Well finally, we read of the project issue we have been watching and wondering...Thanks to all who finally broke the silence. That opening they have been working with was what I thought it was....a leftover pedestrian tunnel to gain advantage to the inside passenger tracks....and seems they are altering it or filling it completely to do the track renovation work. But thanks to those who shed some light on what has been on going there.
Quentin
Agreed... nice to know what they've been working on down there.
Also looking forward to the camera being back online; have gotten
use to checking it throughout the day.
Does anyone have information when the railcam will be back up?
Just saw this at the "Railcam" link on the Hotel Roanoke site:
The VMT railcam (" http://www.nwhs.org/cam/vmt/ ") has been updated as well. Looks like a wide angle camera has been installed and it updates faster.
Still TOO SLOW (once per 3 seconds, but that is better than the random 2 to 30 second update rate previously) and has an annoying blanking of the lower 2/3's of the scene on every update (not unlike what it did before), and the cover over the lens has streaks or scratches that make it look like it is raining hard.
It is "better" than it was, but still not as good as the Hotel cam became. Hope the new Hotel cam is at least as good as it was. Wonder what the updates will include? (or destroy? [Am I a pessimist, or what?].)
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Im hoping that the new camera will be just as good. Possibly sound??
Hurray!!!!! It's up and running again! Let's hope it lasts.
Hurray indeed!! I've missed it being available!
Now we can see how the construction is progressing.
Norm
Supprise.....! Just checked as I've been doing each day, and wow....it's back on. Now I get to see just what they have completed since the camera went out. {When it's daylight}.
Thanks to whomever made it available again.
Video seems to be stuck in a 21 second loop.
I have cleared my cache and all 3 methods of getting to the camera are showing the same sequence, so the problem is further up the line closer to the camera's server. Even the 1 second update access is just the same 21 seconds, then it stops and I have to restart it, just to see the same stop action sequence.
EDIT: It had been stuck for about an hour and now that I posted this, it is working okay again.
Watched two cabeese go by this morning;
At 11:36 AM (Roanoke time -- I THINK! The clock showing in the images are CST) the pale red caboose in desperate need of a paint job and still labeled as "NW" went east on what I call track 4 (furthest from the camera). The train was black tank cars.
Then at 12:22 PM the better looking red caboose labeled with the NS "racehorse" logo went east on track 3 with covered hopper cars.
Not long after that my connection to the camera "went to lunch" and I could not get it to come back and stay (then I went to lunch) so I don't know if I missed them returning. Did anyone happen to see them return (today - 2/22/2013)?
I have been trying to figure out where they go and knowing how long it takes might improve my chances of figuring that out.
I have followed the various tracks using Google Earth and found that using the Street View feature on Norfolk Ave SE, I can see a caboose in transit on track 4 and I can follow it (somewhat) to the south, but the timing of the various photos changes along the route and it dissappears before I can tell how far it goes. Because of today's sighting on the Railcam I can see what cars they are associated with.
AH HA! Whilst I am typing this the NW caboose just came back at 02:54 PM. So it was "out and about" for 3 hours, 18 minutes. Returning it had 2 tank cars and 2 boxcars.
I still wonder about the other (NS) one, has it come back yet?
Anyway, with a 3 hour limit for the distance traveled, (and divide that by 2) and work time at the work site(s), and add in delays asking the Dispatcher for permission to change directions, etc.) I am sure the destination is not very far away. I would not expect it to travel very far anyway since returning is a shove operation.
Following the rails on Google earth presents two possible destinations for the train on track 4. I am fairly certain it follows the line to the south. One possible destination (Cycle Systems, Inc.) shows no evidence of tank cars on the property at the time of the G.E. images. The other ("Chemsolv, Inc" in an industrial park on "Industry Ave, SE") shows tank cars in the area, but requires a seperate reverse move to get there.
The other (track 3) train's destination is a bit harder to determine. For one, I don't yet have a max time away. And I can't be sure which track it takes once outside the view of the camera. Even though it starts on track 3 it could switch to the same route as the other, or it could continue to the east. I don't see any destinations along that route that show hopper cars and box cars in the present images on G.E. I suppose it could be no further than the shops just to the east of the camera scene (maybe the cars are "bad order" going east and repaired going west). (And maybe I missed the return trip while I was at lunch or trying to get the web cam back on-line on my PC).
