Surely, someone envolved with the operation of the web cam will soon see the spider / and his web. Certainly hope so. Perhaps the cam is located on the pedestrian bridge and might be accessable without too much effort.
One would think they would want to clean the lens periodically anyway. It sure is making a mess of the cam's performance.
Quentin
Cannonball
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
HEY! DOWN IN FRONT!
Where's Spidey when you need 'im? His tattered web was annoying, but at least it was somewhat transparent!
While waiting to capture a good image of the bug, I saw another caboose.
I have also seen another oddity in the view. Note the red circle in the image below...
The circle is over the top/back of a monument along the south side of the tracks at the intersection of S. Jefferson Street and Roanoke Avenue and is part of the "David R. and Susan S. Goode Railwalk" that was dedicated in March of 2007. Using Google Earth's Street View I can see that the momument has three crankshafts (presummably from a Diesel Locomotive) standing on end and a wrap-around plaque at the top engraved with the words I quoted above. Adjacent to it is a rough map of the Norfolk and Southern railway in Virginia.
Today, from the vantage point of the Roanoke railcam, I see puffs of white smoke (visible in the red circle) coming from the top of the stone of the monument and drifting across the tracks! I don't remember ever seeing this phenomina in the past as I was watching the railcam. I have watched for several hours (off and on) today and have seen dozens of people walk past, even stop to look at the display, and nobody seems to care that smoke is coming from it! At first I thought the gray oblisk was a control cabinet for the railway, but looking more closely and in conjunction with views from Google Earth and Street View, I see it is just a stone back to the display. Then I thought it might be someone bar-b-queing on the street corner behind (railcam view-wise) it, but, if so, they have been cooking for several hours now and I see no one loitering in that area (people walk past, but don't stop). Sometimes the smoke seems to shoot out, like an engine is "reving".
Anybody got an idea what it is?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
[quote user="kolechovski
As for the spider, it's gotta go! I can't be looking at that mess waving in front of the camera the whole time (especially when the sun hits it)! The camera looks high up...can't wipe it with a pole or anything...time to get the flamethrower...
[/quote]
Agreed; but not knowing if the camera is inside or outside the walkway all we can hope for is a good rain or an attentive cleaning person. I can't tell from the pictures Bing Maps offers if it is outdoors, but it sure messes up the view in the afternoon sun.
Norm
I keep tipping my laptop monitor screen, trying to see around the spider web and the window smudges... never can quite get it right!
Hey, now I can get the hang of that! You just have to click the New Snip button the moment the camera is at the point you want it. I believe I can work with it. Too bad it's impossible to specify common set sizes and selection coordinates...that would easily automate most of the process!
The program is "SnippingTool.exe" in the Windows/System32 folder.
I'd advise that you play with it a few times, trying all the various capture modes (Freeform, Rectangular, Window and Full Screen) and such BEFORE you suddenly see something you really want to save! It is not hard to use, but some experience with it will save some consternation when something exciting shows up!
It "freezes" the screen when you select to save an area and picking the 'right moment' can be difficult since you cannot "rewind" the view to capture something that has changed from the "best" view... and there is always this "feeling" that if you stop it too soon, you might miss something "better". You cannot "single step" it through a series of views nor "Cancel" it all that fast to correct an "Oops, I stopped it too soon!" type of thing.
I have saved several images from various lighting conditions (AM, PM, Night) in both 100% (800x450pixels) size view and full screen (which on my PC is exactly 200% because my screen is 1600x900) to help orient my self when I see something that I have not noticed before. I can compare the images to decide whether I am seeing something "new" (or just something I had ignored previously -- happens too often!) and get a better idea of the distance relationship so I can tell size and location.
Well, it's raining now, but the diagonal web still stands. At 11:25, I saw another red caboose, but this one seems to be different from the other 2 mentioned. This one was larger, and it had no lettering on it at all. Like the others, it was red. It was seen moving to the left, but I forget which track it was on.
I also noticed a good few UP locos lately on this cam. In fact, around my area, a BNSF loco even showed up! Anyone know if there is some mass lease of foreign power? I'm curious how much more good stuff we'll come across. The variety certainly continues to pick up. It's just too bad that trains and cars still suddenly stall from time to time, and really dark solar eclipses continue to hit the camera without warning : (
At 11:45, a train on the left track going to the far corner has among its freight, a number of gondolas loaded with huge rocks in them. Where could something like that be headed?
Also, what is that program that can capture screenshots? I can access the windows/system32 folder fine, so maybe I can try it out.
