Now both cams are down! Arrgh! (claws eyes out). Without webcams, what do I need eyes for, anyhow? I read the Galesburg cam was down (never knew it existed), and now, both Roanoke cams are black. I'm surprised there isn't a message there saying "All your video are belong to us!"
Interesting how a backhoe is in the distance, and the live feed happens to be down. I think the workers broke it.
; )
Nice amount of train traffic this morning, BTW, and already some special locos, including a Soo.
Last night on the online Roanoke scanner I heard a engineer called in an emergency he had run over a broken rail on the west end of the yard.He said the second engine was stopped on the broken rail.Sadly off camera. The high rail trucks could be looking for more cracked rail.
Joe
Even if there's no flooding, they likely still have to hold off trains until high rail trucks can patrol the tracks, checking for downed trees or limbs.
The VMT cam has a wide variety of reactiveness. I've seen very short changes in its timing, going from a few seconds to over 30 seconds. Maybe it's bandwidth-related, sorta like what the live feed seems to be when it blacks out. I do notice the VMT cam usually updates well after dark. Other people's results may vary, perhaps depending on their individual speeds at accessing the web, computer abilities, and perhaps other factors. Maybe someone with great bandwidth speeds and a good computer can verify these findings on the VMT cam. Speaking of which, it has some funny blue hue to it now! WTF happened!?
According to the live feed, a work crew is out this morning. Some small movements made at normal speeds around them. Looks like a sunny day for good watching much of the day (though this means it's best to rely on the VMT at late day, as the sun will be shining into the live feed cam. I do notice, BTW, that the other link to the live feed seems a clearer picture. I guess the original feed that opens in a seperate media window slightly stretches the image? Can anyone verify if the latest link that has the live feed embedded in its own page is the real resolution? I might just use that from now on if so, as that would be the better picture.
High winds and storms in the area today . What kind of problems , if any , does that cause for a railroad ? RON
With the help of my son as beta tester and a great idea from my 4 year old grandson I have made a couple of enhancements to my Speedometer program.
It is up to version 3.4.34 already... (The tweaks and enhancements never seem to end).
Besides timing trains on the railcam I have used it on my laptop PC to time trains while out railfanning in person. And I have timed bicycles on a rail trail and cars on the street in front of my house.
If anybody wants a new copy, send me a message by clicking on my user ID ("Semper Vaporo") in the column to the left of this post and then click "Start a conversation" on the next page. I will send you a link the program file so you can dowload it. It should run in any Windows system from 95 to 7. It is free.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Quite a lot of traffic today . Thought i would give the museum cam another try . When i clicked on it, there were 4 engines in the middle of the frame . The picture updated and they were gone . It takes so long to update that you miss what you are watching . I am done with it until they change or upgrade the cam . RON
kolechovski Why is that covered hopper train still sitting there? The VMT cam verifies that it's still teh same number on the nearby car. Why are some of the trains left sitting there for very long times?
Why is that covered hopper train still sitting there? The VMT cam verifies that it's still teh same number on the nearby car. Why are some of the trains left sitting there for very long times?
I saw that train come in and stop, and then I had to go do some thing else for a while. Just as I went back to check, the train started to move. yes it was there a long time.
As for why trains sometimes seem to just sit... it could be that the train was split (just off the view of the VMT cam) and the front section was then put in the yard. Then they came back to get the 2nd section to do the same. Sometimes that can take a long time, depending on how busy the yard was when trying to put the 1st half to bed... May have to wait for a crossover to clear before going into the yard and then again with the light engines coming back out and yet again when ready to move the 2nd half. Each of those delays could be 5 to 10 minutes or even more, so the apparent park and sit from our view on the hotel railcam could be 15 to 30 minutes or more.
One thing I have noticed about the RR's is that there is an awful lot of WAIT involved.
Rather, I meant the VMT cam. It suddenly slowed its projections just as that train arrived in its view, a sure sign of people suddenly refreshing the VMT to get good views of the train as it passed. This is not uncommon with movements, but is especially common when witnessing oddities like this.
While mentioning oddities, quite a variety of locos used, including blue and white units going by, and, earlier, a BN unit that looks like what I saw up my way a few months ago.
On the VMT cam, I usually have it paused and rely on the live feed. When something interesting looks like it's about to reach the VMT, I then turn that one on. I will also rely on the VMT when the live feed goes down. These are methods I try to use for bandwidth reduction, and to help reduce competition for the images.
Addition-Has anyone found out if the railroadradio.net broadcasts alert you to approaching trains? If so, have you been tipped off by any oddities about to arrive by this means?
Hmmm.... yes, I saw the work train go east onto track 1 (north side, nearest the camera) and stop, then reverse an shove into the southern most tracks toward the west yard...
but your comment about "quite a few" raises a question. I know of 3 different ways to access the Hotel webcam, but I don't see any indication on any of those sites of how many people are access it... how do you know "quite a few"? What am I missing?