Just asking here if anybody knows more about it.
See whats ya gets ta see when ya just decides to look at the Roanoke RailCam on a whim!
Barely had time to hit the Prt Scrn key!
Tried to catch it on the VMT railcam but it would not show an image... (maybe too many people watching it for the server to handle yet another watcher!).
The excursions in Roanoke, VA last weekend (March 16) went well for me, viewing it all via the internet. I got screen capture video of almost all of the time the Steam Locomotive was in view on the Roanoke Hotel Railcam, and ONE (count'em! ONE) good image of the steamer in view of the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) Railcam.
I am working on paring the almost 3 hours of video down to just a few minutes to post to YouTube and will link to it here when it is ready (don't hold yer breath, you'll turn blue!). Most of the video I captured is just of people milling around waiting for the train.
But just to tell a silly story about the day, I will post the only image I got from the VMT Railcam now...
The excursions ran West from Roanoke to Radford, VA, and back, in the morning, and East from Roanoke to Lynchburg, VA, and back, in the afternoon.
The Hotel Railcam worked perfectly for me all day. But, I was unable to get the VMT Railcam to work at all in the morning when the train backed from the west yard to the boarding area in the view of the Hotel Railcam, so I did not get any images from that time. Nor could I get to the VMT Railcam when it returned later that morning from the west. But when the train returned from the East in the afternoon, it pulled way past the Hotel Railcam view and I again attempted to get to the VMT Railcam.
This time the connection to the server worked, but there was a difference in the delay in the data from the two servers, (the Hotel Railcam was running about 15 seconds behind the VMT Railcam) such that by the time I got the VMT Railcam to show, the only thing I could see was the last car of the train, with the rest of it off camera to the left (West).
Then another train came along on the track closest to the VMT Railcam and blocked the view of the excursion train on the track furthest from the Railcam. It was a general freight and had many boxcars and hoppers and most of the time I could not even tell if the excursion train was still there!
The VMT Railcam is closer to the tracks and from a lower vantage point, and has a wider angle and I think a higher resolution than the Hotel Railcam, so it is a very good view, but it only updates the image once per second and often takes 5 or 10 seconds (or more!) to complete the update... and each update erases the screen and starts the download over, so often all I get to see is a small band of the top of the image and then the screen clears and I only get to see the same small band of the next image. Utterly useless that way!
So, I have learned to click the "Pause" button (the little circle with 2 vertical bars ("||") in it below the image area) when the screen clears and the image starts to download and let it complete the download (Pause only stops the request for the next image, not the download of the present image). When enough of the image is visible to tell if it will be a good one, I can decide whether to click the "Run" button (the same little circle below the image but now with an arrow head [">"] in it) to start a new image or to leave the image alone to complete the download and then maybe do a Prt Scrn to capture the image for later.
I kept doing the Pause/Run trick hoping to be able to tell whether the excursion was backing up or still sitting there. Soon I could tell it was backing up and the freight train was going to be too long to get out of the way in time to see the engine... But God blessed me with a couple flat cars in the freight at just the right moment as the Steam Locomotive #630 was almost perfectly centered on screen!
To wit:
One thing to note: Contrary to the direction of the steam from the generator on the top of the locomotive, the train was BACKING slowly at this time! There was a rain squall coming in from the west and it was blowing the steam back over the cab... I promise you, the train was backing to the east at the moment the image was captured on screen!
PTL!
Excellent coverage, thanks!
That VMT Railcam is very frustrating... it seems when I'm just randomly checking it, the thing runs flawlessly, but if there's something coming I want to get some screen-caps of, it either freezes or re-loads so slow that I miss the shot! I emailed them about it, and they replied they were aware of the problem and started soliciting me for money to upgrade it!!
My Grandson and I have tickets for the Spencer - Barber Junction round trip on the 13th of next month, really looking forward ot it!
