Timed out from Firefox and IE-11
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Works for me in Windows Media Player.
Norm
Anybody able to access this cam lately. It has been a couple of weeks (I think) since I was last able to view it.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
A few weeks ago, near the east end of the scene, several pilings were driven into the ground along side the asphalt(?) public(?) parking area and the ballasted area of the tracks and a very short length of guard rail was installed on them separating the parking area and the tracks.
But I cannot figure out what it is guarding!
There is a switch heater at the east end of the guard rail, but it is in no wise protected by the guard rail.
They also installed concrete traffic barricades (the kind seen along long-term highway reconstruction) between the parking area and the new electronics shanty and there are presently two traffic cones with a yellow tape stretched between them, one cone at the end of the concrete barricades and the other at the guard rail about a quarter of the way from the west end; indicating that unauthorized vehicular traffic is forbidden beyond that point. I could guess that the guard rail is an attempt to keep people from going around the traffic cones by driving closer to the tracks, but I can't see that anyone intent on driving past that point would be put off by 2 traffic cones and some yellow tape, so the guard rail seems a bit of an overkill for that situation.
It could be a way to keep cars from getting near the tracks when backing out of the parking spaces, but I would expect a need to protect the switch heater, too, as well as the tracks to the east of the heater, but the guard rail is doesn’t extend that far east.
So, what's it for?
Thanks for the photo!
It explains the curved silvery pipe-like thing where the others are all still lined up.
As for their height, when there were all those "work" (and I use that term very loosely) men around the stash of the devices, the men were hidden behind the tops of the device when on the south side of them and one of them appeared to look UP at one of them when on the camera side of the group (I guess he could have been looking at the side the Wachovia building instead). When they installed the one under the bridge it appeared it was set in a hole, so that might make it a bit shorter.
In the closeup it looks like it may be a switch heater, but, heck, I've been known to be wrong before.
Them thingys are a lot taller than I had estimated... I have finally seen several men around the ten that are left, and now I estimate them to be closer to 7-ft tall (or all those guys were midgets).
I have to say I still don't understand the mentality of these workers. They spend 99% of their time "wandering" aimlessly in random directions or standing someplace with their arms folded for several minutes and then they will saunter off in a random direction, only to stop in mid stride to turn and go some other direction. And nobody seems to move with any intent or purpose to their motion, just a slow, lazy, summer-day stroll. I don't mean to be insulting, but, for gosh sake's fella's, get some gumption to at least look like you are earning your pay.
I look at the web cam two or three times each day. I was intrigued by the track alterations and was puzzled by the extra fifth line and then its disappearance. I understand that Amtrak will arrive in 2017 - looking forward to seeing a passenger train for a change - so I guessed the new alignments and longer switch overs were all towards preparation for that. I also believe there is a lot more work to be done between Roanoke and Washington DC but we wont be able to watch any of that.
Now the 'curiosities' sitting by the shed. They were reminiscent of the statues of Easter Island. but I am grateful for the suggestion that they are signal post bases. There were thirteen, now ten. So ten green bottles comes to mind......
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)
An another gone this AM. Four men picked it up and put it the bucket of the loader,and took it to where the first one is,only closer to the tracks.Interesting.
I was never able to see the signals during the day time, and even at night only the ones at the very west end were partially visible, but, yes, they did help too anticipate when a train might be coming from the east.
I note this morning that another of the "items" is missing from the Hotel cam view, but I can't see where it went. 11 left.
I'm hoping some signaling will be put in. W/o signaling, it is tough to predict the arrival of a train. I hate just sitting there with no trains and not knowing IF there will be a train.
SV,
I did some poking around on line and they appear to be concrete bases for signals.
It took a crew of 5 men and a stake-bed truck with a boom crane nearly 2 hours to move one of the 13 black items from in front of the hotel cam to in view of the VMT cam... it is now sitting on the "street side" of some concrete traffic barricades just left of center in the VMT cam view.
I still cannot figure what they are.
