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Semi-official Rochelle webcam discussion thread

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Posted by cefinkjr on Friday, June 17, 2016 11:09 AM

CShaveRR
Don't you wish we could see reporting marks and numbers clearly?

I agree but then I ask myself if I'm getting my money's worth from the web cam as it is.  Wink

CShaveRR
These might be empty iron ore gons for that move from Minnesota to Indiana.

Could be but I don't think so.  The gons with the loads I described earlier appear to be about 50' long with, if anything, sides that are a bit higher than average, certainly higher than a mill gondola.  Also, I don't recall seeing any evidence of rotary couplers (no panels painted differently at one end, etc.).

Added at 1158CT: Those gons are moving EB through Rochelle now on BNSF #1.  Looks to me like they each have a dark colored tarp with nothing under the tarp; they're all at widely varying heights.  That seems to me like evidence for the guess that they are carrying contaminated soil on their WB move.

Didn't see the head end.  They had cleared the screen by the time I heard them.  There was a single unit on the rear though.

Chuck
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Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, June 17, 2016 12:19 AM

These might be empty iron ore gons for that move from Minnesota to Indiana.  Not dirty dirt in the sense we usually think of.  The gons are a special design...shorter in length than your typical gon (or coal gon, I think), and kind of short in height, too...but still equipped with rotary couplers.

Here's where my pet peeve about this camera emerges again.  Don't you wish we could see reporting marks and numbers clearly?  I can't remember what the series for these cars is, or whose they are, so I'm the only one who knows what I'm talking about...what good is that to anyone?

Carl

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Posted by NorthWest on Thursday, June 16, 2016 10:58 PM

steve24944
11:10 Mountain Time - Just saw a Unit Train of empty Gondolas on the BNSF to Savanna. I have seen these trains before on the wecam. Anybody know what these Unit Trains of Gondolas carry ? I have not seen a unit train of gongolas pass filled with any cargo. Steve

Sounds a lot like 'dirty dirt' -dirt with contaminants- off to a landfill somewhere. This dirt is replaced by 'clean' dirt. Not sure if this is the case here or not.

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Posted by AgentKid on Thursday, June 16, 2016 9:46 PM

ChuckCobleigh
did see the Rio Grande unit coming though on the point of an EB sometime today

For the past couple of weeks the RG unit and UP's Olympic Torch Relay unit had been working together on runs back and forth over the diamonds. Now this week I have seen them both working as single units on various jobs.

Bruce

 

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Posted by ChuckCobleigh on Thursday, June 16, 2016 8:05 PM

AgentKid

 

 
ChuckCobleigh
All I can hear is Elwood Blues saying, "New Oldsmobiles are in early this year."

 

Laugh

Did you happen to catch UP's Katy hertage unit on the point of a EB train either Mon. or Tues. morning? I spent hours after that singing "My Baby Took The Katy, And Left Me This Mule To Ride."

Laugh

Bruce

Missed that one but did see the Rio Grande unit coming though on the point of an EB sometime today.  I think that's the second time I have seen it in the past week or so, both time on EB trains.

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Posted by AgentKid on Thursday, June 16, 2016 6:48 PM

ChuckCobleigh
All I can hear is Elwood Blues saying, "New Oldsmobiles are in early this year."

Laugh

Did you happen to catch UP's Katy hertage unit on the point of a EB train either Mon. or Tues. morning? I spent hours after that singing "My Baby Took The Katy, And Left Me This Mule To Ride."

Laugh

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

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"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by ChuckCobleigh on Thursday, June 16, 2016 6:06 PM

I've caught a number of auto rack trains the last few days on both roads on the camera, all heading west.  All I can hear is Elwood Blues saying, "New Oldsmobiles are in early this year."

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Posted by cefinkjr on Thursday, June 16, 2016 1:25 PM

tree68
Thus the dispatcher's job is to get two opposing trains to Rochelle at about the same time so they can have a running meet, as opposed to being held.

This would be a good idea, too, from the standpoint of minimizing the time that the diamonds are tied up.

