ROANOKE RAIL CAM

[j610]

Just saw a train with a lot of articulated cars marked coltainer , plus two white boxcars marked cryogenics .Haven`t seen those before.   RON

[RichardLHight]

Dang me they otta get a rope and hand me!

 

The moment I finished the last post to Bruce, I went back to the hotel cam and there was a trio of 4400s dragging an autotrain east bound out of town.   

[Modelcar]

RichardLHight

8:40PM EST

 

I hope some of you fellows were logged onto the hotel cam between 6 and 7PM. 

 

When I checked back the stalled freight was moving eastbound with what I had thought were three pushers, but now were on the point with two NS GE 4400s and a loaner UP GE unit.  It only moved a short distance east before reversing and shoving the string behind them, presumably to pick up another cut of cars to be included in this freight. 

 

The freight then started moving east again until the front truck of the lead loco was standing over that little depression that the MOW guys have spent so much of their attention on. About then, a front loader with a back hoe mounted on the rear showed up and would you believe the mad chickens came to life and started loading the old ties and other junk into the front bucket. 

 

I had to run an errand at 6:30 and when I returned at 8:30, all the trucks were gone and the ground looked clean.

 

I'm most likely mistaken but there is what looked to me like that white minivan backed up against the wall. I'll check back every once in a while to see if it stays put after all the other cars hit the road. 

 

Richard....Just took a look to see the vehicle you mentioned as possibly the white van....No, that seems to be a small pickup with a matching cap on the bed.

And I agree......I see quite a few trains passing thru, and I just check it occasionally.

Edit:  Rich, do you use the Railroadradio.net...?  You can listen to Roanoke rail chatter and watch what you care to while doing so....

[RichardLHight]

Man oh man Bruce!

 

In the past three hours, there have been close to a dozen freights moving in and out of town.  One is pulling out at the moment that has an old Santa Fe red and silver war bonnet Dash 8 on the lead with a NS 4400 for back up.  We've had more traffic than Rochelle dreams of and of course ours is live stream.   

[RichardLHight]

8:40PM EST

 

I hope some of you fellows were logged onto the hotel cam between 6 and 7PM. 

 

When I checked back the stalled freight was moving eastbound with what I had thought were three pushers, but now were on the point with two NS GE 4400s and a loaner UP GE unit.  It only moved a short distance east before reversing and shoving the string behind them, presumably to pick up another cut of cars to be included in this freight. 

 

The freight then started moving east again until the front truck of the lead loco was standing over that little depression that the MOW guys have spent so much of their attention on. About then, a front loader with a back hoe mounted on the rear showed up and would you believe the mad chickens came to life and started loading the old ties and other junk into the front bucket. 

 

I had to run an errand at 6:30 and when I returned at 8:30, all the trucks were gone and the ground looked clean.

 

I'm most likely mistaken but there is what looked to me like that white minivan backed up against the wall. I'll check back every once in a while to see if it stays put after all the other cars hit the road. 

 

[Modelcar]

RichardLHight

At about 12 noon I noticed a North American Van Lines moving van make a left turn onto Shenandoah from Jefferson southbound.  No more had he straightened out his rig than he stopped and began backing up, forcing the east bound cars on Shenandoah to cross onto the west bound lanes.  When no more cars were coming, the rig continued to back up until he could then make a left turn from Shenandoah onto Jefferson northbound, effectively making an illegal U-turn, proving once again that size does matter!

 

.....I was watching the cam at that time too, and witnessed the semi doing as you explained.  Also, while watching, a train passed on next to near track with 2 engines behind the red NS caboose.  I'm assuming it was a local switching, and pushing a string of cars west bound.

[RichardLHight]

5:56 PM EST

 

While I was writing to Bruce, I restored my hotel cam to see three MOW guys inspecting a white hopper on a stalled freight.  One of the guys had been doing the mad chicken dance, wondering around in circles for at least a half hour before I gave up on him 

[RichardLHight]

Bruce,

 

Once a day is like playing the lottery!  Only the odds are better for winning the lottery.

 

Using AOL, I log onto the hotel cam and then reduce it so that I can do other things as needed.  I can then revert back to the cam to see if any action warrants my attention.  If not, I reduce again and go about my day, checking back several times an hour if I'm not busy with other things.

 

For instance, I commented at noon about the North American Van Lines U-turn but while that was happening, the NS SD-40 coupled to a HXLC leased ex BN SD-40 (I think) with the newly painted red caboose was dragging a string of tank cars followed by some 20 covered hoppers.  The engines and caboose pulled off the east end of the screen and stopped for a few moments before pushing the consist back into the west end yards that would be on the right hand side of your screen.