Working fine for me... I use the connection that runs Media Player and has the largest size and frame rate:
http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCmov
The browser version has not worked for me for a long time... but I thought it was because I have added a couple of Do-Not-Track add-ons to my browser and that has killed a lot of websites and confused many more that embed some YouTube videos in either NEW or Non-standard ways (some I can see, and some I can't !)
I just tried the small, lower frame rate Media Player connection and it won't complete the connection either... seems only the original set up works on my PC.
I have not been able to get it to download for a few days . I don`t know if it is the camera or my computer . RON
It looks like the majority of the track changes are complete in front of the Roanoke Railcam and the VMT camera. In all that work they went from 3 tracks at the west end and 4 tracks at the east end and after adding a fifth track between the first two, they then removed the 4th track and ended up with the same 3 tracks at the west end and just 4 tracks at the east end. And work often had to stop so that trains could be run on tracks that were in the middle of the work and even temporarily connected to new track that later went away. Logistics nightmare to do all that rearranging of tracks and keep the railroad in operation. Well done!
But there are now more crossovers between the various tracks and they are MUCH straighter.
I have lost the majority of the landmarks I was using to measure the speed of trains (two tall light poles that were on the former passenger platform and the signal towers and bridges that were just right of center). But relying on the lengths of certain types of cars I can tell that the maximum speeds through the area have gone from 15 MPH to over 20 MPH (I clocked 1 WB train at 25 MPH, but it slowed quickly). When Google Earth updates their images to include this new trackwork I will pick some new landmarks and measure the distances on the new track to get better estimates of speeds.
They apparently have some more work to do, as evidenced by the two portable toilets moved in last week and the office trailer is still there, as well as some construction equipment is still being parked in the area overnights.
There is one thing that has me wondering, though... In the last week 13 black 'items' have been lined up between the city street (Shenandoah Ave.) and the new electrical shanty, that look similar to an automotive service station's "free air" terminals. They seem to be about 4-feet tall and maybe a couple of feet square at the base, with some sort of elongated 'hood' at the top. Does anyone recognize what they are?
Just got back online after almost a year . Glad to see both roanoke cams are still operating . I missed checking them daily . RON
Very, very happy to see the cam up and running last night when we returned home. I log on a number of times every day and miss it when it's down. Thanks to those who take care of and see to the best railroad cam on the net.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
A note appeared under the thumb for the camera view yesterday or the day before saying it would be down for the foreseeable future for some reason I can't recall, but that it would return in time. Sounded to me like a couple of weeks or so.
Crandell
I was getting the "stop action" video for about 10 seconds after which it would freeze. I would reboot the site and it would just repeat the same scene and freeze. Now it just shows a black screen with no connection. You would think that after being offline for over a month in late winter for improvements that it would be running. Now I habe nothing to do but do some work around the house! <grin>.
I have not been able to access the full motion large image railcam server all weekend. The only access I can get is the 1 second update rate small image link. Can anybody else get to the better servers links?
@billh:
Thank you for the link to the news article. Good info on what is happening and what will probably be in the view of the camera this summer.
There was one paragraph in the news article that really bothered me...
---------------------------
Perkins waited his turn to pick up ethanol. Once his tanks were full, he drove across the street to the Kinder Morgan Energy Partners petroleum products terminal, where ethanol was unloaded for blending.
--------------------------
"DROVE ACROSS THE STREET" ???? I surely do not wish Mr. Perkins to lose work, but I certainly hope the track upgrades eliminate the intermediate use of a truck to move a liquid across the street!
I knew there was another word for what I wrote!... Just could not get it to the conscious mind to drive the fingers on the keyboard! Thanks!
The word dynamo (from the Greek word dynamis; meaning power) was originally another name for a DC electrical generator, and the word is still used to mean that in some disciplines. Bicycles sometimes have what is called a hub dynamo built into the wheel hub, but they usually produce AC. It is an old word, but since we are talkin' Steam Locomotives, it is the appropriate word to use!
