That sounds about right . I was guessing ten to fifteen miles per hour . Occasionally one will come through quite a bit faster . But then again , that was just a guess . RON
j610 Watched several coal trains go through today . Slow orders are definitely lifted . Normal speeds on all tracks . RON
Watched several coal trains go through today . Slow orders are definitely lifted . Normal speeds on all tracks . RON
Thanks for the segue to something I have been working on...
I have wanted to know how fast the trains go in that area. At first I thought they were doing 30 MPH or maybe more, but I know I am a lousy estimator of speed.
So I have been trying to find ways of actually measuring the speed. I started by trying to find the length of various railcars and timing them passing a point in the scene. But I found I am also a lousy estimator of which cars I am seeing! And Boxcars, Tankards and Coal hoppers seem to have several "standard" lengths and I can't really tell the difference sometimes.
So again I turned to Google Earth to measure the 4 tracks that can be seen. First, I drew a line from where I figure the camera is to a point on the Wachovia building that is on the left edge of the scene and noted where that line crosses the tracks. Then I drew a line from the camera position to, and straight through, the triple light tower next to the closest track at the right of the scene just past the "T" street intersection. I then noted where that extended line crosses the 4 tracks. I then used the measure function in Google Earth to measure along the tracks, following the curves, between my two lines.
There are 5 routes through the 4 tracks in the area between my lines. I have arbitrarily numbered the tracks 1 through 4, with 1 being the closest to the camera (on the north side of the passenger platform) and 4 being the farthest away. The 4 tracks account for 4 of the routes, and there is a switch connecting tracks 2 and 3 which produces the 5th possible route.
To the west there are other switches which tie the tracks together to allow tracks 1 and 2 to combine and 3 and 4 to combine, but they are outside of the area bounded by my initial lines.
I measured the distances several times, getting slightly different values each time due to my inability to get my mouse cursor on the exact same places each time, but the values were within a foot or two of each other for each route). I settled on the following values:
Route Distance
1 356 ft
2 398 ft
2>3 393 ft
3 434 ft
4 470 ft
If I pick a point on a train of cars and time how long it takes that point to traverse from the left edge of the scene to being "behind" the signal pole on the right (or vice versa) I can plug the time value into the following formula to determine the speed.
S = D / T * 0.68181818
Where "D" is the Distance listed above for the route the train is on and "T" is the Time it took in seconds.
The value "0.68181818 is the result of multiplying 60 times 60 to get hours and divided by 5280 to get miles so the result ("S") is the Speed in Miles Per Hour.
I also noted that I could tell the length of COFC containers fairly easily, knowing they are 20, 40, 45, 48 and 53 ft long. I am also fairly certain that automobile carriers are 86 ft long.
Knowing this I can plug the values into the same formula using the length of the container for "D". This is not quite as accurate, since it is harder to get precise time measurements on such a short distance... Not that I am all that precise when measuring the time across the whole screen, but the longer distance reduces the effect of imprecision in the time measurement.
I think my formula is correct, but I hope someone will verify it for me.
Another problem I have is that my stopwatch is a program on the computer that I wrote many years ago and it is presently limited to 1 second resolution so I cannot do fractional measurements. I am working to change my program to give tenth second resolution, but haven't gotten it debugged yet.
I made a spreadsheet of the values for times from 3 seconds to 100 seconds for the long distances and from 0.3 to 10 seconds for the car lengths and will publish it here AFTER I am sure I have the values right.
What has surprised me is that the speeds are so SLOW. The fastest train I have seen so far is about 11 MPH.
Does that sound about right?
EDIT! Fixed typo in the number in the formula... added an 8 after the 6... just a fumble fingers mistake!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
It looks like our van has a flat front tyre.
I wish for a happy and prosperous new year to all of you..... RON
....Just took a strained closer look at the white SUV / Van parked for several weeks now....I am about to agree with poster Semper, the drivers side front tire might be flat.
Quentin
Seems to be more traffic than usual today . Maybe the economy is actually starting to get a little better . I sure hope so . RON
Roanoke ,for the most part is a fairly safe town . There are a few bad areas , but not many.. I was born and raised there but haven`t been back for several years . Would like to make it up there this spring to see the museums again. RON
Where I come from, I agree, the car would be just a frame within hours of being left on the street at night.
I have watched this webcam at all kinds of different hours in the day and the area seems to have a busy and well behaved night life. There are pedestrians on both streets on each side of the tracks at all hours of the day.
The first few times I saw people at 2 or 3 AM (EST) I figured they were up to no good (based on my experiences with late night shadowy figures where I used to live). The first group I saw were seemingly randomly running around playing (not exercise jogging) and I immediately figured they were gang members harassing each other or other gangs or the hapless citizen that had to be in the area for some reason. But after watching them a few minutes (contemplating how to call the Roanoke police from 1000 miles away and how to explain the gang war that was about to erupt or the mugging in process), I noticed the first 3 or 4 individuals meet another 4 and stop to talk, then one of them changed groups and they all waved to each other and went on their way. One group got in a car in the parking lot in the center of the view and the others walked east out of view. I now think it was a family picking up their kid from another family.