 

I switched to the museum cam to catch the detail of the caboose but wouldn't you know it...... the camera that normally displays a still every two seconds lagged from 12:20:32 to 12:20:48 seconds, just enough down time to let the red caboose escape my attempt to ID the evasive rascal.

 

The bottom line is Bruce, you gotta be devoted to the cause if you want to see what Roanoke has to offer!   

[AgentKid]

Looked at the Cam at 3:43 EST today and the van is gone.

However I haven't seen a single train since before New Year's Eve. And I have been checking at least once a day everyday since.

Bruce

 

[Norm48327]

Modelcar

....No way, is it a normal situation for a late model automobile to be left in such a location for so long period of time, without something being a bit off cue.....

I was tempted to call the Roanoke PD to have them check the minivan.  OTOH, my being in Michigan may have made them thought it was a crank call. I'm still thinking it was being hidden from the repo folks.

[RichardLHight]

At about 12 noon I noticed a North American Van Lines moving van make a left turn onto Shenandoah from Jefferson southbound.  No more had he straightened out his rig than he stopped and began backing up, forcing the east bound cars on Shenandoah to cross onto the west bound lanes.  When no more cars were coming, the rig continued to back up until he could then make a left turn from Shenandoah onto Jefferson northbound, effectively making an illegal U-turn, proving once again that size does matter!

 

[Modelcar]

tcwright973

It looks like the white van might be gone. There is one empty parking space and I can't see a white vehicle  facing the tracks. Anyone see if it was driven or towed away. I know it was there around 6:00 this morning.

Tom

You are correct....That vehicle was there an hour and a half or so ago.....But now, it's not there.  Vanished.

[tcwright973]

It looks like the white van might be gone. There is one empty parking space and I can't see a white vehicle  facing the tracks. Anyone see if it was driven or towed away. I know it was there around 6:00 this morning.

Tom

[Eric97123]

watching this morning, a train went by with 11 engine mu'ed. 

[Modelcar]

....No way, is it a normal situation for a late model automobile to be left in such a location for so long period of time, without something being a bit off cue.....

Noted the atmosphere must have been clear last night as the twinkling lights on the towers seemed quite visible.

[RichardLHight]

One lonley MOW worker wondered aimlessly around the junk left laying about the derailment and subsequent attention to the rails in front of the hotel cam.

[j610]

One lone engine wandering aimlessly down the the track .  RON

[RichardLHight]

Sounds logical to me to use whatever inventory of cabooses that haven't been sold for scrap or used for park decorations.  Before it's absorption by the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific was bringing their cabooses back on line to provide railroad police with a rolling platform to observe thieves and bandits along the rails that parallel the US/Mexican border. 

 

All that stuff that GM, and all the other American companies that use cheap Mexican labor working 12 on and 12 off, all that stuff has to be returned to the US to be sold to those of us that still have jobs that may be outsourced at any time.

 

*** those greedy fools that authored and passed the North American Free Trade Agreement that has financially devastated the South in a manner more effective than the civil war did, 

 

They say that the pen is mightier than the sword and the pens that Clinton used to sign NAFTA into law has reduced many well to do southerners to join the ranks of poor folks just like us. Boo Hoo

 

[csxns]

Thanks Richard, the last i was told it is still in Roanoke.Was not it used on the back of coal trains to see how much coal dust was comeing off.

[RichardLHight]

Regarding a gray caboose, there is a small rail yard that parallels highway 220 on the southern side of Roanoke that can be viewed on goggle.  There are quite a number of tracks used to store coal hoppers and the eastern most track is used to store a MOW camp train that has a gray caboose on it.  Because of trespassing issues, I've only seen that caboose a few times while driving into Roanoke from the south (Martinsville).  Highway 220 is elevated so that it didn't interfere with local ground traffic, which includes a great deal of rail traffic. 

[csxns]

What did NS do with the gray caboose.

[kolechovski]

If someone can PM me their email address, I can send a few Zip files of some of the shots I've been saving.  You guys can then compare the pics that way (or host them on this site from whatever means you use).