Semper Vaporo steam from the generator on the top of the locomotive
Generator!?!
I was taught that is the Dynamo, back before I could even read.
I don't know though if that term is specific to direct steam generated electricity. Not including steam turbine driven generators.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
The black tank cars are probably carrying ethanol to the new bulk unloading facility the other side of the East End Shops. This is near Norfolk Ave and Hollins RD NE and is labelled on Goggle maps.
http://ww2.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/310306/
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Roanoke,+VA&hl=en&ll=37.277536,-79.925172&spn=0.013181,0.027874&sll=38.003385,-79.420925&sspn=6.914717,14.27124&oq=roa&hnear=Roanoke,+Virginia&t=h&z=16&iwloc=lyrftr:h,10675086475239916687,37.278236,-79.925923
It's fairly common to see short trains with a caboose turning at the WYE or headed to the transloading facility.
Switch sections are stored along the tracks at the west end of the shops near the expressway overpass. More switches and and overhead signal sections are stored near the Henry Street bridge.
I work in the building across the street from the web cam.
Semper Vaporo Watched two cabeese go by this morning; At 11:36 AM (Roanoke time -- I THINK! The clock showing in the images are CST) the pale red caboose in desperate need of a paint job and still labeled as "NW" went east on what I call track 4 (furthest from the camera). The train was black tank cars. Then at 12:22 PM the better looking red caboose labeled with the NS "racehorse" logo went east on track 3 with covered hopper cars. Not long after that my connection to the camera "went to lunch" and I could not get it to come back and stay (then I went to lunch) so I don't know if I missed them returning. Did anyone happen to see them return (today - 2/22/2013)? I have been trying to figure out where they go and knowing how long it takes might improve my chances of figuring that out. I have followed the various tracks using Google Earth and found that using the Street View feature on Norfolk Ave SE, I can see a caboose in transit on track 4 and I can follow it (somewhat) to the south, but the timing of the various photos changes along the route and it dissappears before I can tell how far it goes. Because of today's sighting on the Railcam I can see what cars they are associated with. AH HA! Whilst I am typing this the NW caboose just came back at 02:54 PM. So it was "out and about" for 3 hours, 18 minutes. Returning it had 2 tank cars and 2 boxcars. I still wonder about the other (NS) one, has it come back yet? Anyway, with a 3 hour limit for the distance traveled, (and divide that by 2) and work time at the work site(s), and add in delays asking the Dispatcher for permission to change directions, etc.) I am sure the destination is not very far away. I would not expect it to travel very far anyway since returning is a shove operation. Following the rails on Google earth presents two possible destinations for the train on track 4. I am fairly certain it follows the line to the south. One possible destination (Cycle Systems, Inc.) shows no evidence of tank cars on the property at the time of the G.E. images. The other ("Chemsolv, Inc" in an industrial park on "Industry Ave, SE") shows tank cars in the area, but requires a seperate reverse move to get there. The other (track 3) train's destination is a bit harder to determine. For one, I don't yet have a max time away. And I can't be sure which track it takes once outside the view of the camera. Even though it starts on track 3 it could switch to the same route as the other, or it could continue to the east. I don't see any destinations along that route that show hopper cars and box cars in the present images on G.E. I suppose it could be no further than the shops just to the east of the camera scene (maybe the cars are "bad order" going east and repaired going west). (And maybe I missed the return trip while I was at lunch or trying to get the web cam back on-line on my PC). Just asking here if anybody knows more about it.
Watched two cabeese go by this morning;
At 11:36 AM (Roanoke time -- I THINK! The clock showing in the images are CST) the pale red caboose in desperate need of a paint job and still labeled as "NW" went east on what I call track 4 (furthest from the camera). The train was black tank cars.
Then at 12:22 PM the better looking red caboose labeled with the NS "racehorse" logo went east on track 3 with covered hopper cars.
