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Semi-official Rochelle webcam discussion thread

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Posted by xjqcf on Saturday, April 8, 2017 12:19 PM

A special movement just went west on BNSF - 2 engines with a consist of 6 Boxcars of various colors having shallow peaked roofs, bracketed by two empty drop flatcars, and ending with a yellow caboose.

On the scanner feed early this morning I heard the DS tell an eastbound he might be held somewhere for a "military" train; this might have been it. I didn't see any people in the park keel over so it probably wasn't too dangerous.

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Posted by cefinkjr on Sunday, April 9, 2017 4:45 PM

So what happened to Full Screen?  There is a square at the right end of the bar that seems to be a link but does nothing in Win10 IE11.

Chuck
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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, April 9, 2017 7:03 PM

cefinkjr
So what happened to Full Screen?  There is a square at the right end of the bar that seems to be a link but does nothing in Win10 IE11.

Works fine in Firefox.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Sunday, April 9, 2017 7:31 PM

Works fine in old Chrome and XP. Also Windows 10 & Chrome.

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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, April 9, 2017 9:05 PM

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by rdamon on Monday, April 10, 2017 10:43 AM

Looks like UP is "going green" on their ROW ..  time for the weed sprayers!

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Posted by CatFoodFlambe on Monday, April 10, 2017 8:39 PM

xjqcf

A special movement just went west on BNSF - 2 engines with a consist of 6 Boxcars of various colors having shallow peaked roofs, bracketed by two empty drop flatcars, and ending with a yellow caboose.

Probably shackle boxcars for FEMA...Wink

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Posted by MKT Dave on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 10:09 AM

sprayer just went by, 10.07am with orange vests walking up and down the UP row

...
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Posted by xjqcf on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 10:10 AM

rdamon

Looks like UP is "going green" on their ROW ..  time for the weed sprayers!

 

 

They listened to you. Weed sprayer just went west spraying its heart out.

 

And on the scanner feed it appears that BNSF is running its weed sprayer at the east end of the Aurora Subdivision.

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Posted by blhanel on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:42 PM

Currently monitoring the webcam, and noticed something unusual- the WB UP signal for Track #2, which can barely be seen in the upper right, appeared to be displaying a flashing red indication.  A set of three light engines just went through westbound, changing it to solid red.  I didn't realize that it was possible to have a flashing red aspect.  What does that mean?

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 9:06 PM

A flashing red is a Restricting signal--proceed at restricted speed without stopping.

Most likely scenario:  the units, after having gone through town to set off cars for the City of Rochelle Railroad, are backing up toward their train, which is probably just out of sight in the next block.

Carl

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 10:06 PM

xjqcf

 

 
rdamon

Looks like UP is "going green" on their ROW ..  time for the weed sprayers!

 

 

 

 

They listened to you. Weed sprayer just went west spraying its heart out.

 

And on the scanner feed it appears that BNSF is running its weed sprayer at the east end of the Aurora Subdivision.

 

I used to curse when the weed sprayer traversed the line ahead of my train. The sprayer made the rails incredibly slippery. Just try to imagine stopping a commuter train going 70mph on ice--its almost THAT slippery. About equal to when the leaves fall on the tracks in Autumn. In addition, train crews were never notified that the sprayer was out; the only way to tell was the horrendous stink the sprayed chemicals exuded.

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Posted by cefinkjr on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 10:56 PM

zardoz
train crews were never notified that the sprayer was out; the only way to tell was the horrendous stink the sprayed chemicals exuded.

Well, you WERE notified ... in a way ... more or less.  Whistling

Chuck
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Posted by rdamon on Thursday, April 13, 2017 8:31 AM

Looks like we may see Diamond replacement in May.

 

New Diamond For Rochelle

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, April 13, 2017 8:40 AM

That is on the west side of the remaining wall of the building west of the diamonds that was torn down, isn't it? 

I guess it is the location of the camera, but that looks like a much sharper of a crossing than what I see on the webcam.  But, I looked at Google Earth and the angle is that sharp!  From the webcam I would have guessed it to be abuot 70 degrees, but from Google Earth it is closer to 30 degrees.  Still that photo makes it look even sharper.

Thanks for the photo!

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, April 13, 2017 10:33 AM

Ah--back in 1964, I went up Saluda Hill on the Carolina Special right after the weed killer came down--and the sanders on our engine were not working as they should. I do not remember how long it took, but it was quite a while.