Chuck
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Posted by cefinkjr on Thursday, June 16, 2016 1:23 PM

steve24944

11:10 Mountain Time -  Just saw a Unit Train of empty Gondolas on the BNSF to Savanna.  I have seen these trains before on the wecam.  Anybody know what these Unit Trains of Gondolas carry ?   I have not seen a unit train of gongolas pass filled with any cargo.

Steve

Steve

I've seen the loaded train several times.  Just lucky, I guess.  I still don't know what's in those gons though.  Whatever it is, it's fairly dense as the cars are never loaded up to the chords, it's irregularly shaped, and it's dark or covered by dark colored tarps.

Chuck
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Posted by steve24944 on Thursday, June 16, 2016 12:16 PM

11:10 Mountain Time -  Just saw a Unit Train of empty Gondolas on the BNSF to Savanna.  I have seen these trains before on the wecam.  Anybody know what these Unit Trains of Gondolas carry ?   I have not seen a unit train of gongolas pass filled with any cargo.

Steve

Steve

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Posted by blhanel on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 5:18 PM

 

Sometimes even that doesn't work out. On ATCSMon I just saw a westbound at Shabbona lined just up to the diamonds, while the nearest eastbound was routed into Oregon siding for the meet. The former may have priority or the latter may be too long to make it further east.

 

Third explanation that just became obvious- there was more than one BNSF westbound.  They just raced each other through the interlocking (after the eastbound UP reefer train had backed up completely out of sight past the west signals).

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 5:02 PM

You put it in the Roanoke thread, buried deep in the list!  Or you start your own thread, (RED button at the top of the main forum list of topics 'Create a new discussion topic').

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by chrisjmiller on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 4:28 PM

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9bf02oq399tzdoa/Roanoke%202016-06-15.JPG

Can anyone tell me where the pink SW1500(?) comes from?

[Sorry for polluting the thread with a non-Rochelle item, but I can't think of anywhere better to post it :) ]

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Posted by blhanel on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 4:23 PM

That BNSF eastbound will be waiting for awhile- diamond currently blocked by eastbound UP consisting of 100% boxes (majority of which are white reefers- salad shooter?).

EDIT: Now he's backing up- another drop-off of reefers for Rochelle, probably.

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Posted by MikeF90 on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 4:03 PM

tree68
Thus the dispatcher's job is to get two opposing trains to Rochelle at about the same time so they can have a running meet, as opposed to being held.

Sometimes even that doesn't work out. On ATCSMon I just saw a westbound at Shabbona lined just up to the diamonds, while the nearest eastbound was routed into Oregon siding for the meet. The former may have priority or the latter may be too long to make it further east.

This stretch of the Aurora sub east of Savanna is single track except for Rochelle, but there have been plans to add some 2MT at either end; I don't know if these are on hold or just moving slowly.

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 1:12 PM

cefinkjr
...where does it end to the east?

It's really not that far - certainly less than ten miles, and maybe just five.  

If you check it out on satellite images, you'll find single track on both sides of Rochelle, with the double track segment really being more of a long passing siding.

Thus the dispatcher's job is to get two opposing trains to Rochelle at about the same time so they can have a running meet, as opposed to being held.  

And if a westbound is being held east of Rochelle proper, it's likely that it will be in motion once the westbound is about to clear the single track.  That would tend to lead to a number of running meets at the diamonds.

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Posted by traisessive1 on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 12:06 PM

Or s/he could have told the trains where they were meeting each other and the trains crews made the meet perfect ... 

10000 feet and no dynamics? Today is going to be a good day ... 

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Posted by cefinkjr on Monday, June 13, 2016 2:47 PM

BaltACD
Too busy thinking about the rest of his railroad to dwell on a single meet.

Perhaps but it's still a thing of beauty to be admired; even as here where the stretch of double track is pretty long (where does it end to the east?).

And I just saw another.

Chuck
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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, June 13, 2016 12:23 PM

cefinkjr

Just saw another running meet on the BNSF.  Nice!  Must be at least the third I've seen in the last two days.  I'm sure this is a satisfying moment for the DS who set it up; a time to lean back and take a long sip of coffee Bow.

