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ROANOKE RAIL CAM

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  • From: Cordes Jct Ariz.
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Posted by switch7frg on Friday, September 23, 2011 11:44 AM

WhistlingI watch every morn when it is coffee time. Iam watching to see the white pickup still parked there day and night. Maybe the owner is a hobo drifter, and not any where near this place.

                                                             Jim

Y6bs evergreen in my mind

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Posted by j610 on Friday, September 23, 2011 7:20 PM

Still raining .Not much action today , at least not in the times i was on .    RON

J610
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Posted by Modelcar on Thursday, September 29, 2011 4:02 PM

Heads up:

Special train in cam view now.  {4} ABBA units with maybe Executive {N S}, train....Can just see one pass. car.

Quentin

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Posted by j610 on Thursday, September 29, 2011 5:10 PM

The four units are center screen on the cam right now .   RON

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Posted by j610 on Thursday, September 29, 2011 5:55 PM

I think they may be tied down for the night . Big shots are probably staying at the hotel roanoke tonight .    RON

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Posted by j610 on Thursday, September 29, 2011 6:22 PM

I think they may be tied down for the night . Big shots are probably staying at the hotel roanoke tonight .    RON

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, September 29, 2011 9:18 PM

My bet is that is is for a Autumn Colors Excursion this weekend... maybe starting Friday.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by switch7frg on Thursday, September 29, 2011 10:07 PM

Whistling Quentin; you are right, the engines are tied down. The signal bridge is showing all red. This is at 7:45pm MST. The car bihind the engine has a light in the window ( for the hoggers and crew to find their way home??)  for supper.  HEH  HEH .    Gonna check VRM cam now.                              

        

        

                                                         Cannonball

Y6bs evergreen in my mind

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Posted by j610 on Friday, September 30, 2011 6:16 AM

Executive train pulled out at 7:10 this morning .           RON

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Posted by Modelcar on Friday, September 30, 2011 9:22 AM

...Ron, did you see if it had a long consist of pass cars....?

And Cannonball....I wondered about the dim light in the pass car window last night too.  Didn't look like any of the engines were running....So I then thought it might just have been a street light {along that walking path}, on the far side of the tracks, shining thru a facing window in the pass car.

Noticed a blinking light a couple hundred feet ahead of the lead engine.  looked like it was on or at the track the train was setting on.

Whatever it all was, it was something a bit different to look at...Noted quite a few cars driving down along side of the train last night, and thought perhaps it was just rail fan onlookers.

Quentin

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, September 30, 2011 9:46 AM

I also noticed a lot more cars traversing that parking lot at night and assumed they were railfans.

There was also someone parked at the far end that would periodically get out of the car and walk to the near end, be gone for a few minutes and then walk back to the car.  He had a bright flashlight that he periodically would shine on the sides of the engines and between them.  I assumed he was Night Security for the consist.

The flashing light may be the light on a switch.  I have seen similar flashing from a signal between tracks 2 and 3 about the center of the scene.  But I also wonder if maybe is was similar to a highway barracade flashing light and maybe it was on a Derail that was protecting the mainline from the consist (in case it decided to make an unscheduled midnight excursion).

And that white pickup truck is still there.

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by Modelcar on Friday, September 30, 2011 9:56 AM

.....Yes, I too thought the flashing light might have been associated with a derail.

Quentin

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Posted by j610 on Friday, September 30, 2011 2:10 PM

There were 10 cars  . There was an open platform car on the rear with a full length dome car ahead of it .The engines were shut down for the night . I watched them being fired up this morning .    RON

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Posted by nsfan51282 on Thursday, October 13, 2011 2:04 PM

cant seem to get the cam to work my meida player must be messed up 

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Posted by jlrc47 on Thursday, October 13, 2011 2:26 PM

cam is working at my end with Media player.

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Posted by j610 on Thursday, October 13, 2011 5:09 PM

My timing isn`t very good lately . Every time i log on , nothing is happening . I will just keep on trying .    RON

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Posted by kolechovski on Saturday, October 29, 2011 11:35 AM

Geez...I haven't visited this thread in forever.  Everybody, look at the webcam now!  There's a passenger special of some sort on the cam!  The VMT railcam is down, likely from flooded traffic.  Does anybody know anything about this thing?

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Posted by Modelcar on Saturday, October 29, 2011 11:43 AM

kolechovski

Geez...I haven't visited this thread in forever.  Everybody, look at the webcam now!  There's a passenger special of some sort on the cam!  The VMT railcam is down, likely from flooded traffic.  Does anybody know anything about this thing?

Gee, thanks for the heads up.  What a nice site.  Is it too late for a Fall colored leaf special....?

Boy, wish we had scheduled pass. consists passing thru there everyday.

Edit:  Train just backed to the left....3 Amtrak engines on the point.  Nice site.

Another edit:  Appears the engines have run around the consist and now facing east.  Didn't actually count the cars, but must be roughly, 35 or so....Some full domes.

