when I can get around to contacting them. For now, I notice on the VMT cam a single antenna in the opening on the left, and 3 structures (perhaps antennas) in the opening on the right. Any idea what these are linked to? I also see that the live feed cam in indeed outside, as the wind is shaking it around a good bit today. i also notice more people looking up around the (live) camera, as if they know it's around there somewhere, but don't know its exact location. Could the locals be getting aware of its gaining popularity?
I have been using Google Earth to look for the antennas you mention. I can't find the antenna visible in the distance between the two buildings on the left in the VMT cam scene, nor the thinner one on the right. Just not enough resolution in the StreetView photos to make out the towers to get a feel for how far away they are.
But the two white, thicker structures on the right are some sort of smokestack associated with the Norfolk Southern Shops just east of where Interstate 581 crosses the tracks that are the principle purpose of the two webcams.
At night in the scene of the VMT cam you can see a blue neon-like sign very near these two thicker structures and that is the NS sign on the building associated with the structures. I assume the building is a power house for the shops.
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