[RichardLHight]

Semper

 

With regard to the red caboose count, there are at least three that are in regular use around Roanoke. Each is distinctive as I'll describe.  The one that Santa rode into town on has been recently painted red with the modern NS stallion logos located on both sides and a white roof.  The other two cabooses haven't been painted in many moons.  One has a tall set of NW idents in dirty white against the rusty oxidized car body.  The third one is also in great need of a fresh paint job, but for now, it's also rusty red with a bar I'd guess to be around 18 X 48 inches of dirty white paint dead center at the base of the car body and the air break reservoir tank is also painted white

[Norm48327]

kolechovski

RichardLHight replied on 12-21-2010 10:00 AM

I can also see a radio tower in the far distance on that mountain that I can't recall seeing before.  It's just off the left side of the parking garage.  The height of the tower constantly changes due to the clarity of the cam, but it looks at some moments as if it is quite tall, though I can't grab a good screenshot of the tall times.  It seems as if the top of the tower matches the visible height of the top of the building off to the left, though most of the time, it only seems to stretch to that building's main roof, not the white thing on top.  I'm also not sure, but does it look like there's a second antenna just slightly to the left of that one?

 

Richard,

I do believe that tower is within the city limits of Roanoke, on top of a building, and not subject to FAA requirements to be lighted or painted. Some understanding of aviation regulations are in order. Airplanes have minimum enroute altitudes and are bound to stay above  them. till within certain distances of the airport they are approaching. I think the tower you are seeing is much closer to downtown than it may seem on camera. The towers on Poor Mountain are 13 miles distant and are much higher than surrounding terrain. They are probably in the neighborhood of 250 to 300 ft above ground level but because of the mountain they are on they require lighting. We can only see them when visibility is good, and the eastern US is noted for haze.The FAA has regulations on lighting and painting, but I don't think the antenna you are seeing falls under their jurisdiction.

I've seen the 'tower' in question, but haven't been able to find it listed on the FCC's website.

[Semper Vaporo]

i know there are at least 2 cabeese in the area and suspect there may be one more.  I don't have a screen shot of the possible 3rd one.  I have only seen it once or twice when the hotel cam was in B&W mode and I just could not make out any distinct features to know for sure if it was different than the others, but is sure looked different in the short glimpse I got.  Post your screen shots and we can compare features.

As for the "black bars"... I am not sure what you mean.  Maybe it is because your Windows Media Player window is not set to the same aspect ratio as the image, so the black bars are there to "fill" the space available in the window.  There is an option in the WMP setup to set the window to fit the size/shape of the video automatically... maybe that will help you.  In my version (Win 7) I right-click the small arrow in the upper left corner and hover the mouse arrow over the "Video >" entry, then click the "Fit player to video" option.

I studied THAT radio tower for quite some time, trying to figure out where it was.  I finally found it on Google Earth and it is just a few blocks away, not way off in the distance.  Note there are no warning lights on it!  It is not tall enough to require them!  It is on the west side of the county court house (at least that is what I THINK I remember what the building is).

[kolechovski]

I grabbed a screenshot of the smoker.  Too bad there was a delay in bringing up the program, and I got it late.  Still was neat to see.

[RichardLHight]

At 12:40 PM I brought up the hotel cam just in time to see a string of five big boys dragging a heavy mixed freight from the east (left) side of the screen.  The second loco in the head power was an old dirty Conrail number 8399 that was smoking like a steamer and sparks were seen spewing out the exhaust stack as well.  I changed to the museum cam to see the lash up in greater detail and at the risk of exaggerating, I dare say that anyone that would have been standing next to that horizontal tank would have been in danger of being singed by the sparks coming from the old Connie.

[kolechovski]

RichardLHight replied on 12-21-2010 10:00 AM

"I just signed onto the museum cam at 9:30 am when to my surprise I was greeted with a sight I didn't expect to witness, a former green BN leased power coupled with a NS GP-7 high nose pulling the red caboose that sports the current NS stallion logo heading into the west yard complex.  "

-I just saw this setup go by today at 10:10 am, though with a different red caboose.  This one had some white at the top of the cupola and some white lettering at the bottom center.  No NS logo.  I got screenshots.

Does anyone know how to keep WMP from doing those stupid black bars at the top and bottoms of the video that commonly show up when working among different windows?

I can also see a radio tower in the far distance on that mountain that I can't recall seeing before.  It's just off the left side of the parking garage.  The height of the tower constantly changes due to the clarity of the cam, but it looks at some moments as if it is quite tall, though I can't grab a good screenshot of the tall times.  It seems as if the top of the tower matches the visible height of the top of the building off to the left, though most of the time, it only seems to stretch to that building's main roof, not the white thing on top.  I'm also not sure, but does it look like there's a second antenna just slightly to the left of that one?

[Modelcar]

Would certainly like to see that....and hear it, but no, we can't do so here.  Appreciate if the data can be listed.

[j610]

C & O steam engine 614 is coming to roanoke soon . I am trying to find out the exact date and times. Will post as soon as i find out .  RON