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Semi-official Rochelle webcam discussion thread

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Posted by rdamon on Thursday, February 1, 2018 8:24 AM

Empty Unit Coal train on BNSF M1 ..  CP GE Unit on DPU ..  Something noisy happening off camera 

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Posted by rdamon on Monday, February 5, 2018 9:44 AM

-6F ... Not seeing anyone on the patio .. ;)

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Posted by rdamon on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 10:41 AM

Just quickly caught one of NS DC to AC units ... Black and Grey .. Could not see if it had blue or red highlights .. :)

3rd unit trailing On a UP train heading West

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Posted by rdamon on Friday, February 9, 2018 10:27 AM

Interesting leader ....

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Posted by MKT Dave on Friday, February 9, 2018 10:28 AM

About thirty minutes ago, the local gp took off northbound, about three minutes ago, he came back as head end on a two pwr short consisted of covered hoppers EB.

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Posted by rdamon on Friday, February 9, 2018 10:57 AM

Sounds like a rescue mission ...  Maybe that is why we do not see a lot of the big EMD units on the BNSF through here.. 

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Posted by cefinkjr on Friday, February 9, 2018 1:47 PM

Not a whole lot of foot traffic in the park at Rochelle today.  I wonder why.  Whistling 

What have they got on the ground there; 4 or 5 inches of snow?

Chuck
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Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, February 9, 2018 9:01 PM

Probably a little more than that--we're in the 8-10-inch range so far.

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Posted by MKT Dave on Friday, February 9, 2018 10:47 PM

I have a friend in Chicago, at noon they were 9 inches and counting

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, February 10, 2018 7:27 AM

It's been brought up before.  I believe it's the strobe on a radio tower well beyond the diamond area that just happens to line up with the pole.

It may appear to flash irregularly because strobes are "on" for such a short time that the webcam may not always catch the flash in a frame.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, February 10, 2018 7:30 AM

Yep... see that near dusk sometimes... I even embarrassed myself by calling the Rochell Police about it, thinking it was a power line shorting.  Turns out it is a flashing light on a cell tower a couple of miles northwest of there that happens to be in line with that utility pole.

This was discussed in the "Sticky" forum topic "Semi-official Rochelle webcam discussion thread" a couple of times.  Of course that thread is getting pretty long to go back and read it all, but it has lots of good information in it.

Semper Vaporo

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Rochelle Webcam
Posted by retsignalmtr on Saturday, February 10, 2018 7:30 AM

I have been watching the webcam at Rochell Il for some time now. Occasionally I can see a flash on the fourth pole from the camera location where the wires attach to the pole. I can only see it when there is limited daylight. Is it a static discharge or some other indication of an electrical problem. Or is it just a reflection. Is it something that should be reported. Thanks.

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Posted by cefinkjr on Saturday, February 10, 2018 9:59 AM

MKT Dave

I have a friend in Chicago, at noon they were 9 inches and counting

That's beginning to be a serious snow...even by my native Western Pennsylvanian standards.

Any questions about why I moved to Texas 30 years ago?

Chuck
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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, February 11, 2018 8:22 AM

Appears that there has been additional snow overnight and the UP has run much more traffic than BNSF.

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Posted by ChuckCobleigh on Sunday, February 11, 2018 8:55 AM

BaltACD

Appears that there has been additional snow overnight and the UP has run much more traffic than BNSF.

Especially since the west BNSF track is completely covered.  Temp shows 10° right now.  No snow in Tehachapi today, not until Wednesday, anyway.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the truck with scraper displacing the snow on the street on the right edge of the frame when watching the cam.

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, February 11, 2018 6:09 PM

MKT Dave
I have a friend in Chicago, at noon they were 9 inches and counting

A mere dusting - and some overtime for the town snowplow operators.  Probably wouldn't even delay the schools.

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Posted by MKT Dave on Monday, February 12, 2018 9:39 AM

Snow plow hit #1 about a dozen feet from the diamonds, had a full crew on it. brought in a front loader to clear the maintenance area after they left.

Seen various reports on the amounts of snow from ten inches to fifteen.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, February 12, 2018 10:11 AM

Notice the snow is so deep on the roof in front of the camera that you cannot see over it to the steps down to firepit area.

Also, the strap-rail display can give you an idea of how deep the snow is.  I don't know if the rail supports are 6x6 or 8x8 (or 10x10) beams, but the snow yesterday was piled up to the level of the iron straps on top of them!  There is some settling now (melting?, weight settling and wind erosion) so the snow on the ties is not as high as it was, but it is still as deep as the beams are tall.

Does anybody know the dimensions of the strap-rail beams and the thickness of the iron strap on top of them.

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, February 12, 2018 10:37 AM

Does anybody know the grades through Rochelle (and which way they are)?

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, February 12, 2018 11:07 AM

Semper Vaporo

Does anybody know the grades through Rochelle (and which way they are)?

This isn't track chart info, but came from the topo maps on Acme Mapper (http://mapper.acme.com/):

Halfway between the diamonds and Flagg Center (BNSF) BM 787

Flagg (UP) 777

Diamonds BM 792

East of Rochelle (UP) BM 841

East of Rochelle (near "tank farm") (BNSF) BM 789

From this I would discern that BNSF is all but flat through town, while UP is on a very slight downgrade, east to west.

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Posted by rdamon on Monday, February 12, 2018 11:35 AM

BNSF Crews out with a leaf blower clearing the switch

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Posted by jeffhergert on Monday, February 12, 2018 12:23 PM

Semper Vaporo

Does anybody know the grades through Rochelle (and which way they are)?

 

CNW side.  About page 35 or so on the pdf.

http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/C&NW/C&NW%20Track%20Charts/C&NW%20East%20Territory%20Track%20Chart%203-1-1992.pdf 

BNSF side. Track chart on page 8.

http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/BNSF/BNSF%20ETTs/BNSF%20Chicago%20Div%20ETT%20%236%206-20-2007.pdf 

Jeff

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Posted by AgentKid on Monday, February 12, 2018 3:03 PM

Jeff, thanks for that. I've always wanted to see one of the ETT's through there. Lots of reading to keep me inside during our bout of cold weather.

Bruce

 

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Posted by blhanel on Monday, February 12, 2018 4:09 PM

Just brought up the webcam- currently nothing happening, and nothing more CAN happen until they get the stalled coal train on UP #1 moving...

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Posted by LEK2 on Monday, February 12, 2018 4:43 PM
At least on my browser, something wonky going on with the web feed... the stalled train just vanished when the feed updated. Then a similar frozen image for an eastbound BNSF, and an eastbound UP stack train that now seems to be moving normally. Weird.
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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, February 12, 2018 4:45 PM

They got the train moving - form listening to the horn signals - sounds like it may have been a train separation East of the camera.

Once it started moving it seems as if the 'flood gates' have opened.

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, February 12, 2018 4:48 PM

What Passenger trains used the diamond 'back in the day' of the CB&Q and the CNW.  I suspect the City trains until they were swapped to the MILW.  What others on either road?

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, February 12, 2018 4:56 PM

Way, way back (off the top of my head) The Twin Cities Zephyrs, the North Coast Limited, the Empire Builder, the Black Hawk, the Denver and west coast CIty trains, the Gold Coast, the San Francisco Overland, the Los Angeles Limited, the Challenger, and locals.

Johnny

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Posted by MKT Dave on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 5:17 PM

Stacks and auto racks are sure rocking on track #1 across the diamonds.

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Posted by Ladder1 on Tuesday, February 13, 2018 8:55 PM

Reason for the UP coal train stall yesterday afternoon.  A female took a walk on the tracks downtown.  Didnt make it. 

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