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Semi-official Rochelle webcam discussion thread

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Posted by jeffhergert on Saturday, May 18, 2019 5:46 PM

Semper Vaporo

It is called a Wayside Horn.  It provides an alert at the crossing, where it is needed, but eliminates the loud horn 1/4 miles away from the crossing.  The train horn has to be louder than the Wayside horn to be heard at the crossing, whereas the Wayside horn only needs to be loud enough to be heard right there where it is.

 

The automated horn systems are supposed to focus the sound towards the roads approaching the crossing.  Grand Island and Blair also have them.  Ames, IA used to have them, but abandoned the AHS and went to a true quiet zone.  

It may reduce noise, but when Ames had them you could hear them all over the downtown area.  Maybe not as loud as a engine's horn, but still very noticable.

Jeff

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 3:25 PM

jeffhergert

 Semper Vaporo

It is called a Wayside Horn.  It provides an alert at the crossing, where it is needed, but eliminates the loud horn 1/4 miles away from the crossing.  The train horn has to be louder than the Wayside horn to be heard at the crossing, whereas the Wayside horn only needs to be loud enough to be heard right there where it is. 

The automated horn systems are supposed to focus the sound towards the roads approaching the crossing.  Grand Island and Blair also have them.  Ames, IA used to have them, but abandoned the AHS and went to a true quiet zone.  

It may reduce noise, but when Ames had them you could hear them all over the downtown area.  Maybe not as loud as a engine's horn, but still very noticable.

Jeff

The Catch 22 of audible warning devices - if they are loud enough to warn, they are also loud enough to annoy!

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Posted by ChuckCobleigh on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 10:26 PM

Apropos of nothing, Amtrak “Track Train” page is showing WB Zephyr tonight (Wednesday) going through DeKalb on the way to Rochelle, at 10:26 CDT.

EDIT: Well, three hours later the icon is still in the same place on the tracker map and for at least two hours after my post no Amtrak came through the webcam, so false alarm, I guess.

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Posted by blhanel on Thursday, May 30, 2019 11:30 AM

Working on UP #1 across the diamonds this morning...

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, June 10, 2019 11:24 AM

Just a headsup... the Roanoke railcam has been gone for at least a couple of weeks now.  I am guessing the URL was not paid for... it is now some sort of web page for GoDaddy.  Too bad, it was fun while it lasted.

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Posted by MKT Dave on Monday, June 10, 2019 5:52 PM

sorry, just watched a stack on the BNSF WB on the Cam, Here's the link if yours got changed.

http://trn.trains.com/videos/webcams/2014/09/bnsf-and-union-pacific-in-rochelle-il

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Posted by Miningman on Monday, June 10, 2019 6:24 PM

It's the Roanoke Cam, not Rochelle, that he is clearly referring to.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, June 10, 2019 10:18 PM

Yes, I was referring to the Roanoke (VA) Rail Cam that used to be available via the link in the black banner at the top of the Trains.com website ("Photos & Videos").  It opens a page on Trains dot com that explains the cam and if you click on the image in that page, originally you got a Trains sponsored page of a live feed from the Hotel Roanoke.  Then it changed several months ago to open a web page on YouTube for a live feed of the cam.  THAT link is now broken.

 

BUT... TA DA!  If you go to Youtube and search for Roanoke Rail Cam, it is still live and working!  :-)  My report of it being dead was in error, just the Trains dot com link is wrong now.

 

There used to be a thread about this cam on this forum, but it was never a "sticky" like this one is for Rochelle, IL.  I just can no longer find it buried deep in the list, and some of us have been sneaking into this thread to mention the Roanoke Rail Cam from time to time. (sorry!)  At least the city lights from Roanoke provide a slightly better image of trains at night!

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Posted by MKT Dave on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 8:48 AM

sorry, thought you'd misspelled Rochelle, my bust.

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Posted by MKT Dave on Monday, June 17, 2019 10:27 AM

10.22 BNSF stack flew across the diamonds. Just wondering what is the max speed allowed across the diamonds?

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Posted by cefinkjr on Monday, June 17, 2019 11:26 AM

MKT Dave

10.22 BNSF stack flew across the diamonds. Just wondering what is the max speed allowed across the diamonds?

 

Whatever it is, I'm sure MoW says it's way too high, Traffic thinks it's way too low, and Operations thinks it's just right.  (MoE can't hear the argument for the ringing in their ears ... or is that hammering on steel?)

Whistling

Chuck
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Posted by CShaveRR on Monday, June 17, 2019 5:01 PM

35.