I also think that there are often large meetings in that building in the upper left area. I think that is the Wachovia building and it must have convention and other meeting rooms for weddings / receptions / etc. I often see a stretch limo (or 2 or 3 of them) in the area late at night or early AM hours and many groups of people that seem to be well dressed going to and from cars in the parking lots in the area (except the most prominent one adjacent to the tracks, where the minivan is now) and on the street directly below the camera.
After these few months watching the rail cam, I think, at least this area of, Roanoke is a safe place to be at any hour.
I am beginning to think that white minivan has a flat driver's side front tire?
Sure has been busy on the rail lines lately. Last night there were nearly a dozen trains in a couple of hours and late this morning there have been another bunch.
Just checked out the cam.....An E B coal train was passing with 3 NS on point for power.
Still not a full crew back at the work place, re: the parked cars in view.
But the white vehicle is still there. Boy, I agree, many places a person would leave a late model vehicle vacant for that amount of time....not much of value would be remaining.
But I really don't know what "kind" of area this really is. Perhaps safer than we might think, even being so close to a railroad area of town.
The coal train had snow on top of the loaded cars, so still plenty of snow someplace where it was coming from.
Clutch Cargo In Detroit that van would have been striped down to nothin in 48 hours.
In Detroit that van would have been striped down to nothin in 48 hours.
They'd have to be working awfully slow. It'd take them an hour at most.
Norm
Freight going through town right now east to west with 5 units on the point . 4 NS units and 1 Conrail blue .I guess there are still a lot of the conrail units still in original paint . RON
\
Kurt
AH HA ! I didn`t think about the repo man . Could very well be . Could also be stolen and abandoned . RON
Been wonderin' about that car for a couple of weeks. Could be owned by someone away on a business trip whose company provided transportation to the airport. OTOH, the latent cop in me says it could be parked there to avoid the repo man who would most likely be expecting to show up at the owners home address.
Pure speculation on my part. We will probably never know the answer.
....Snow just about melted in Roanoke. People back to work with lots of parked cars....To my surprise: Some cars are backed into the fence line instead of pulling in. More than I remembered.
But the white van / sta. wgn. still there, and just witnessed an E B mixed freight passing by.....Everything appears normal in operations for now.
People will leave a car in a parking lot for MONTHS just because for some odd reason they got a ride from the spouse/neighbor/co-worker/etc. and it is still more inconvenient to go get the car than to continue to rideshare with spouse/neighbor/co-worker/etc. When the owner gets inconvenienced enough that car will go... assumming it can be started and does not have more than one flat tire (and the spare is good, too!).
Sometimes cars get left in public places when the owner goes on vacation just because the public parking place is less likely to be vandal prone than their own neighborhood!
One of my kids used to meet his wife after work at my house then go to diner with her and then go home, using just one of their cars, leaving the other in front of my place for a couple of weeks until it was needed for some errand they needed to do after work one night or the next day, then they'd get it.
I didn't mind because it made the neighbor park their old clunker in front of their own house instead of mine!
You would think someone would have thought about it or missed it by now . Strange situation . RON
....Almost all the workers that park there, pull in front forward. I wonder if in all the railroad mess of derailment and the legions of vehicles and personnel, if it might have been left there by mistake....
I agree . Scrap metal prices are up right now . Well , traffic is definitly back to normal . RON
j610 I would sure like to know what the deal is on that white minivan . It hasn`t been moved since the derailment . RON
I would sure like to know what the deal is on that white minivan . It hasn`t been moved since the derailment . RON
Now that we have seen the Powhatan Arrow pulled by a J, maybe we could see a turn of the 20th Century steam powered Browning or Bucyrus-Erie 200 ton crane load that minivan onto a 40 foot flat car and be pulled away by suitable N&W work train power.
Happy New Year everyone!
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Why dont somebody here call the Roanoke police and report it.
Russell
I have been wondering the same thing. The car is backed up to the guardrail so the license plate is almots unreadable. Makes me wonder if someone is trying to hide it from the repo man.
One lone engine sitting on the nearest track . We got a little over 10 inches here in western nc . RON
Rich
Those that desire, find a way..... Those that don't, find an excuse.
Looks like roanoke missed the big storm that hit us . Everything appears to be back to normal . I just brought the cam up for the first time today . Haven`t seen anything yet , but to me it always seems busiest later in the evening . RON
Just saw a coal train go through with 1 ns and 1 conrail unit up front . The snow seems to be dissipating . They are running regular traffic over the repaired track so i guess they have solved the problem . RON
.....Mid afternoon, I noted 4 NS engines at rest in camera range, and shortly then, they moved west.
Took another look a short time later and a container train was passing east bound.
Weather: I've been checking to see if they are going to receive the blast that's moving up the east coast....So far, as of a couple hr's. ago, they had not.
We here in central Indiana lucked out on the mess that was coming west to east....Just 1" Christmas Eve. None since. But it's to get a bit colder next few days, than a "warm up".
Been a fair amount of traffic today.
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