Where do you want Virtual Railfan to put a Webcam?

jordon412

33 Year Old Railfan
Where in North America do you want Virtual Railfan to put a webcam? Comment below and explain why.
Here's my places:
1. Somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia where you can see Norfolk Southern, CSX, and Amtrak's Crescent. Though I would be okay with a webcam at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia, which has 2 of the 3 (Norfolk Southern and the Crescent).
2. Somewhere in Augusta, Georgia, specifically because when The Masters Golf Tournament is happening, Norfolk Southern and CSX run their Office Car Specials to Augusta for The Masters.
3. Somewhere in Louisville, Kentucky, specifically because when The Kentucky Derby is happening, Norfolk Southern and CSX run their Office Car Specials to Louisville for The Derby, while Amtrak runs a special Amtrak train from Chicago for The Derby. RJ Corman also runs their My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, which normally runs between Bardstown, KY and Limestone Springs, KY, to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby also.
4. Norfolk Southern's "Pumpkin Vine" line, aka Winston-Salem District, located around milepost R72.3, where a defect detector named Race Track, is located, as it's located next to Martinsville Speedway, a racetrack that sees NASCAR events. I'm thinking a webcam at these co-ordinates: 36°38'6.80"N, 79°50'56.91"W, aka 36.635208°, -79.849174°.
5. Oakland's Jack London Square
6. Somewhere in Chicago, where we can see Metra, Amtrak, and freight trains. Maybe the Racetrack?
7. Somewhere between Elkhorn, Kentucky and Kingsport, Tennessee on old Clinchfield line, now the Kingsport Subdivision, so that we can see the Santa Train, a Clinchfield tradition. Maybe at St. Paul, Virginia, so that we also get some Norfolk Southern action?

Please comment below where you want to see a webcam and why.
 
Definitely gotta have one in Colmor, New Mexico. Plenty of traffic on a hot mainline with scenic vistas all around.
 
This is a must-have. I have no idea how this isn't a cam yet;

Vancouver, Washington.

(Most of the info I'm about to say is from an article about the area in the February 2018 issue of Trains Magazine)

First: the # of trains per day:
BNSF sends about 40-45 trains (with very mixed traffic)
UP sends 20 trains
Shortline Portland & Western RR sends 1 train daily
The article says that 12 Cascades trains pass through daily, but I don't know the whole story on the Cascades and I'll do to separate totals if they exist or don't exist. Forgive me for my ignorance.
The Empire Builder comes through twice in the morning and night
The Coast Starlight comes through every day
(all of the above Amtraks stop in Vancouver Station)

So all of that adds up to 70-80 trains A DAY!

So where can we put the cam? (I recommend you find Vancouver Station on Google Maps or Google Earth (Earth is better) for this explanation to make sense)

I really want to have the cam to overlook all three sides of the wye. There is a tall pole inside the wye that looks just juicy for a cam.

To find it: 1: Zoom out so you can see all of the wye. 2: Zoom in on the white building (Label is: Vancouver WA BNSF Railway) 3: Move down 100 ft to West 11th street. 4: Follow it west until it turns south and towards the station 5: Look on the inside curve of the turn for a three-sided box with a yellow fire hydrant inside. 6: Move 50 ft to the east and you'll see a long shadow facing northwest coming from the pole I'm talking about.

Now that that's over, I can explain why this pole is perfect. This pole is about 70-80 ft tall and would easily see the yard to the north, the station, the big bridge (Bridge 9.6) and a bunch of short industries all over the place that are serviced ... eventually. VRF usually puts cams on buildings and you could say that VRF might not put a cam on a pole but the Big Sandy, TX camera is on a pole so we know that VRF can put cams on poles. Admittedly, this pole is quite high up and I don't know if VRF will put a cam up that high. Lastly, on the pole I'm talking about has a sign that says "Private Property - No Trespassing blah blah blah", so there's that to think about.

So, I looked elsewhere.

Second best place (in my opinion) would be the farthest west corner of Decorative Metal Services's building. This one is a building, and it too can see all three sides of the wye, the station, some but less industries, and the yard, but all not as well. It cannot see the bridge, however. From street view, it looks like DMS already has a security camera on that corner, so we know that it is possible to attach a camera to that surface. But, I don't know how willing a metal factory would be to put a camera on their building for railfans to watch trains.

Third best place would be the station. I can't decide whether we should put the cam on the south side, and see trains go over the bridge - or put it on the north side and see the far side of the wye and the trains that it entails. My pick is north side, in favor of more trains.

I'll even add the radio frequencies:
They are: BNSF: 161.250 BNSF Willbridge Yard: 161.100 UP Albina Yard: 160.680

(upon doing this much research, I think this could actually work, so after I made this post I sent all this to VRF in an actual suggestion for a cam. Fingers crossed)

I'm done now. Thank you for coming to my TED talk:)
 
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Dallas Union Terminal. Not because I’m biased, but because there is a high level of traffic there. Hundreds of DART trains, tens of TRE trains, the occasional Amtrak and several freight trains. All you need to do is persuade the station’s owner.

They could mount a PTZ cam on a light fixture in the parking lot next to the station or on the platform roof’s themselves.

A Joliet, IL cam could work too. It may not be the glory days of the Rock Island, GM&O, ATSF and more, but you’ll still get Amtrak trains, many commuter trains and some freight action too.
 
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A Joliet, IL cam could work too. It may not be the glory days of the Rock Island, GM&O, ATSF and more, but you’ll still get Amtrak trains, many commuter trains and some freight action too.

Where exactly in Joliet?

Separately, I decided to make another map but this time with the premise of "Every dot is a VRF cam", so you can visualize the spread of VRF cams and where we might need some.
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