For me, the VMT railcam is useless. I haven't been able to see anything on it in months. Just a small strip across the top which shows nothing. I don't understand why they even use it as it seems like a waste of money to operate for no reason. Upgrade it and I might contribute, but nothing up front from me until I see what they do.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
TCWRIGHT973: Try my trick of clicking the Pause button to let the image finish downloading. It makes the camera SLIGHTLY more worthwhile.
Granted, it is a pain to have to do so, but at least you can see the whole image maybe 4 to 6 times per minute! (Yeah, BLEAH! )
Just don't get the idea that you can get a slightly better image by fetching the "next" image! I have fallen for that too many times (it is a bit embarrassing!)... I see a caboose coming and it is just a wee bit too far away to get a good screen shot of it, so I update the image one more time and caboose is off the other side of the screen. RATZ!
Semper Vaporo...
Thanks for the tip and I'll give it a try. But to be honest, I don't really check in on it much anymore as it's just a waste of time.
Waste of time is correct.... the fellow who done the soliciting ask me to reply with any suggestions, so I suggested they trade the webcam in on a pet monkey!
Speaking of that webcam, would anyone be so kind as to identify the white car in this photo from a 1/13 screen cap?
What happened to the quanity of "track panels" that were present about a week ago here along where there the autos used to park.
What was the reason for the uprooting of the paved surface in view of the hotel cam some months ago...When any activity with people...does happen, it seems activity with special trains become visible here, but now its gravel or ballast stone...
Sound would certainly nice to have with the hotel cam.....I understand that must cost more $$$.
Enjoyed seeing the several steam activity photos recently...and seeing the several caboose' as well.
I saw a work train of sorts go east (right to left) on the closest track (track 1?) on Sunday. It was an engine and a crane on what appeared to be a very short flatcar or a single truck under the crane, followed by another close coupled flat car with some supports on it, (like for the crane boom to rest on but it was not on them) followed by two more empty flat cars. I am GUESSING that the switch track panels and that work train are associated and they are doing some work to the east of the camera, but I have no idea how far east. I doubt if the track panels would have been stored there if the work were a great distance east, so I am again guessing that the work is near the Depot and the O. Winston Link Museum.
I figure they will take out the gravel/sand put down for the loading platform, but there is no telling when. (I wonder just how firm a footing that loading area really is... did ladies in high-heels have trouble standing?)
I have my 2 .75 hours of video pared down to just 30 minutes... 30 minutes of extreme boredom! That train moved REALLY SLOW when moving within the view of the camera. Long periods of just sitting and them move at 1 MPH a car length or two. I have cut out all the "sitting" except for some time where the Locomotive "whished some steam" (to borrow a term from Thomas). And I have removed those scenes where the train is at the west end of the scene. But it passes the camera EIGHT times and that adds up to a long video of a very slow moving train. I think I will have to split it into 8 segments to upload to YouTube and let the individual viewers decide how much time to waste watching them.
The black tank cars are probably carrying ethanol to the new bulk unloading facility the other side of the East End Shops. This is near Norfolk Ave and Hollins RD NE and is labelled on Goggle maps.
http://ww2.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/310306/
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Roanoke,+VA&hl=en&ll=37.277536,-79.925172&spn=0.013181,0.027874&sll=38.003385,-79.420925&sspn=6.914717,14.27124&oq=roa&hnear=Roanoke,+Virginia&t=h&z=16&iwloc=lyrftr:h,10675086475239916687,37.278236,-79.925923
It's fairly common to see short trains with a caboose turning at the WYE or headed to the transloading facility.
Switch sections are stored along the tracks at the west end of the shops near the expressway overpass. More switches and and overhead signal sections are stored near the Henry Street bridge.
I work in the building across the street from the web cam.
