Well, I was able to get a close up observation of the mysterious “objects”, at least the one under the 2nd st. bridge yesterday… they’re NOT concrete and they’re NOT seven ft. tall… 
In the closeup it looks like it may be a switch heater, but, heck, I’ve been known to be wrong before.
Thanks for the photo!
It explains the curved silvery pipe-like thing where the others are all still lined up.
As for their height, when there were all those “work” (and I use that term very loosely) men around the stash of the devices, the men were hidden behind the tops of the device when on the south side of them and one of them appeared to look UP at one of them when on the camera side of the group (I guess he could have been looking at the side the Wachovia building instead). When they installed the one under the bridge it appeared it was set in a hole, so that might make it a bit shorter.
You’re absolutely right; including the “stand”, they are well over seven ft. tall. I thought the mechanism was placed onto the “stand” on site, but with the sun on the objects, it’s apparent the “stands” are part of it… thanks! 
As for the “workers”, I too have noticed the meandering… and back when they were doing work under the 2nd street bridge, I also took note of the disproportionate number of “Supervisors” vs. “Workers”, which at one point, three (3) persons were physically working, while twelve-plus (12+) mingled about them, referring to “blueprints” and calling out instructions to the workers… or so it appeared. (come to think of it, it’s like that about anywhere you go!!) LOL
A few weeks ago, near the east end of the scene, several pilings were driven into the ground along side the asphalt(?) public(?) parking area and the ballasted area of the tracks and a very short length of guard rail was installed on them separating the parking area and the tracks.
But I cannot figure out what it is guarding!
There is a switch heater at the east end of the guard rail, but it is in no wise protected by the guard rail.
They also installed concrete traffic barricades (the kind seen along long-term highway reconstruction) between the parking area and the new electronics shanty and there are presently two traffic cones with a yellow tape stretched between them, one cone at the end of the concrete barricades and the other at the guard rail about a quarter of the way from the west end; indicating that unauthorized vehicular traffic is forbidden beyond that point. I could guess that the guard rail is an attempt to keep people from going around the traffic cones by driving closer to the tracks, but I can’t see that anyone intent on driving past that point would be put off by 2 traffic cones and some yellow tape, so the guard rail seems a bit of an overkill for that situation.
It could be a way to keep cars from getting near the tracks when backing out of the parking spaces, but I would expect a need to protect the switch heater, too, as well as the tracks to the east of the heater, but the guard rail is doesn’t extend that far east.
So, what’s it for?
Anybody able to access this cam lately. It has been a couple of weeks (I think) since I was last able to view it.
Works for me in Windows Media Player.
Timed out from Firefox and IE-11
Norm: How do you access the cam using Windows Media Player?
Typical cornpataters!
I tried it using my Favorites link and it would not work… URL timed out. I tried to PING it and got no response.
Checked my link and it shows the same URL address/subaddress as Norm’s…
Just to prove it don’t work, I clicked Norm’s link.
It worked just fine.
So I tried my link again and it works just fine, too.
Remember, computers are neither smart nor dumb… They are just plain MEAN!
Thanks Norm! (I was going to put some sort of Smiley here, but can’t figure out which one is appropriate.)
this link worked
The cam was down for me beginning around Monday, but was back up yesterday. Working fine since then.
thanks for the link i never was able to see this befor.
please tell me what rrs im looking at and how many trains run a day. thanks
NS is the only railroad
The tracks run due East/West. East is to the left of the scene. The camera faces west-southwest.
If you go to Google Earth and enter these coordinates:
37°16’25.18"N, 79°56’22.24"W
that is the location (approximate) of the camera; it be the white rectangle on top of the overhead walkway from the Hotel Roanoke (on the north) to the Wachovia Building (on the south).
At present, the Google Earth image is old. The tracks were updated just last year and there are slight differences in the layout. Still 4 tracks, but the signal bridges and towers are gone, and the switching arrangement is different.
It seems to me that the traffic is down since the upgrade to the tracks, but maybe that is because the upgrade allows faster movement and they are not in the scene as long as before!
If you watch long enough you will see at least 3 different cabeese used as “Shoving Platforms” for a reverse move that goes to a couple of customers to the southeast. One is usually covered hoppers and oil tanks and the other will be mostly gondolas. I used to see a caboose outbound (east) between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM and return (West) between noon and 3 PM almost daily (note the overlap, the job takes about an hour), but that seems to have changed recently and I don’t know why the change or when they might be expected now. The caboose is almost always on the west end of the train (leading on the return trip).
In the past there have been some Autumn “Fall Colors” excursions that boarded passengers at the museum that is off screen to the left (east) behind the camera. These excursions have sometimes been powered by a steam locomotive.
Mostly you will see coal unit trains (loads east bound and empties west bound) some (nearly) unit automobile carrier trains, and other more general freight.
Since the shops are to the east (left, behind the
thanks for the update
Norm , your link works fine, also the (little red caboose) is still alive and rolling. Yesterday our web network was not working because suspected copper thieves cut the fiber cable Northern Az. was shut down. The financieal dealing took a bad hit because of this. This was cut north of New River wast of I-17. 6 hrs all was fixed. So far no Oil Trains were derailed today in Arizona , But the day isin’t over yet.
Cannonball
looks like it rains alot in virginia. i see snow in the daylight and rain at night.