Railfan Technology > RR Web Cam - most traffic

I find myself watching more RR web cams instead of going out watching trains like I used to. I was wondering what other folks thought was some of the busiest RR cams. I think the Ft Madison one is where I catch the most trains. Maybe Elkhart being second.
Joe

I find myself checking those ones too but Flagstaff has a great view and a lot of trains.

Bob Payne
Glendora CA

Mojave is very interesting.

i check cams and sit on my ass too, the most traffic--Zurich i have seen so far

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i check cams and sit on my ass too, the most
> traffic--Zurich i have seen so far

Agree that Zurich, Switzerland has the most traffic of all webcams. The volume is almost astonishing. And handled with complete smoothness and precision. The Swiss know how to run a true, precision-scheduled railroad. The PSR-flavor stuff here on the other side of The Pond is Wall Street hype and a poor, faint imitation - at best.

For here in the North America only, I'd say Elkhart, Indiana, both for volume and variety. More variety of traffic, with a lot more manifest traffic, than some of the other high-volume sites such as Hesperia, Flagstaff, La Plata and others where intermodal is so dominant. It's my usual go-to first stop. But as much as I enjoy the webcams, it has not affected my desire to get trackside at all. If anything, it has increased the enjoyment of being trackside, and desire to do it more often. Other factors are the limitation - not the webcams.

MC

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i check cams and sit on my ass too, the most
> traffic--Zurich i have seen so far

Ha!  I agree.  And a lot of the trains are bi-level or very long.  The number of passengers going through Zurich has to be amazing, especially for a not really large city.

Jim

Here is the Zurich web cam:

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/schweiz/canton-zurigo/zurich/train-station.html

Zurich is six hours ahead of the Eastern time zone, so watching in our mornings will show more trains.

Kingman AZ for me - Amtrak arrivals of ~1230A and 230A AZ time align with "prime time" viewing down here in Australia, plus lots of BNSF traffic.

-J

 

Here in the UK, I enjoy Flagstaff, Kingman and Tehachapi. Truckee at the moment for the snow.  chris uk

I'm really amazed at how many RR web cams that there are. Not just in the US, but all over the world. I do enjoy Zurich also.
Joe

Virtual Railfan has a slew of live video channels to watch on that extremely well-known video upload site.  I've been viewing the HD camera at Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada (in the heart of the Selkirk mountains) for the past few days and I'm surprised at the number of trains (unfortunately pretty well all Canadian Pacific).  Seems to average about every ten or fifteen minutes.

J.

> (unfortunately pretty well all Canadian
> Pacific). Seems to average about every ten or
> fifteen minutes.

I'd be surprised to see anything but CP (except as run-through power) as there are no other railroads in Revelstoke. CP's mainline comes in bursts, trains run like streetcars as you observed, but you can also see 4 hour windows of nothing!

Posted from Android

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

Check out some of the Railfan Arizona Cams.  
The folks are active on here.
I use the Wilcox and the Benson cams as well as Gallup
They continue to add cams, there is a new one to go up in Needles. 
There are also some cams up in places like Wadena Minn. and Street running in Bellevue IA  by 
other non Virutal Railfan providers that offer different views and locations. Some don't have a lot of traffic tho
A sleeper cam is the one Belle Plaine IA of Steel Highway  Single track with meets taking place there.They also have Griffith Tower many tracks
yeah there are some great high volume VR cams, the new one at Decatur AL is excellent and shares NS and CSX trains 
and locals.
One last one to check is Saint Louis by upstart Live Trains, They were an original provider that got back into it. They Have 
several around Houston But St. Louis was a surprise hit over the holidays and and has a great mix of traffic for those that need a
Passenger train hit.
And there is non-YouTube RailStream They have many cams but you have to view of their website. There are a few free and some more
in pay - for view line up.They cover Chicago better than anyone else.  
Happy hunting. Amtrak is stopped a Benson right now 8:40a

sarailfan wrote:

> I'd be surprised to see anything but CP (except as
> run-through power) as there are no other railroads
> in Revelstoke. CP's mainline comes in bursts,
> trains run like streetcars as you observed, but
> you can also see 4 hour windows of nothing!
>
> Posted from Android

Hey Darren
Yeah, I stand corrected re the frequency.  I must've caught the camera at a busy time.  Apparently the Rocky Mountaineer passes through occasionally and I've seen the odd CN unit in amongst the power on some trains.

J.

Ft Madison and Elkhart are my favorites.  Not only because of the rail traffic but also because they have 2 or 3 cameras usually pointed in both directions so I can see trains coming from futher away. 

Elkhart might have more traffic and includes several locals.  

Ft. Madison is interesting in that you also get to see more than a few freight trains on the river (i.e. tow boats pushing barges).  And it has good very long range shots of trains way off in the distance if there is a skilled operator on the pzt camera.

I often have all the live streams running on my computer so I can get quite busy trying to watch them all when there's meets on both feeds.