Carl

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, June 17, 2019 7:46 PM

Considering the pounding that happens to the frogs at RR crossings at grade, I am surprised that they (the rail industry) have not developed 'economical' moveable point frogs to eliminate the pounding and having the welders working on the frogs on a near continuos basis.  There are moveable point frogs in other applications.

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Posted by CShaveRR on Monday, June 17, 2019 9:30 PM

I suspect that the angles aren't acute enough for movable-point frogs like those found in switches.

Carl

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, June 17, 2019 10:22 PM

CShaveRR
I suspect that the angles aren't acute enough for movable-point frogs like those found in switches.

Switch machines to raise 'plugs' in the flangeways that are being pounded over when the signals are lined for a movement.  When the signals are not lined the 'plugs' are retracted.

I am certain 'mudchicken' can give me 17 reasons why the idea is impractical - but what is the cost of having a welder nearly assigned as a 'employee of the crossing'?  Not just the employee but all the equipment and supplies necessary to support his activities as well as decreasing track time for train movements.

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Posted by rdamon on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 9:48 AM

Didn't Deshler get a flange bearing diamond installed recently?

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Posted by phkmn2000 on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 9:55 AM
I haven't been able to see the cam for a couple of weeks (Chrome, Win10). Every time I click the cam link, I get the subscribe window, and when I close that I'm back to the home page. Firefox is cimilar, but MS Edge works. I've tried turning off ad blockers and privacy badger, installing Flash, nothing works. Suggestions?
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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 10:06 AM

rdamon
Didn't Deshler get a flange bearing diamond installed recently?

My understanding, flawed as it may be, is that flange bearing diamonds are for low speed operation.  Where employed, mostly between Class 1's and Short Lines - the Short Line is the low speed, flange bearing, partner in the use of the diamond.

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Posted by rdamon on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 10:33 AM

I believe that the Deshler one is a high speed full flange bearing  design, much quieter, not the OWLS (One-Way Low Speed) type like they put in Colton, CA after the fly-over was done.

Found this link 

https://www.arema.org/files/library/2007_Conference_Proceedings/Installation_Flange_Bearing_Crossing_Diamond_2007.pdf

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 5:55 PM

@phkmn2000: Right now (6/19/2019, 5:52 PM CDT) all I get is a black window where the video goes.  I see the rotating petal image for a few seconds then nothing but black. (Winders 10 - 1903, IExplorer).  No suggestions from me this time.

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Posted by MikeF90 on Thursday, June 20, 2019 2:48 PM

Semper Vaporo
@phkmn2000: Right now (6/19/2019, 5:52 PM CDT) all I get is a black window where the video goes.  I see the rotating petal image for a few seconds then nothing but black. (Winders 10 - 1903, IExplorer).

I just had the exact same symptom - Linux Mint, Firefox 67.0.3. I refreshed the screen and the expected video appeared. Very wierd.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, June 20, 2019 4:11 PM

Still doesn't work in IExplorer, but does work in MS Edge (same computer).

 

Refresh didn't help with IE.

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by MrLynn on Thursday, June 20, 2019 6:55 PM

rdamon

I believe that the Deshler one is a high speed full flange bearing  design, much quieter, not the OWLS (One-Way Low Speed) type like they put in Colton, CA after the fly-over was done.

Found this link 

https://www.arema.org/files/library/2007_Conference_Proceedings/Installation_Flange_Bearing_Crossing_Diamond_2007.pdf

 
Thanks for that link.  It's from 2007.  A quick search doesn't indicate whether full-flange-bearing diamonds have been installed for high-speed crossings to any great extent.  That test in 2007 was for 10mph.  Do you know if they've been rated for higher speeds?
 
For any who might not have seen it, I did a blog post on the diamond replacement at Rochelle in 2017, using screen shots from the webcam:
 
 
/Mr Lynn
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, June 21, 2019 1:42 PM

Video now working again in IE (winders 10).

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by dh28473 on Friday, June 21, 2019 4:21 PM
Is rochelle down?
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, June 21, 2019 4:43 PM

Working for me in Winders 10 IExplorer (6/21/2019 4:44 PM CDT)

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by dh28473 on Sunday, June 23, 2019 9:08 AM
Mine black screen with earthcam on it
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Posted by Miningman on Monday, June 24, 2019 4:24 PM

No it's working just fine 

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Posted by dh28473 on Monday, June 24, 2019 6:35 PM
All i get is black screen with earthcam on it
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, June 24, 2019 7:25 PM

What computer operating system are you using?  What browser?

Semper Vaporo

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