Johnny

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Posted by cefinkjr on Thursday, April 13, 2017 11:13 AM

rdamon

Looks like we may see Diamond replacement in May.

 

New Diamond For Rochelle

 

It certainly does!  And high time; I guess MoW expenses at this location got somebody's attention.

Anybody have more information on this pre-fab crossing?  Construction details?  Did UP, BNSF, or a contractor build this?  Any videos of the construction process?

I saw a little bit of this kind of thing at Collinwood on the NYC 50 years ago.  Those guys were really impressive; it seemed like they could build a #20 switch in nothing flat with very little effort and no confusion whatsoever.  Reminds me of "Basket Weaving in Nickel Silver", an MR article years ago on scratch building mixed gauge turnouts; except this is steel instead of nickel silver and the "basket" is a bit larger.

I hope there's video of the replacement.  Regardless, it would be interesting enough to watch the web cam for the duration.  We're depending on you folks there to let the rest of us know when this will happen as soon as you know.

Chuck
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Posted by Paul of Covington on Thursday, April 13, 2017 1:25 PM

   I've got a few questions for someone who knows:

   About the colored markings:  they seem to be mostly white on the far BNSF track, blue on both near tracks, and red on the far UP track (assuming same orientation as Rochelle cam for discussion).   They appear to be applied after assembly.   Could they be alignment marks in case parts of it need to be disassembled during installation?

   Some of the ties under the near diamond appear to be old and weathered.   Is it just that a different type of preservative was used?   I can't imagine them using old ties here.

   Each crossing frog seems to be a sort of rectangular block that can be replaced by dropping in a replacement (I'm sure it's not that simple), and I was wondering if this is something new.   I tried to make out in the pictures on Google Earth if this was the case on the old diamonds, and there seems to be a hint of a line indicating that it is, but I can't be sure.

   It is an impressive piece of engineering, and I also hope one of the RR video producers records the replacement.

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Posted by cefinkjr on Thursday, April 13, 2017 10:39 PM

STILL no full screen capability on this Win 10 IE 11 machine!  Anybody else with that configuration having problems too or am I the outlier on this one?

Chuck
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, April 13, 2017 10:43 PM

cefinkjr

STILL no full screen capability on this Win 10 IE 11 machine!  Anybody else with that configuration having problems too or am I the outlier on this one?

You are not alone!  'Edge' does go to full screen, but not 'IE-11'
 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by writesong on Thursday, April 13, 2017 11:46 PM

Semper Vaporo

You are not alone!  'Edge' does go to full screen, but not 'IE-11'

@ SEMPER VAPORO:

YES ! ! !

It WORKS ! ! !

Thank you for telling us about Microsoft Edge, which I never use, and so, would never have known about this if you hadn't posted your VERY helpful comment.

Google Chrome is my default web browser for everything else, but now, I'll be using Microsoft Edge to watch the Rochelle, Illinois Railroad Park live streaming web camera, because it DOES indeed allow me to watch the activity in "FULL SCREEN" mode.

John Robert Mallernee, Ashley Valley Shadows, Vernal, Utah 84078
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Posted by rdamon on Friday, April 14, 2017 11:48 AM

The same photographer who captured the image of the new diamond captured the replacement on 11/20/2010. There are several photos.

https://flic.kr/p/8TpgGZ

My guess is the red, white and blue markings are for alignment (BNSF vs. UP).

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, April 14, 2017 12:36 PM

Technical question:  Why is the guard rail (or flange trap or anti-derail, whatever you want to call it) longer on one side than the other?  If you draw a line across from the tip of the guard rail on the UP rail to the tip of the other guard rail and then extend it to the BNSF track it seems it would be a straight line across the tips of all 4 guard rails.  Why are they not the same length from the frog to the tip of the guard rails on both side of each track?

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by writesong on Friday, April 14, 2017 1:10 PM

writesong

Google Chrome is my default web browser for everything else, but now, I'll be using Microsoft Edge to watch the Rochelle, Illinois Railroad Park live streaming web camera, because it DOES indeed allow me to watch the activity in "FULL SCREEN" mode.

 
Gosh, gee whillikers, now even the Edge Browser is no longer displaying the Rochelle, Illinois Railroad Museum's live streaming web camera in "FULL SCREEN" mode!
 
