Hardly any traffic today. Should pick back up tomorrow , I guess. Flags are down already. Hope everyone had a great 4th. RON
Ron did our spider friend go on vacation or get wiped out ???
Jim
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
I don`t know. He is definitely due back at work by now. Maybe he was more successful than we thought and decided to retire. He will be missed. RON
I was thinking last night about how neat it would have been to have this cam in the early to mid fifties. Can you imagine what it would be like to watch the constant parade of A class,Y class ,and J class steamers. How great would it have been to see all the passenger traffic? Oh well ,we can dream,can`t we? As you can see,I have been hit with a nostalgia attack. RON
About the only spread of motive power I saw currently is on the head of a train-BNSF pumpkin loco, that blue loco I mentioned before (which now has numbers, but I can't see them yet), and a green BN loco numbered 7092. That's the modern-day spread, anyhow. Now that I think of something else, I have seen this train shoving that red caboose around. I wonder how many flocks of cabeese we'd have seen back in the day on such a cam had it been up.
More than you would think. I was born and raised in Roanoke about two miles from the Roanoke shops. DAD would take me train watching often. Sure would like to be able to go back in time. Oh,well,at least I have the memories . RON
Are there anymore railcams that are as good as this or the one in the netherlands? RON
I'm afraid I lack a link, but I thought somebody posted a railcam link that had about the same live feed as this one, but with higher speed trains (possibly passenger). I don't know what country that was in. I think some others may have also mentioned foreign webcams they use. Maybe try googling different stuff and seeing if you get lucky.
BTW, I see that that blue loco I had mentioned also now has upside-down V stripes on its nose.
As much time as I spend watching this cam , I have not been lucky enough to see the blue loco all of you have seen. Oh,well, I will just keep on looking. Also haven`t seen any cabooses the last few days . RON
At 8:52 AM today, I saw a slug being pushed to the near side by a loco with a strange white box on top. NS locos...I couldn't read the numbers, though. Last night, I also saw a high nose loco in the darkness. I don't see many high noses around anymore, so it was also refreshing. First slug sighting here.
Another local just passed. Two engines,1 bulkhead flat, 1 covered hopper and a caboose. RON
Is anyone else having trouble with the web cam again ? RON
Working for me at this hour... Dark but still in color mode. Only problem is no trains!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
O K Back to normal. Not much traffic today. RON
......In the past 20 min. I turned to the cam twice......and each time a train was passing. One E B, and one W B. Also turned from color to B / W operation about 9:35.
Quentin
I wonder why it has to go to black & white at night? It sure makes it difficult for me to read the signals. RON
I am looking at what appears to be a union pacific unit sitting idle on the the near track. I can`t read the lettering on the side .Is that what I am seeing? I don`t ever remember seeing one this far east before. RON
UP units are everywhere on the east coast these days. Nothing odd here. Can't tell what this one is. Could very well one of the ex-UP units now HLCX.
.
I guess I haven`t been paying attention. I have never noticed one before. It just surprised me to see it sitting there when I went to the site this morning. RON
On either Monday or Tuesday (was to busy to post), I had seen a UP loco, the caboose at night (just before the B&W switchover, so around 9:30 PM EDT), high-nose locos, and on one train was 3 cars with ballast, one of them appearing to be a side-dumper (just a bit smaller than a gondola). I wondered where that train was headed to and if some lucky railfan would be there to snap the side-dumper in action. I forget what other goodies there were...nice variety though.
Now that I think of that, I also like how there's plenty of mixed freight, instead of constant double stacks or coal trains, with widecab locos, which is about all that comes through Rochelle anymore.
That is one of the reasons I like this cam. There always seems to be a variety. RON
Just watched what appeared to be an empty unit coal train W B @ 5:05.
I seem to "catch" quite a few of these trains each day on this cam.
Wish we had some passenger train traffic thru here, and better yet, stopping within view of cam. Sure looks like that is what it was layed out for in the past....
Does anyone know of a web cam that shows Amtrak activity with streaming video action.....and available full screen as this one is.....?
Edit: Another at 5:24 E bound, mixed freight.
I would like to see some amtrak action in the rockies. I haven`t been able to find any passenger action in the u.s. Lots of it in other countries though . RON.
3 PM here..."What's THAT!?"
Behind a utility high rail truck on the far rail is a weird-looking major utility truck/machine of some sort, coupled with a flatcar with more utility-lifty-stuff. I haven't seen anything like that before.
EDIT-3:12 PM-Did anything see that red thing at the end of that train? What was that? It had railings around it...
3:20 pm....That is a weird looking piece of equipment. The front end actually appears to be similar to a large truck....Looks like I see the radiator shell. And then we have the white piece of equipment a bit west on the same track.......??
Edit:
At 3:22....both pieces of equipment started to move {at the same time}, and maintaining similar distance between them, west to near that first bridge...
1:45 PM, and I just saw the pretty red caboose go back and forth on a cut of several cars on the webcam. Even though the weather is rainy, the caboose showed up well, along with the 2 guys riding its rear. In front of it was also a CP Rail car. And I see the 2 NS units on the head had some white box on top of each of them...not sure what that's for. I still want that snapshot feature so badly...
I too have had occasion to see the little red caboose with white NW letters. I pulled up to the only grade crossing in Martinsville, Virginia and to my surprise a weather beaten old Norfolk & Western high nose GP7 or GP9 crossed in front of me with several very old box cars and that rare caboose bringing up the rear. Recently I caught a glimps of it sitting on the closest track to the Roanoke Rail Cam but the screen went black and by the time it came back on line, the engine was just pulling out of sight.
By the way, I've read that some would like to have a snapshot of the action and I've found a way to do so. My wife bought me a new DELL 23 inch monitor for my birthday. I bought a mini tripod at the local Dollar Tree and set up my Kodak ditigial camera and bingo, I can turn the lights out and record the action on video or settle for individual snap shots that I can then enlarge as desired. The larger the shot, the grainer and fuzzier it gets.
Rich
Those that desire, find a way..... Those that don't, find an excuse.
RichardLHight BTW, have any of you folks noticed the white car that is parked across from the Jefferson street intersection? It's been parked there for at least five days since I first noticed it sitting by itself at night, and still there each day since. I wonder if it's been stolen and abandoned right under the cop's nose? Stranger things have happened! Rich
Well, it probably ain't a stolen car... I just watched a white SUV of some sort come from the east and park about 3 or 4 slots to the east of it (all other cars were gone by then). The driver got out, opened the rear hatch/door of the SUV and did some rearranging of something back there for a while. Then he walked to the parked car in question (why'd he park so far away???) and opened the passenger door. I could not tell if he used a key or not, but he didn't spend much time at the door before it opened. He then went back to the rear of the SUV and carried what looked like a suit coat to the car and put whatever it was in the passenger side. He returned to the SUV, did something at the passenger door of it, then closed the rear hatch, got in the driver's side and drove away.
EDIT: after posting the above I went back to check the webcam and the white car is gone.
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