12:03 PM-a train with 3 locos, the second being in an unknown (Conrail shade) blue and white, with the white on the nose, cab, and in one long horizontal line across the back, leading a bunch of Southern hoppers (seem to be loaded with ballast), followed by 2 gondolas with 2 large weird objects within, followed by the Epic containers in 3s (in ABAB formation, as usual), various other cars, and 2 white cars about the size of gondolas, but flatcars with some formation in the middle, came by on the far track heading away. Just another example of the variety, and the many questions raised by the unusual freight/power.
The web was pretty good and complete for a couple of hours a day or so ago, but then a wind storm rolled through and all that is left is the diagonal support with several of the radials wrapped loosely around it. A bit distracting now, especially when the sun is in just the wrong position! Maybe a good heavy rain will wash it away.
The thing that bothers me more is two big smudges on the window, one over the trees on the left and the other at the north end of the parking garage in the upper right quadrant. I can't figure out what caused them... but the first time I noticed the one in the upper right quadrant, there was a large tent erected in the parkinglot just to the left of it and I thought what turned out to be the smudge was smoke from a bunch of bar-b-que's around the tent... I thought, "WOW! Big bar-b-que tonight!", but the "smoke" never left. Wonder what caused those smudges?
.....Now it appears the spider we've seen walking across these lens, has strung a few lines across it....Hope that doesn't turn into a complete web, and one that will catch a bunch of "bugs, Junk, etc...}, making it a bit more difficult to see all the action.
Thanks Rich, for your post.
I guessed there had to be a pretty large Coke distribution depot nearby as so many of those large truck/trailers pass by.
Many years ago I had a coffee bar, when they were in fashion in the UK, I sold both Coke and Pepsi but always kept the Pepsi price lower.
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)
Is spidey going to attack the ( li'l red caboose) . LOL I can only hope the train with the oil cans did survive the savage plundering by the huge MEGA BUG from a few days ago. This site is a very powerful magnet just like the old radio days of serial programs. Long live Roanoke Rail Cam. HEH HEH .
PS stay tuned for the next episode
Rich
Those that desire, find a way..... Those that don't, find an excuse.
Thanks Richard,
My preference is Pepsi, decaffeinated,, and was wondering about that.
Catching a picture of the local red caboose is neat.
Item:
A little bit of trivia I noted the other day...perhaps a week ago. Saw a white {Suburban like}, vehicle with a med. size trailer attached to it, pull into the space just west of the bottom red circle, headed west, and smoke / steam pouring out from under the front of it.
Fellow opened the hood, and seemed to ponder around the front of the vehicle for quite a while, and then, finally he put the hood down, and got in and continued west. As he vacated the spot where it was parked, I could see a lot of moisture on the pavement.....Suppose it was just plenty hot, and steaming and he waited until it "cooled down".
Anyway, he got in it and drove away....Don't know how far he might have been able to continue on....
Happened to notice Spidey's brother-in-law's second cousin's (thrice removed) uncle's youngest sibling working on a web today so I captured the image so those of you who don't know what to look for can see it. The still image reveals just a shadowy blur (just like Spidey!), but, when it is running around on the web it is building, the motion makes its shape much more recognizable.
Also notice the tip of the "Jupiter Rocket" outside the east end of Virginia Transportation Museum building in the background. Use Google Earth's "Street View" feature and you can right next to it!
Oh, yeah, happened to catch the pretty lil' red caboose, too. (Makes it all worthwhile!)
The 'Coke' trucks are always going past there. I guess there is a depot nearby: they seem to go in one way (N Jefferson St. I think) and come out another - passing by the VIrginia Transport Museum and O Winston Link buildings ( former railway station as far as I know).
I you are interested in the area then subscribe to the railway Museum web site. A lot goes on in the area: it is a pity I am too far away to join in the fun.
Just an observation on the Roanoke rail cam. Seems to be a bunch of Coke addicts in town. There is a plethora of Coke trucks, but I've never seen one delivering Pepsi.
Do they know Peps exists?
HA! I just found a way to do it in the cornpewter!
I just acquired Windows 7 and just now accidentally found a new utility built-in called "Snipping Tool" that can capture an image from the video feed. Still have to "Guess" when to grab the frame, but it works.
The program is in the windows\System32 directory, but I can't find it in the Start Programs list. I just accidentally found it in the list of recently run programs, but "I" did NOT recently run it before I found it in that list so I have no idea how it got to that list! I am going to drag that link to my desktop so I can get to it quicker from there. Gonna have to play with it a while to see what all it can do and what is the quickest/best/easiest way to use it.
