Ron - I don't think we are talking about the same thing. The shed like roof I'm referring to is not connected to any building. It sits betwen Norfolk Ave. and the tracks. It looks like the roof covers part of a flat car on display and what might be an observation deck.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
My eyes are not nearly as good as they used to be , but i don`t see what you are talking about . Which cam are you seeing this on ? RON
It is not very big in the view... it is directly below the rightmost of the three double-head signals to the right of center. (Well... it is not physically below the signal, but from the 2-D image it is below it! )
About all you can see is the triangular open gable end, the center "Y" (or trident) post holding it up, and the north slope of the roof. The ridge is parallel to the tracks.
EDIT: on the hotel cam.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
SV
We are on the same page. And thanks to you for the suggestion about Google's Street View, which I never even thought about. I'm sure after looking at that it is an observation deck. Now all I need to do is explain to my wife why we should visit Roanoke.
I will have to check it out tomorrow in the daytime . I don`t know why i never noticed that before . RON
j610 I will have to check it out tomorrow in the daytime . I don`t know why i never noticed that before . RON
I hear ya, Ron! I had to save some screen shots of the view (AM, PM, Night) because every once in a while I notice something and think, "When did they built THAT!" and then I look at old saved images and see that it has been there all along.
And then there is the problem of a 2-D image of a 3-D world...
For the longest time I thought those black circles were painted on the parking garage wall!
And I could not make sense of the north end of that building. When Iooked at it on Google Earth I could see that those walls are CURVED and the roof is sloped (they are the spiral drive up (East side) and down (West side) in the garage). Now the 2-D image makes sense!
I really like using Google Earth and Street View, but I wish the two forms of viewing the area were from the same date... And more recent... And not so blurred! Of course, I get so used to zooming in and out and panning around to see more, I get frustrated when I can't do the same with the web cams!
Yeah , i wish we could control the camera . I frequent a web site and cam in naples , florida . It shows naples bay and you can move the cam left & right , up & down , and zoom in and out . It allows you to see a lot of boating activity . I haven`t found another camera like it . RON
The Google street view is good to look at in Norfolk Avenue, Roanoke VA. Not only does it show the viewing shelter it also shows the railroad artifacts which are situated by the sidewalk nearest the tracks.
Admittedly it is a past time view but as those items seem to be permanent fixtures it does not matter.
Interesting views of the yards and locomotive depot are well worth looking at: all of which helps get the 'feel' of the place
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)
I saw the shelter you all were talking about today . I don`t know why i never noticed it before . It appears to be right on the rail walk . When i am in roanoke next month i will check it out . RON
Just saw a coal train go through town faster than i have seen any train go through roanoke . It had to be doing 25 or 30 mph . RON
WELL! THIS WAS DISTURBING!
I am testing my new StopWatch program for measuring the speed of the trains and had the Hotel cam on screen, waiting for a train. Saw a headlight appear in the west and slow to a stop. I thought that maybe it might have one of the cabeese on the end and the lighting would be such that I could get a good screen shot of it. So I turned on the VMT cam and had both on screen at the same time.
NO TRAIN visible on the VMT cam! ANYWHERE! WHAT?!?!?!? The engine was still visible on the Hotel cam and it was stopped just west of the pedestrian viaduct and should be plainly visible on the VMT cam.
I checked the time on my PC and the time shown at the bottom of the VMT cam display. My computer showed 4:24 PM (CST) and the VMT cam showed 17:14 EST. I checked a couple of other clocks in my house, including my cell phone and they all jibe with my PC. Taking into account the time zone differences there is a 10 minute error, with the VMT cam being 10 minutes behind realtime.
It was updating about once every 5 to 10 seconds and as I am pondering what is going on, the engine visible on the Hotel cam begins to back up. Then the time on the VMT cam suddenly jumped to being only about 5 seconds behind. But by then the train had backed out of the viewing area.
Now the sun has gone down and the lighting is too poor to get a good image even if it comes back (not to mention that the VMT cam has been failing to respond at all quite often here of late, so it would probably die before the train comes back anyway).
I think I do have the stopwatch program working well and will post it someplace when I am sure it won't screw-up too badly in somebody else's PC. I am also thinking I will convert it from simply displaying the time and allow the user to enter a distance and the display will show the speed directly. Anybody wanna be a beta-tester for me?
The museum cam is almost worthless . On my computer it takes anywhere from 20 to 30 seconds to update . I don`t even go there anymore . Also , after dark it is so blurry it bothers my eyes . RON
I commented on increased speeds in my post of 13th.instant.
It does seem that since all the track work done after the recent wreck that line speeds ahve been increased. It is more pleasing to see a train at this greater speed - well, it does help to count cars more easier.
Wow saw two trains passing each other and a Sperry truck went by. Most I have seen when checking out the camera.
Does anybody know if that parking lot that runs along the tracks is public parking for the hotel or public parking for Roanoke in general? I think when I make my trip there I might have found a train watching spot.
From watching the cars that appear in that parking lot (same cars, but not always in the same places, and several empty spots off and on during the day), I would guess it is paid permit parking for some business in the area (maybe city permits). There are several other parking lots and buildings in the area that may be public parking.
I do not know, but....Watch it about 5 pm, or a little after...and you will see people start to leave. Just like a business parking area.
Quentin
I think you are right . It may be employee parking for some of the nearby buildings . RON
Did this site go down for almost a day or am i having server problems again ? 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.
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
Did anybody see the CN trio on Friday evening..??
Colin
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.
Had to use a different url to get to the hotel cam today . What`s up with train related sites lately ? RON
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"
. . . __ . ______
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
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
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.
Strange that the best and worst railcams on the web are in roanoke . 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.
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