Well finally, we read of the project issue we have been watching and wondering…Thanks to all who finally broke the silence. That opening they have been working with was what I thought it was…a leftover pedestrian tunnel to gain advantage to the inside passenger tracks…and seems they are altering it or filling it completely to do the track renovation work. But thanks to those who shed some light on what has been on going there.
Agreed… nice to know what they’ve been working on down there.
Also looking forward to the camera being back online; have gotten
use to checking it throughout the day.
Does anyone have information when the railcam will be back up?
Just saw this at the “Railcam” link on the Hotel Roanoke site:
The VMT railcam (" http://www.nwhs.org/cam/vmt/ ") has been updated as well. Looks like a wide angle camera has been installed and it updates faster.
Still TOO SLOW (once per 3 seconds, but that is better than the random 2 to 30 second update rate previously) and has an annoying blanking of the lower 2/3’s of the scene on every update (not unlike what it did before), and the cover over the lens has streaks or scratches that make it look like it is raining hard.
It is “better” than it was, but still not as good as the Hotel cam became. Hope the new Hotel cam is at least as good as it was. Wonder what the updates will include? (or destroy? [Am I a pessimist, or what?].)
Im hoping that the new camera will be just as good. Possibly sound??
Hurray!!! It’s up and running again! Let’s hope it lasts.
Hurray indeed!! I’ve missed it being available!
Now we can see how the construction is progressing.[:D]
Supprise…! Just checked as I’ve been doing each day, and wow…it’s back on. Now I get to see just what they have completed since the camera went out. {When it’s daylight}.
Thanks to whomever made it available again.
Video seems to be stuck in a 21 second loop.
I have cleared my cache and all 3 methods of getting to the camera are showing the same sequence, so the problem is further up the line closer to the camera’s server. Even the 1 second update access is just the same 21 seconds, then it stops and I have to restart it, just to see the same stop action sequence.
EDIT: It had been stuck for about an hour and now that I posted this, it is working okay again.
[:#]
Watched two cabeese go by this morning;
At 11:36 AM (Roanoke time – I THINK! The clock showing in the images are CST) the pale red caboose in desperate need of a paint job and still labeled as “NW” went east on what I call track 4 (furthest from the camera). The train was black tank cars.
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Then at 12:22 PM the better looking red caboose labeled with the NS “racehorse” logo went east on track 3 with covered hopper cars.
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Not long after that my connection to the camera “went to lunch” and I could not get it to come back and stay (then I went to lunch) so I don’t know if I missed them returning. Did anyone happen to see them return (today - 2/22/2013)?
I have been trying to figure out where they go and knowing how long it takes might improve my chances of figuring that out.
I have followed the various tracks using Google Earth and found that using the Street View feature on Norfolk Ave SE, I can see a caboose in transit on track 4 and I can follow it (somewhat) to the south, but the timing of the various photos changes along the route and it dissappears before I can tell how far it goes. Because of today’s sighting on the Railcam I can see what cars they are associated with.
AH HA! Whilst I am typing this the NW caboose just came back at 02:54 PM. So it was "out and about&quo
See whats ya gets ta see when ya just decides to look at the Roanoke RailCam on a whim!
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Barely had time to hit the Prt Scrn key!
Tried to catch it on the VMT railcam but it would not show an image… (maybe too many people watching it for the server to handle yet another watcher!).
The excursions in Roanoke, VA last weekend (March 16) went well for me, viewing it all via the internet. I got screen capture video of almost all of the time the Steam Locomotive was in view on the Roanoke Hotel Railcam, and ONE (count’em! ONE) good image of the steamer in view of the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) Railcam.
I am working on paring the almost 3 hours of video down to just a few minutes to post to YouTube and will link to it here when it is ready (don’t hold yer breath, you’ll turn blue!). Most of the video I captured is just of people milling around waiting for the train.
But just to tell a silly story about the day, I will post the only image I got from the VMT Railcam now…
The excursions ran West from Roanoke to Radford, VA, and back, in the morning, and East from Roanoke to Lynchburg, VA, and back, in the afternoon.
The Hotel Railcam worked perfectly for me all day. But, I was unable to get the VMT Railcam to work at all in the morning when the train backed from the west yard to the boarding area in the view of the Hotel Railcam, so I did not get any images from that time. Nor could I get to the VMT Railcam when it returned later that morning from the west. But when the train returned from the East in the afternoon, it pulled way past the Hotel Railcam view and I again attempted to get to the VMT Railcam.
This time the connection to the server worked, but there was a difference in the delay in the data from the two servers, (the Hotel Railcam was running about 15 seconds behind the VMT Railcam) such that by the time I got the VMT Railcam to show, the only thing I could see was the last car of the train, with the rest of it off camera to the left (West).
Then another train came along on the track closest to the VMT Railcam and blocked the view of the excursion train on the track furthest from the Railcam. It was a general freight and had many boxca
Excellent coverage, thanks!
That VMT Railcam is very frustrating… it seems when I’m just randomly checking it, the thing runs flawlessly, but if there’s something coming I want to get some screen-caps of, it either freezes or re-loads so slow that I miss the shot! I emailed them about it, and they replied they were aware of the problem and started soliciting me for money to upgrade it!!
My Grandson and I have tickets for the Spencer - Barber Junction round trip on the 13th of next month, really looking forward ot it!
For me, the VMT railcam is useless. I haven’t been able to see anything on it in months. Just a small strip across the top which shows nothing. I don’t understand why they even use it as it seems like a waste of money to operate for no reason. Upgrade it and I might contribute, but nothing up front from me until I see what they do.
TCWRIGHT973: Try my trick of clicking the Pause button to let the image finish downloading. It makes the camera SLIGHTLY more worthwhile.
Granted, it is a pain to have to do so, but at least you can see the whole image maybe 4 to 6 times per minute! (Yeah, BLEAH! [sigh] )
Just don’t get the idea that you can get a slightly better image by fetching the “next” image! I have fallen for that too many times (it is a bit embarrassing!)… I see a caboose coming and it is just a wee bit too far away to get a good screen shot of it, so I update the image one more time and caboose is off the other side of the screen. RATZ! [8o|][:$]
Semper Vaporo…
Thanks for the tip and I’ll give it a try. But to be honest, I don’t really check in on it much anymore as it’s just a waste of time.
Waste of time is correct… the fellow who done the soliciting ask me to reply with any suggestions, so I suggested they trade the webcam in on a pet monkey!
Speaking of that webcam, would anyone be so kind as to identify the white car in this photo from a 1/13 screen cap?
What happened to the quanity of “track panels” that were present about a week ago here along where there the autos used to park.
What was the reason for the uprooting of the paved surface in view of the hotel cam some months ago…When any activity with people…does happen, it seems activity with special trains become visible here, but now its gravel or ballast stone…
Sound would certainly nice to have with the hotel cam…I understand that must cost more $$$.
Enjoyed seeing the several steam activity photos recently…and seeing the several caboose’ as well.