I always wondered why camera manufacturers haven't yet come up with a common "screen" setting for taking pictures of screens, for the types of reasons you just mentioned. It seems like something in enough demand to warrant that design. Indeed, I recommend a tripod, or at least some steady platform.
kolechovski I would believe the togetherness of the third cars was for stability reasons, but how odd not to just have 4 containers (or if unstable like that, have the third in the middle). Hey, how'd you get the screenshot, or were you one of the lucky ones who has the video load in some non-WMP window, where you can just PrintScreen it?
I would believe the togetherness of the third cars was for stability reasons, but how odd not to just have 4 containers (or if unstable like that, have the third in the middle).
Hey, how'd you get the screenshot, or were you one of the lucky ones who has the video load in some non-WMP window, where you can just PrintScreen it?
Oops! Missed your question about the screen shot... I have tried mightily to get the video feed to be saved on my PC and cannot do it... so I use my digital camera.
When I see an image I like in the video feed, I click pause on Windows Media Player so the image freezes (really hard to decide when the bug was in the "best" position to make an interesting photograph). Then I set the camera for "Macro" (close up mode) and I start taking photos with various positionings of the screen, camera, room lighting, and my shaking hands until I get one that looks kind of decent. Often I have to aim the camera at the screen to get the framing I want, then aim it at a dark place in the room at about the same distance as the camera was from the screen, then press the shutter button about 1/2 way down to lock the camera's auto- exposure and focus, then holding the button at that 1/2 way spot, move it to view the screen again to take the photo.
I usually take a dozen different photos at different settings on the camera (it has a "Text" mode that seems to work well), I have to do lots of photos because even if it looks good on the camera's display it may not look good on the computer screen, and if it looks poor on the camera, it may look real good on the PC (after some enhancement work!). If I were doing this more often, I guess I would build some sort of fixture to hold the camera and computer screen in a fixed relationship (and use a removable piece of paper/cardboard in front of the screen when doing the exposure and focus locking step).
Then I copy the photos to the computer and use various photo enhancing programs (none of them do all the things I want [in a way I can figure out how]) to sharpen, color enhance, rotate, crop, resize, fold, spindle, and/or mutilate it to my acceptance.
That is the only way to capture a screen shot of a video feed that I have found yet, If anyone knows of a way that is simpler, I'd like to know about it!
I just saw 2 trains at the same time on the cam, catching them mid-train, both mixed freights. One train went to the right on the near track, the other one left on the far track. I noticed a couple different strings of coal cars on the leftward-moving one on the far track. It seems the cars must already have been sorted, with several different cuts going to different places. Is there a humping yard nearby? I'm just curious where the sorting happened.
While I'm talking about it, right after those trains, the beautiful red caboose came into view from the left side of the screen on a reverse shove on the middle track. 2 locos were heading that cut, and after it cleared the signal bridge, it stopped, then went back down on the second track from the left side. Both locos were NS 3xxx series, with the second being a high-nose, which I've seen before, commonly on this caboose run.
ADDITION-lots of activity right now! Anyone reading this might want to jump on. For the time being, there's a good parade with good variety. A also saw NS 5079, a high-nose loco, come down the middle track from right to left. I wonder where it's headed. Various freights and loco moves...good stuff!
grampaw pettibone I have seen two trains of those epic marked containers loaded 3 to a flat, and always with the high ends together, in the past two days. One was EB, the second WB, all on the third track from the cam. Strange way of doing things....
I have seen two trains of those epic marked containers loaded 3 to a flat, and always with the high ends together, in the past two days. One was EB, the second WB, all on the third track from the cam. Strange way of doing things....
I too caught at least one of those 3 containers to each car recently Tom....I wondered what that "loading" was all about.
Tom
COAST LINE FOREVER
It is better to dwell in the corner of a roof than to share a house with a contentious woman! (Solomon)
A contentious woman is like a constant dripping! (Solomon)
....The lens needs a windshield wiper. A week or so ago, I witnessed a fairly large spider walking all over the lens. He stayed there a while too.
GIANT BUG ATTACKS TRAIN IN ROANOKE!
Some type of parade of sorts seems to have just passed on the opposite side of the tracks, at 2:20 PM, in the rain, although I could be wrong, as I had just loaded the camera and just saw a ton of people walking with their umbrellas and raincoats. What's that all about?
addition-Talk about an "epic" movement. A train just went by on the closest track with a number of cars that had 3 containers each, each labeled "EPIC", part of a mixed freight. Anyone know what that stuff is, or why those cars are shipped in 3s?
....The cam is working now...4:41 EDT, in fact a train is stopped there now...Believe it's west bound. Can see the end of it. Other movements, so cam is working right now.
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