[Accrs] Flagstaff Arzona

Mon Jul 15 14:44:05 PDT 2019

On 7/15/2019 10:03 AM, Alameda County Central Railroad Society wrote:
> Message From: Dennis Stokely  dstokely at sbcglobal.net
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> Glad you finally found Virtual Railfan.  I've been telling a number of 
> people at the club about it for almost a year.  While the term great 
> is appropriate for Virtual Railfanin total, IMHO it isn't for 
> Flagstaff which is just average for the VR cameras.  The camera is too 
> close to the trains and I don't recall seeing anything other than 
> double stacks and the twice a day Amtrak.  Although the frequency is 
> good and it is the best lighting after dark of the free cameras.  I 
> have not yet paid to subscribe for the ones not on U-tube.
>
> Kansas City has a better variety of trains on two very active main 
> lines and a small yard.  The yard is most active around 7:00 am our 
> time and it is hard to believe how slow the UP crews are at 
> switching.  The camera is located above the tracks and is a better 
> viewpoint than Flagstaff.  The train mix on the main line has both 
> loaded and empty coal trains, grain trains and a lot of manifest 
> freights as well as the stack trains.
>
> Skykomish is relatively light in traffic but is the line they use for 
> the Boeing 737's.  There is usually one loaded Boeing train a day and 
> the chat group keeps an eye on them as well as the two Empire 
> Builders.  Unfortunately the camera operator does not always keep up 
> on the chat and frequently has the camera pointed in the wrong 
> direction and doesn't pan.   However, the camera is far enough from 
> the tracks that it is a good view anytime.  Because of the delays in 
> the Cascade Tunnel and single track through the mountains there are 
> frequent meets with a eastbound trains stopped on the siding.  If 
> there is a good moderator on the camera they do amazing zooms showing 
> locomotive and car details.
>
> Ashland has a lot of Amtrak traffic including the Autotrain twice a 
> day, the Tropicana Juice cut (it's not a train anymore) and CSX mixed 
> freights as well as intermodal.  There are three cameras, two fixed 
> and a 360 degree frequently run by the curator of the museum in the 
> Amtrak station where the camera is mounted.  The 360 degree has the 
> same issue as Flagstaff right in front of the station but is good when 
> facing down the track.  The fixed cameras are on a different building 
> on the opposite side of the tracks.
>
> Horseshoe curve is a 360 degree camera which sometimes an operator 
> will follow all around the curve.  They caught the derailment last 
> week live.  There is a lot of activity on the curve.
>
> Barstow isn't a good camera location and the default camera is the one 
> facing away from the main yard.  I would not rate it above Flagstaff 
> other than a lot of us have been there.
>
> Belen is right at the end of the yard but a lot depends on the camera 
> operator as whether it is interesting or not.
>
> And they just added Plant City Florida.  I'm not sure why.  It is a 
> fairly slow location and they keep the camera pointed into the 
> ground.  However, it is great location to be there in person (in the 
> winter, it is quite hot on the city funded train watching platform in 
> the summer).  It rates lower than Flagstaff on the greatness scale.
>
> Dennis
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> On Sunday, July 14, 2019, 1:16:08 PM PDT, Alameda County Central 
> Railroad Society <accrs at mail.accrs.org> wrote:
>
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> This is a great cam.   Just caught this coming through on a container 
> train.   Wonder how that CN unit got down here.
>
Just now 111 stack cars.  All looked like they were 53' as they filled 
the wells.   Vast majority of the cars wereJ.B Hunt.   4 locos on the 
front.  very few if any not double stacked.

Dean


> This is a good link.   You can get on all day or just scroll back on 
> the time line to find trains.
>
> Dean
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHzusfLVSY
>
> East
> Cam: https://youtu.be/enHzusfLVSY 
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHzusfLVSY>
>
> West Cam: https://youtu.be/F96dCRzfKOY 
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F96dCRzfKOY>
>
> Dean
> Message From: Dean & Margaret Lewis lewis2 at earthlink.net 
> <mailto:lewis2 at earthlink.net>
>
>
>
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