Semper Vaporo Watched two cabeese go by this morning; At 11:36 AM (Roanoke time -- I THINK! The clock showing in the images are CST) the pale red caboose in desperate need of a paint job and still labeled as "NW" went east on what I call track 4 (furthest from the camera). The train was black tank cars. Then at 12:22 PM the better looking red caboose labeled with the NS "racehorse" logo went east on track 3 with covered hopper cars. Not long after that my connection to the camera "went to lunch" and I could not get it to come back and stay (then I went to lunch) so I don't know if I missed them returning. Did anyone happen to see them return (today - 2/22/2013)? I have been trying to figure out where they go and knowing how long it takes might improve my chances of figuring that out. I have followed the various tracks using Google Earth and found that using the Street View feature on Norfolk Ave SE, I can see a caboose in transit on track 4 and I can follow it (somewhat) to the south, but the timing of the various photos changes along the route and it dissappears before I can tell how far it goes. Because of today's sighting on the Railcam I can see what cars they are associated with. AH HA! Whilst I am typing this the NW caboose just came back at 02:54 PM. So it was "out and about" for 3 hours, 18 minutes. Returning it had 2 tank cars and 2 boxcars. I still wonder about the other (NS) one, has it come back yet? Anyway, with a 3 hour limit for the distance traveled, (and divide that by 2) and work time at the work site(s), and add in delays asking the Dispatcher for permission to change directions, etc.) I am sure the destination is not very far away. I would not expect it to travel very far anyway since returning is a shove operation. Following the rails on Google earth presents two possible destinations for the train on track 4. I am fairly certain it follows the line to the south. One possible destination (Cycle Systems, Inc.) shows no evidence of tank cars on the property at the time of the G.E. images. The other ("Chemsolv, Inc" in an industrial park on "Industry Ave, SE") shows tank cars in the area, but requires a seperate reverse move to get there. The other (track 3) train's destination is a bit harder to determine. For one, I don't yet have a max time away. And I can't be sure which track it takes once outside the view of the camera. Even though it starts on track 3 it could switch to the same route as the other, or it could continue to the east. I don't see any destinations along that route that show hopper cars and box cars in the present images on G.E. I suppose it could be no further than the shops just to the east of the camera scene (maybe the cars are "bad order" going east and repaired going west). (And maybe I missed the return trip while I was at lunch or trying to get the web cam back on-line on my PC). Just asking here if anybody knows more about it.
Semper Vaporo steam from the generator on the top of the locomotive
Generator!?!
I was taught that is the Dynamo, back before I could even read.
I don't know though if that term is specific to direct steam generated electricity. Not including steam turbine driven generators.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
I knew there was another word for what I wrote!... Just could not get it to the conscious mind to drive the fingers on the keyboard! Thanks!
The word dynamo (from the Greek word dynamis; meaning power) was originally another name for a DC electrical generator, and the word is still used to mean that in some disciplines. Bicycles sometimes have what is called a hub dynamo built into the wheel hub, but they usually produce AC. It is an old word, but since we are talkin' Steam Locomotives, it is the appropriate word to use!
@billh:
Thank you for the link to the news article. Good info on what is happening and what will probably be in the view of the camera this summer.
There was one paragraph in the news article that really bothered me...
---------------------------
Perkins waited his turn to pick up ethanol. Once his tanks were full, he drove across the street to the Kinder Morgan Energy Partners petroleum products terminal, where ethanol was unloaded for blending.
--------------------------
"DROVE ACROSS THE STREET" ???? I surely do not wish Mr. Perkins to lose work, but I certainly hope the track upgrades eliminate the intermediate use of a truck to move a liquid across the street!
I have not been able to access the full motion large image railcam server all weekend. The only access I can get is the 1 second update rate small image link. Can anybody else get to the better servers links?
I was getting the "stop action" video for about 10 seconds after which it would freeze. I would reboot the site and it would just repeat the same scene and freeze. Now it just shows a black screen with no connection. You would think that after being offline for over a month in late winter for improvements that it would be running. Now I habe nothing to do but do some work around the house! <grin>.
A note appeared under the thumb for the camera view yesterday or the day before saying it would be down for the foreseeable future for some reason I can't recall, but that it would return in time. Sounded to me like a couple of weeks or so.
Crandell
Very, very happy to see the cam up and running last night when we returned home. I log on a number of times every day and miss it when it's down. Thanks to those who take care of and see to the best railroad cam on the net.
Just got back online after almost a year . Glad to see both roanoke cams are still operating . I missed checking them daily . RON
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