That museum cam is a joke . RON
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!)
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
....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.
Quentin
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,
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
Speeds may be restricted more than usual because of the autorack incident . RON
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.
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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
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
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.
High winds and storms in the area today . What kind of problems , if any , does that cause for a railroad ? RON
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.
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
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.
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!"
Well, the Hotel cam DOES work through the Trains . com connection.
Hover your mouse over the word "Interactive" in the line of links right belowthe Trains masthead at the top of any page. A dropdown menu will appear that has a link named "Web Cams"; click on it. Then in the new page that appears, scroll about 1/2 way down and click on the link "Visit the Roanoke, VA Web Cam" This should open the media player to a smaller (than the other methods) view of the webcam that only updates once per second. (Bummer, but it kinda works and is better than the Rochelle cam!)
I fear this may mean that the owner has altered the server to only feed certain intermediary servers to cut down on usage (like I mentioned in a previous post)... I surely do hope not, but only time will tell.
Doing speed timings was iffy before with my poor button clicking uniformity, but with the 1-second update rate it is just barely worth doing at all.
Crap. You're right. It does seem that they removed the old means entirely to enforce this new means. What a shame. I guess the VMT is all we really have to rely on now. I mean this feed from the hotel cam now just sucks, too much to really bother with anymore. Of course, the VMT cam isn't exactly what I'd call reliable (and it failed a number of times today). The only last chance might be that secondary link to the live feed, but I'm pretty sure it's done.
And now the competition for the VMT cam seems evident, as it is updating about every 1/2 minute. I doubt many of us will be willing to tolerate such slowness for long. Alas, it seems we've essentially lost our Roanoke cam with this.
Why is it always the good cam that we lose ? Why did they install the cam if they have no intention of maintaining it ? RON
Ron, I don't think they are going to fix the "good" TV like web cam. It is a bandwidth hog.
Here is the other URL for the hotel web cam,(if you don't have it) it sucks but it works better than the museum cam
http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCtrainsDOTcom
All,
Hang in there. The camera is on the site of The Roanoke but is hosted by the University of Virginia according to my previous electronic research. I do feel it will be back, but we must be patient. They may have to make adjustments on their server, and I hope they do.
Like most of you, I feel deprived but hope better days are coming.
With respect and sympathy for all. I am going through the same withdrawal symptoms and hope the fast version is back on line soon.
Oh well , as the old saying goes " all good things must come to an end". RON
If the hotel cam does come back online the first person to find out should post in this thread . Thanks . RON
This morning it is not available on either the direct link or the Trains magazine link.
Interesting...even the Rochelle cam is down! As for the bandwidth hog issue, for a university, it really isn't THAT big in comparison with anything else, really. If, though, there is some cost of bandwidth that they're worried about, there were ideas to handle that. Really, the main problem is a complete refusal to communicate. I mean, I understand how maintenence is and stuff, but they could at least talk to us and let us know what all is going on and what to expect. But the fact that right now, both cams are down would seem to be a server issue (but I think still shots are still being obtained from the Rochelle cam), likely intentional changes. I wonder how hard people are hitting the VMT cam? I guess we should try to find out.
It's 9:14 in the morning here in Pittsburgh and the web cam is back up as of a minute or two ago. Thanks to whoever is responsible for getting this most interesting web site back up.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Indeed, all cams are restored, and RRCmov is back up and running! Yay!
And right away I saw a car sitting just past the far STOP sign for about 20 seconds...I take it it stalled out. I've seen a few vehicles do that before.
EDIT-The Rochelle cam is still kinda iffy. It's working some of the time. Now sure what's with it, though it's not the important one anyhow.
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