What the Sam Hill is going on?
 
Does anybody know?
 
Can this problem be corrected? 
John Robert Mallernee, Ashley Valley Shadows, Vernal, Utah 84078
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, April 14, 2017 1:26 PM

I just tried it and got a black screen for about 1 minute; I was about to refresh the page when it finally came on... then Full Screen works for me in Edge.

Somebody may be working on it.  Maybe trying to fix the IE-11 problem.

 

 

EDIT:  Just tried IE-11 and it won't go to full screen.

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by writesong on Friday, April 14, 2017 1:40 PM

Semper Vaporo

I just tried it and got a black screen for about 1 minute; I was about to refresh the page when it finally came on... then Full Screen works for me in Edge.

Somebody may be working on it.  Maybe trying to fix the IE-11 problem.

EDIT:  Just tried IE-11 and it won't go to full screen.

 
@ SEMPER VAPORO:
 
What you're calling, "FULL SCREEN", when using the Microsoft Edge web browser, I do not consider to be "FULL SCREEN" mode, and I hope whoever (if anyone) adjusts the system will realize this.
 
If the image is surrounded by a black border, then that is not a "FULL SCREEN" mode.
 
The image being displayed by the Rochelle, Illinois Railroad Museum's live streaming web camera formerly didn't have that black border around the image, so I hope it can be eliminated and we can actually see a true "FULL SCREEN" image, as we did before the web site feature was changed.
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, April 14, 2017 2:03 PM

I don't mean the standard Windows "Maximized" view, but taking over the whole screen... no borders. 

"Maximized" works in IE-11, but the image remains a smaller subwindow in the web page with the black borders at the top and bottom with the mileage to the 4 cities that the tracks head to.  You can also scroll the window up and down to view the other info on the page.  It also has the local temperature in the lower left, the "camera" icon in the middle and the "Full Screen" icon in the lower right.

"Maximized" is accessed by the drop down menu obtained by right-clicking the program icon in the upper left of the brower window, or double-clicking the browser title bar, or clicking the box icon 2nd from the right in the right of the browser title bar.

 

"Full Screen" is not scrollable and does not show the black boarder nor the narrow bottom border with the local temperature in the lower left, the "camera" icon in the middle and the "box in the lower right" (for accessing "Full Screen", when it works!).

"Full Screen" is only accessed by the icon in the lower right of the video area.

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, April 14, 2017 2:54 PM

Here is how I normally view the webcam... a standard window, shrunk to fit between what I am working on and the right edge of my screen.  Note the time/date in the upper right corner... that is a program I wrote to make it big enough to see and it also handles "Alarms" I set to alert me to birthdays/anniversaries and appointments, bills to be paid, trash day, etc. etc.  I WROTE IT!  I have it set to claim 'Always-On-Top' status every second so that other windows will never obscure it... remember that!

 

This image was made a couple of seconds later after I set the browser window to Maximized.  Note that my clock/date program has inserted itself "in front" of the browser window.

This image is a "Full Screen" view a few seconds later.  BUT... MY PROGRAM is no longer able to claim "Always-on-top" status. That means that Microsoft has created yet another "ME FIRST" view that I don't know about.  My program used to be able to reclaim "On Top" status when viewing streaming video in Full Screen mode, but now it doesn't!

 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Friday, April 14, 2017 5:12 PM

Semper Vaporo

Technical question:  Why is the guard rail (or flange trap or anti-derail, whatever you want to call it) longer on one side than the other?  If you draw a line across from the tip of the guard rail on the UP rail to the tip of the other guard rail and then extend it to the BNSF track it seems it would be a straight line across the tips of all 4 guard rails.  Why are they not the same length from the frog to the tip of the guard rails on both side of each track?

 

   Just guessing, but I think they wanted the left and right wheels to reach the guard rails at the same time.   Why?   I don't know.

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Friday, April 14, 2017 5:19 PM

rdamon

The same photographer who captured the image of the new diamond captured the replacement on 11/20/2010. There are several photos.

https://flic.kr/p/8TpgGZ

My guess is the red, white and blue markings are for alignment (BNSF vs. UP).

 

   Thanks, rdamon.    About 6½ year life.

   And it looks like the rectangular frog blocks I asked about were in the previous diamonds, so at least it's apparently not something new.

_____________ 

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