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Semi-official Rochelle webcam discussion thread

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Posted by cefinkjr on Sunday, October 30, 2016 4:18 PM

Just watched a mixed freight EB on UP #1.  The first several cars were new farm equipment on 60' flats.  The rockin' and rollin' were almost scary.  Kept watching and noticed that some cars seemed to be steady.  Decided that the difference was the length of the car: Those with a length that put one truck on each diamond rocked alarmingly; shorter or longer cars rocked a little but nothing to be concerned about.

Chuck
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Posted by cefinkjr on Thursday, October 27, 2016 3:11 PM

BaltACD

Thanks much for that link, Balt.  I'll be looking for that ad locally; Tennessee is kind of a fur piece to go for venison.  If they would start serving elk, I'd be willing to travel a ways for that.  A Cabela's here serves "Sliced Roast Elk" sandwiches in their snack bar and they are great!

Chuck
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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, October 27, 2016 11:45 AM

Semper Vaporo
tree68
cefinkjr

Around here, you get to keep it, if you want it (there are circumstances where it's not worth it).  Folks have been known to take it for a friend.  Small consolation if you're looking at a ~$4,000 repair bill...

Look up the price of venison on-line!  You just might come out ahead if you can sell most of the carcass!

Arby's Venison

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2016/10/25/arbys-takes-stab-venison-burgers-select-locations/92727506/

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, October 27, 2016 11:28 AM

tree68
 
cefinkjr
PA State Police confiscated the carcass...

 

Around here, you get to keep it, if you want it (there are circumstances where it's not worth it).  Folks have been known to take it for a friend.  Small consolation if you're looking at a ~$4,000 repair bill...

Look up the price of venison on-line!  You just might come out ahead if you can sell most of the carcass!

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, October 27, 2016 11:19 AM

cefinkjr
PA State Police confiscated the carcass...

Around here, you get to keep it, if you want it (there are circumstances where it's not worth it).  Folks have been known to take it for a friend.  Small consolation if you're looking at a ~$4,000 repair bill...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by rdamon on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 3:15 PM

The fire pit is now a nice reflection pond Umbrella

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Posted by cefinkjr on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 5:31 PM

Deggesty
Paul of Covington
Deggesty
So the deer didn't jump into your lap so you could take it home? 

   Are you thinking it was a shmoo? 

had not thought of deer imitating shmoos, but I do know that some seem to be so desperate that they leap through windshields.

I knew one once that was so desperate (or clumsy) that it tried to leap through my right front fender.  PA State Police confiscated the carcass and left me with a repair bill.  Something wrong there.

Chuck
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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 12:07 PM

Paul of Covington

 

 
Deggesty
So the deer didn't jump into your lap so you could take it home?

 

   Are you thinking it was a shmoo?

 

had not thought of deer imitating shmoos, but I do know that some seem to be so desperate that they leap through windshields.

Johnny

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 10:54 AM

Deggesty
So the deer didn't jump into your lap so you could take it home?

   Are you thinking it was a shmoo?

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 7:44 AM

jeffhergert

I didn't get the train.  They decided to throw in a couple of dead heads so I got a 11:45 pm van ride.  Or as I told my wife, we're taking the van and going deer hunting.  The driver saw one but it was standing down in the ditch away from the road.

Jeff 

 

So the deer didn't jump into your lap so you could take it home?

Johnny

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Posted by jeffhergert on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 4:40 AM

I didn't get the train.  They decided to throw in a couple of dead heads so I got a 11:45 pm van ride.  Or as I told my wife, we're taking the van and going deer hunting.  The driver saw one but it was standing down in the ditch away from the road.

Jeff 

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Posted by blhanel on Monday, October 24, 2016 5:06 PM

Now, if someone would PLEASE disable the auto-focus on the camera...

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Posted by jeffhergert on Monday, October 24, 2016 4:50 PM

I was checking my line-up, I'm second out, and saw I was lined up for MPRCBW at 3am.  I noticed it's last OS was just east of Rochelle, so I thought I'd check the webcam, hoping it was working OK.  It was.  I just missed the head end, but watched the rest of it roll through.  

I would think it would do better than 3am, but it hadn't been prompted for a Clinton crew when I logged off the employee site.  About 65 miles to Clinton with a 90 minute call time doesn't bode well for this train.  Hot it's not.  Might be some birds in the area.

Jeff

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Posted by cefinkjr on Saturday, October 22, 2016 12:24 PM

Semper Vaporo
 
chrisjmiller
Here in the UK, I'm still (after a week) just seeing the "Loading EarthCam Stream" message. Is anyone else having problems, or do I need to relocate across the pond? :)
Perks Workfictly fer me.
 
I suppose you had better relocate, but if you are going to move that far, you might as well just move to Rochelle and then you can watch the scene for real and won't care if the webcam is working or not!

chrisjmiller

Thanks, SV.  It seems to be a problem with the latest update of Chrome, it works for me in Edge.

I avoid Edge as much as possible and the WebCam has been behaving very nicely with Win10/IE 11.  Of course, there's that pesky spider but the web seems to have been cleared away ... again ... for now.

Chuck
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Posted by chrisjmiller on Saturday, October 22, 2016 9:50 AM

Thanks, SV.  It seems to be a problem with the latest update of Chrome, it works for me in Edge.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, October 22, 2016 8:49 AM

chrisjmiller
Here in the UK, I'm still (after a week) just seeing the "Loading EarthCam Stream" message. Is anyone else having problems, or do I need to relocate across the pond? :)
 

 
Perks Workfictly fer me.
 
I suppose you had better relocate, but if you are going to move that far, you might as well just move to Rochelle and then you can watch the scene for real and won't care if the webcam is working or not!
 