Quentin

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Posted by co2716ehp on Saturday, October 29, 2011 12:24 PM

3 engines & 25 cars, four of them domes. It's the trip from Spencer N.C.  Will be running to Toccoa, Ga tomorrow.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, October 29, 2011 12:26 PM

Thanks for the heads-up... nice to get the subsribed to a topic e-mail in this instance!

Now a question... I had trouble counting the cars (wish I had recorded the move) so I can only estimate that there are about 30 passenger cars.  Anybody get an accurate count?  EDIT: Oops, I see co2726ehp got a count and posted before I got done typing.

Now another question... Why are there 3 AMTRAK engines on the point?  I thought passenger cars would be lots lighter than freight cars and I see many freight trains of 50 to 100 cars with only 2 engines.  Are the passenger cars all that much heavier, or the AMtRAK engines all that much weaker or is the railroad demanding triple redundancy because they don't want a stupid old passenger train to breakdown on the line and tie up traffic?

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by kolechovski on Saturday, October 29, 2011 1:47 PM

No idea.  Maybe so many cars have power requirements that the additional locos must generate.  The train seems to have pretty much boarded.  That cone on the left keeps blowing over, but it does not look very windy there.

EDIT-The train just finished leaving after 3 PM.  Winds have picked up feavily there and were even jiggling the camera.  Any guys from this forum on that train?  I noticed a few people waving and dancing for the camera.  No, I don't think they're going to get on So You Think You Can dance...

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Posted by Jjohnieray on Saturday, October 29, 2011 2:09 PM

It has left at 2.04 cst.Long train

 

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Posted by kolechovski on Saturday, October 29, 2011 3:15 PM

Newswire:

N&W 611 now “Spirit of Roanoke”

Published: October 28, 2011
ROANOKE, Va. – Norfolk & Western J-class 4-8-4 has a new designation: “The Spirit of Roanoke.” The locomotive is displayed at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke. Museum Executive Director Bev Fitzpatrick told Roanoke’s News7 television that 611 is worthy of a new name. “We’re now talking about it as the one thing that embodies the rail history of Roanoke better than anything else,” Fitzpatrick said. “When you think about the fact it was not only built here, but plied these rails up and down from Cincinnati and Columbus to Norfolk and back hardly ever stopping for maintenance because they had just engineered it so well, it’s an icon," Fitzpatrick said.

The museum has plans to move the 611 in the next six months. ?Its new home will be the third track under the museum pavilion, a location that will offer a better view of the locomotive.

No. 611 was built at N&W’s Roanoke Shops in 1950. Fifty-two years ago this week, on Oct. 24, 1959, it made its last regular service run, pulling a round trip excursion from Roanoke to Williamson, W.Va. It returned to service in 1982 as part of Norfolk Southern’s steam program, and was retired a second time in 1994.

 

 

-------

-I wonder if this will be coming down one of the tracks coming into Roanoke, and, if we'll get to see it on the camera.  Keep watching for this one in the future.

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Posted by Modelcar on Saturday, October 29, 2011 7:14 PM

It certainly represented it's heritage well.   Took many photographs of it back in the 80's as it visited Muncie, In.

Have a series of shots I took of it leaving Munice on the Frankton line, west...with a consist of perhaps 20 or so passenger cars.  I was on an overhead bridge and watched it approach at a pretty good speed, and got a series of photos of it as it came toward me.

It visited Muncie several times.

Quentin

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Posted by bingozone on Sunday, October 30, 2011 12:35 PM

does anyone know what the amtrak train number is that left yesterday?

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Posted by kolechovski on Monday, October 31, 2011 5:10 PM

Train number, no, but I see the lead loco is numbered 93, and the second loco is 136, and the third is 148, all Amtrak locos, running in AAB formation.  Maybe this can help.  I also saw a large number of buses running that day.

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Posted by Norm48327 on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 10:04 AM

I caught the train, and it appeared to be backing into the yard. it sure seemed long for a passenger train.  Led me to believe it was a fall excursion. I think having three locomotives up front was primarily to produce hotel power for all those cars.

Norm


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Posted by kolechovski on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 2:10 PM

Why are a bunch of Coca Cola trucks all lined up, blocking traffic?  You can see them on the VMT cam...link:

EDIT- it seems to have been an accident there.  At least 1 firetruck showed up, and other unknown emergency vehicles.  I don't see any spilled Coke bottles that people are scrambling to gather, so it must not have involved any of the Coke trucks.  The delay on the live feed is really noticeable compared with the VMT cam, a good 30 secs.

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Posted by kolechovski on Saturday, November 5, 2011 11:39 AM

The stuff is set up again today, though I see no passenger train.  Did it already depart, or will it be coming and going soon?  How long will these trains be running?  Even Roanoke seems to have lost a significant amount of foliage.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, November 5, 2011 12:04 PM

Yeah, I see the orange cones and yellow tape, but I have not seen any trains that I would associate with them.  Lots of light engine moves to the west on that track, though.

I also noticed that the whit pickup with the low topper had gone away last week, but now it is back.

And what is with that yellow pickup at the far end of the parking lot.  Is it missing the front wheels or did something real heavy fall on the hood? (It looks squished!)

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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