I see quite a few of you just got to enjoy watching that work train go through.
Signals shows another movement is about to come through on the middle track.
Speeds may be restricted more than usual because of the autorack incident . RON
Quentin,
There are several crossovers leading to the yard. Train speeds may be limited by how many of them a train has to pass through before entering/leaving the yard. I've seen coal empties and intermodals making good time in both directions while other trains appear to be restricted to a slower pace.
No scientific evidence and just a WAG. That's the best I can offer.
Norm
Again, now Thursday morning....Train speeds. Just turned over to the cam and witnessed a coal train moving west. Speed...I was surprised to what I thought.....was a bit fast to what we normally see there. My estimate would be 20 mph...Comparing to traffic on the street, etc.....It was moving right along.
Quentin
....Speaking of train speed thru the Roanoke area, I wonder just what the speed limit might be.
Believe here in Muncie the max speed for trains passing thru is 30 mph.
And just a thought on the cams....I agree with the poster on the size of the Rochelle unit is really not comparable to the hotel cam in Roanoke, but what would really would make that cam one of the best, would be adding sound capablity to it....Like the NL number one cam.
Of course, if the museum cam was streaming video, with it's closeness to the tracks, and rather good sharp pic., lights at night and then sound...that would be a first class situation too.
Yes, the Museum cam is slow to update and poorly focused, and it is often troublesome, cutting out at inopportune times, etc. I have missed screen-shots of those cabeese many times because it shuts down or stops updating for a long time just before one gets close enough to be a nice part of the image.
And sometimes when I try to access it, all I get is a continually refreshing screen where the logos at the bottom just blink and blink, and no cam image ever shows up.
But compare that to the minuscule Rochelle Railroad Park cam with its 1-inch tall by 3-inch wide display that updates only once per second and has no lighting after dark.
The Museum cam at least presents a large, good resolution image that is illuminated at night.
Still, I think I have been spoiled by the Hotel Railcam... I wish all of them were as good as it is! (If it could just be set to focus farther away, especially at night!)
That museum cam is a joke . RON
Wed 1:00 AM
Well the VMT cam froze up at 10:34PM and still is. A coal drag was entering the west yard and by now is most likely close to being delivered by now (sarcasm)
Rich
Those that desire, find a way..... Those that don't, find an excuse.
Strange that the best and worst railcams on the web are in roanoke . RON
As I mentioned in a long ago previous post in this thread, I have often wondered how fast the trains are actually moving. I know my guesses of speed are poor at best so I worked on a method of actually measuring the speed. I used Google Earth to determine the distances on the ground between certain landmarks and used my StopWatch program to time a train passing those landmarks and then used a calculator to figure the speed. But this process caused me to spend so much time fiddling with the stopwatch and calculator that I was not getting to watch the trains! That was no fun!
So, I wrote a program in Visual Basic to do most of the work for me. All I have to do is select a distance (from a menu or type one in) and then click a Start/Stop button when a train passes the landmarks and the program displays the speed. I can even change the distance after the fact to get the correct speed displayed for those times when getting the program setup would take too long and interfere with the watching fun.
I am finding that the most common speed is about 10 MPH. A few as fast at 15 and some down to 5 (and then there are those that slow to a stop and screw up the measurements). The maximum speed I have found so far is about 17 MPH but those trains tend to be slowing quickly and may even stop before they get all the way through the area.
I'm willing to give a copy of the program to anyone that wants it.
It is working fine again for me . My antivirus subscription expired and i missed the notice . Everything seems to be back to normal now . RON
Ron; at 915 MST a lot of activity on the cam. Both on the rail and the street. Whoever ordered the 20 gons of snow will be happy ,or they going to the melt zone. The cam is doing a good job today so far. I wonder where the 18 wheeler end dump trucks are going that turn at the hotel ? Also are those stop signs just a sugesstion ? An interesting rainey day in Roanoke.
Cannonball
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
j610 What`s up with train related sites lately ? RON
What`s up with train related sites lately ? RON
And not just train related sites. For the past two days I am having trouble with any streaming video on either computer on my network. I have tried reboots, tweaks, you name it.
I have had trouble here, on Youtube and on TSN (a Canadian Cable TV sports network).
Until I saw your post, I thought maybe it was only a Canadian ISP problem. Last week the Canadian government ruled unfavourably on planned new Internet Service Charges, and I though the affected companies were just being pouty. (Like a three year old)
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Had to use a different url to get to the hotel cam today . What`s up with train related sites lately ? RON
just for reference to this camera. had to make a trip to Hunington Wva and have found that NSs' coal trains here all have a NS leading and a CEFX unit trailing both loads and emptys. Very similar to Roanoke.
Did anybody see the CN trio on Friday evening..??
Colin
Scared me . I thought i had lost this site for good . I know i spend more time on here than i should , but there are worse things i could be doing . RON
I think just the forums was down because the rest of the site was running fine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.