 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by chrisjmiller on Saturday, October 22, 2016 7:35 AM
Here in the UK, I'm still (after a week) just seeing the "Loading EarthCam Stream" message. Is anyone else having problems, or do I need to relocate across the pond? :)
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Posted by AgentKid on Saturday, October 22, 2016 6:59 AM

It is still dark at Rochelle but I just saw something interesting. Two EB UP trains were coming across the diamonds at the same time. The first train had the high beams and ditchlights on. The second train was about a full engine length behind, on the near track, and only had his low beams on. I guess he didn't want to blind the lead engineer with all his lights reflected back through the lead unit's side mirror.

This reminded me of something I haven't seen for a long time. In the 1980's I lived in a 34th floor apartment that looked down on the CP mainline west out of Calgary. Westbound trains waiting for a green board at Sunalta would stop short of the 8th St. SW underpass, which was below my window. There is nothing like seeing the engineer hit the high beams and ditchlights when he got the green at night, just after a heavy snowfall. It would get so bright, so far away, so quickly, it was like the Sun had been equipped with an on/off switch. Extremely cool.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

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Posted by AgentKid on Friday, October 21, 2016 9:34 PM

Pjangis
Buut for what purpose?

According to the talk from earlier, it is some type of track test car. Rail geometry or some such. I have seen other talk of developing existing types of test cars that can work at regular track speeds. Most existing types of test cars work at some restricted speed. A passenger car would be a good platform for higher operating speed test cars.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by Pjangis on Friday, October 21, 2016 2:47 PM

Buut for what purpose? Possible passenger thraaic? Seemed pretty important to pull only on2 cars- one being a passenger(?) car...

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Posted by AgentKid on Friday, October 21, 2016 2:00 PM

cefinkjr
BNSF ran one unit, a covered hopper (for braking?), and one passenger car (business car? instruction car?).

I saw that as well. It is the same cofiguration as the test train we were discussing a few months ago, but I'm pretty sure it is a different coach.

This one seemed newer and it had no vestibules. Up here that would make it a Dining Car. The previous car had a vestibule on one end and windows that made it seem like some type of sleeper.

When you think about it, it would seem easier to reconfigure a Diner to hold test eauipment than other types of cars since you would already have an open area and would just have to remove the tables and chairs. And if the equipment was sensitive you wouldn't have to worry about leaky and drafty baggage car doors.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by cefinkjr on Friday, October 21, 2016 1:34 PM

And the hits just keep on comin'.  BNSF ran one unit, a covered hopper (for braking?), and one passenger car (business car?  instruction car?).  Something you don't see every day.

Chuck
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Posted by cefinkjr on Friday, October 21, 2016 12:48 PM

Another unusual scene: Two EB UP stack trains at the same time moving at very nearly the same speed.  I caught the power on #2 moving across the screen just about in step with the other train on #1.

Chuck
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Posted by cefinkjr on Friday, October 21, 2016 12:15 AM

rdamon
I wonder if this was another train tacked on the end of another. When they get to another yard the two GP15s will break off and take the end somewhere else.

The NYC did something like this in the early '70s but with cabooses, not power.  SV-7 (SuperVan) would roll into Collinwood Yard (Cleveland, OH) for a crew change with a caboose about 2/3 of the way back.  Cars behind that caboose would be cut off and SV-7 would roll west for Toledo and Chicago.  Meanwhile, another set of GP-40s would back down on what had been the rear of SV-7 and would take them west as SV-9; turning southwest at Berea (just west of Cleveland) for the Big Four.  Those GP-40s had better be waiting when SV-7 arrived because the published timetable allowed something like 20 minutes before both trains were due out.  And since the SVs (solid Flexi-Van trains) were the hottest thing on the road, that timetable was followed or somebody was on the carpet. 

Chuck
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Posted by rdamon on Thursday, October 20, 2016 11:00 PM

Thanks Jeff,

 

That makes sense. I did not get a good look at the first unit when I saw that there were three. I wonder if this was another train tacked on the end of another. When they get to another yard the two GP15s will break off and take the end somewhere else.

 
Seems like we just had this discussion about the Rock and Limon, CO.
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Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, October 20, 2016 7:16 PM

rdamon
Caught that too ..
 
Just saw something new as well ..

 

  A UP Eastbound had what I though was three GP15s as helpers a little over 2/3 the way back. They sounded like they were working. Are those units equipped with DPU?
 

To my knowledge, no UP GP15s are equipped for DPU operation.  They can operate in a DP consist if MUed to a DP equipped unit.

Jeff

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Posted by rdamon on Thursday, October 20, 2016 4:43 PM
Caught that too ..
 
Just saw something new as well ..

 

  A UP Eastbound had what I though was three GP15s as helpers a little over 2/3 the way back. They sounded like they were working. Are those units equipped with DPU?
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Posted by cefinkjr on Thursday, October 20, 2016 10:34 AM

Now there's a move I've not seen before.  EB auto racks on BNSF #2 passing EB containers on #1.

Chuck
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Posted by cefinkjr on Thursday, October 20, 2016 10:32 AM

Is it my imagination or is the picture sharper than it was just last week?  Of course, a clearer image of our resident spider's handiwork might not be such a good thing.

Chuck
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Posted by rdamon on Thursday, October 20, 2016 10:05 AM
Lots of rocking and rolling across the diamonds today. See the crews out there. I bet someone at city hall gets a call every time they hear a train horn now.
The NYC unit was a surprise, good thing there were people at the park that helped alert me to an oncoming train.
 

 

I do hear the scanner better over the regular audio.

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