Too busy thinking about the rest of his railroad to dwell on a single meet.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by cefinkjr on Monday, June 13, 2016 11:17 AM

Just saw another running meet on the BNSF.  Nice!  Must be at least the third I've seen in the last two days.  I'm sure this is a satisfying moment for the DS who set it up; a time to lean back and take a long sip of coffee Bow.

Chuck
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Posted by cefinkjr on Monday, June 13, 2016 10:59 AM

AgentKid

Anyone else not receiving the Rochelle Cam this morning? I haven't seen it since yesteday afternoon.

Bruce

Mine looks normal at 1057 but for the string of empty platforms stopped on UP #2 blocking the diamonds.

Edited: Just as I clicked on submit, they started moving WB.

Chuck
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Posted by xjqcf on Monday, June 13, 2016 7:40 AM
Now working @ 7:40 AM CDT
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Posted by Overmod on Monday, June 13, 2016 7:30 AM

Out at 7:30 CDT.  Note that it goes through the process of 'loading the EarthCam stream' but then displays only a black rectangle with the 'fixed' text at the top.  The EarthCam system is displaying the temperature at the bottom, and the camera controls appear but 'lock' grayed out if I select the tilt and pan buttons, if that is useful diagnostic information.

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Posted by xjqcf on Monday, June 13, 2016 6:15 AM
Still out @ 6:15 AM CDT
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Posted by AgentKid on Monday, June 13, 2016 5:49 AM

Anyone else not receiving the Rochelle Cam this morning? I haven't seen it since yesteday afternoon.

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 Chris30 on Friday, June 10, 2016 6:10 PM

jeffhergert

 

 
blhanel

Anybody have any idea what's up with the eastbound UP on Track 2 currently?  He's been doing alot of sloooow back and forth across the diamonds.

EDIT:  He just cleared out, consist was nearly 100% boxes and reefers.  Maybe picking up some reefers from siding at Global 3?

 

 

 

Probably setting some out. There's a couple of manifests that often have a block of reefers for Rochelle.

Jeff

 

 

The train you're seeing is probably LPG04, the Sterling Job. This local forwards a string of reefers from Sterling to the Rochelle Railroad / Cold Storage nightly. The switching lead to the Rochelle Railroad is just east of the diamonds. LPG04 just crossed the diamonds with tonight's train (6/10) @1800 (6pm) with a Geep running long-hood forward. Usually, it returns to Sterling @2000 - 2100 hours (8pm - 9pm).

CC 

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Posted by cefinkjr on Friday, June 10, 2016 3:09 PM

UP mixed freight EB on 2 by @ 1502.  Strangely enough, some but not all covered hoppers rocked and rolled through the diamonds; other car types, even very high auto racks, seemed pretty stable.  Worst were the ACF (?) covered hoppers with the rounded sides.

Further strangeness, a BNSF EB stack train on 1 at 1507 went over one of the same two diamonds at track speed (+ a little?) and was as steady as a rock.

Chuck
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Posted by blhanel on Thursday, June 9, 2016 8:59 PM

Just had a LOL moment on the webcam- switched over to the feed just in time to see a westbound BNSF freight consisting of two engines and one covered hopper (with EOT flashing) cross the diamond on Track 2.Laugh

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Posted by CatFoodFlambe on Thursday, June 9, 2016 6:46 AM
Westbound UP ballast train on the south track at 6:43 CDT Thursday morning - shut off right at the signal bridge, and stopped over the crossing within 30 car lengths. Listen to those brakeshoes barking!!!!
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Posted by jeffhergert on Tuesday, June 7, 2016 5:10 PM

blhanel

Anybody have any idea what's up with the eastbound UP on Track 2 currently?  He's been doing alot of sloooow back and forth across the diamonds.

EDIT:  He just cleared out, consist was nearly 100% boxes and reefers.  Maybe picking up some reefers from siding at Global 3?

 

Probably setting some out. There's a couple of manifests that often have a block of reefers for Rochelle.

Jeff

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