Not long after that my connection to the camera "went to lunch" and I could not get it to come back and stay (then I went to lunch) so I don't know if I missed them returning. Did anyone happen to see them return (today - 2/22/2013)?
I have been trying to figure out where they go and knowing how long it takes might improve my chances of figuring that out.
I have followed the various tracks using Google Earth and found that using the Street View feature on Norfolk Ave SE, I can see a caboose in transit on track 4 and I can follow it (somewhat) to the south, but the timing of the various photos changes along the route and it dissappears before I can tell how far it goes. Because of today's sighting on the Railcam I can see what cars they are associated with.
AH HA! Whilst I am typing this the NW caboose just came back at 02:54 PM. So it was "out and about" for 3 hours, 18 minutes. Returning it had 2 tank cars and 2 boxcars.
I still wonder about the other (NS) one, has it come back yet?
Anyway, with a 3 hour limit for the distance traveled, (and divide that by 2) and work time at the work site(s), and add in delays asking the Dispatcher for permission to change directions, etc.) I am sure the destination is not very far away. I would not expect it to travel very far anyway since returning is a shove operation.
Following the rails on Google earth presents two possible destinations for the train on track 4. I am fairly certain it follows the line to the south. One possible destination (Cycle Systems, Inc.) shows no evidence of tank cars on the property at the time of the G.E. images. The other ("Chemsolv, Inc" in an industrial park on "Industry Ave, SE") shows tank cars in the area, but requires a seperate reverse move to get there.
The other (track 3) train's destination is a bit harder to determine. For one, I don't yet have a max time away. And I can't be sure which track it takes once outside the view of the camera. Even though it starts on track 3 it could switch to the same route as the other, or it could continue to the east. I don't see any destinations along that route that show hopper cars and box cars in the present images on G.E. I suppose it could be no further than the shops just to the east of the camera scene (maybe the cars are "bad order" going east and repaired going west). (And maybe I missed the return trip while I was at lunch or trying to get the web cam back on-line on my PC).
Just asking here if anybody knows more about it.
I saw a work train of sorts go east (right to left) on the closest track (track 1?) on Sunday. It was an engine and a crane on what appeared to be a very short flatcar or a single truck under the crane, followed by another close coupled flat car with some supports on it, (like for the crane boom to rest on but it was not on them) followed by two more empty flat cars. I am GUESSING that the switch track panels and that work train are associated and they are doing some work to the east of the camera, but I have no idea how far east. I doubt if the track panels would have been stored there if the work were a great distance east, so I am again guessing that the work is near the Depot and the O. Winston Link Museum.
I figure they will take out the gravel/sand put down for the loading platform, but there is no telling when. (I wonder just how firm a footing that loading area really is... did ladies in high-heels have trouble standing?)
I have my 2 .75 hours of video pared down to just 30 minutes... 30 minutes of extreme boredom! That train moved REALLY SLOW when moving within the view of the camera. Long periods of just sitting and them move at 1 MPH a car length or two. I have cut out all the "sitting" except for some time where the Locomotive "whished some steam" (to borrow a term from Thomas). And I have removed those scenes where the train is at the west end of the scene. But it passes the camera EIGHT times and that adds up to a long video of a very slow moving train. I think I will have to split it into 8 segments to upload to YouTube and let the individual viewers decide how much time to waste watching them.
What happened to the quanity of "track panels" that were present about a week ago here along where there the autos used to park.
What was the reason for the uprooting of the paved surface in view of the hotel cam some months ago...When any activity with people...does happen, it seems activity with special trains become visible here, but now its gravel or ballast stone...
Sound would certainly nice to have with the hotel cam.....I understand that must cost more $$$.
Enjoyed seeing the several steam activity photos recently...and seeing the several caboose' as well.
Quentin
Waste of time is correct.... the fellow who done the soliciting ask me to reply with any suggestions, so I suggested they trade the webcam in on a pet monkey!
Speaking of that webcam, would anyone be so kind as to identify the white car in this photo from a 1/13 screen cap?
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