I'm watching the Ashland Virtual Railfan webcam.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

There's a fair breeze blowing through town, and the sky is hazy. You can see the haze between the camera and the trees a few blocks south of the grade crossing.

I went outside a few minutes ago. It's not entirely crystal clear here in Alexandria either. We also have a breeze coming through.

[House of Roberts]

1. You got me started watching this cam.

Now I'm hooked. They're having Ashland Train Day this Saturday, and they just this afternoon installed a brand new cam for the Ashland stream. Very vivid!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Good morning. It's really coming down in Ashland.

98, the northbound Silver Meteor, just came though, 1 hour and 55 minutes late out of Richmond. Ex-C&O "Chapel Hill" is on the back. Let all your railfan pals in northern Virginia know.

I was channel-surfing the many feeds at VR on Wednesday night. I saw that there was no a third camera in Ashland. The most fun part of watching trains at Ashland is that people on the platform stop to turn around and wave at the camera.

[House of Roberts]

3. I'm in North Alabama, so Amtrack isn't much use to me.

I'm still not a Youtube member, so I can't log in to subscribe, YET.

I'll let this weekend get over with and then maybe the VR guy will have time to approve a new subscriber. He's busy socializing with the early arrivals.

Yes, there are three cams in Ashland. The PTZ cam is the one they upgraded. It produces some fantastic images especially at night. I have tried keeping more than one feed on simultaneously, and I have problems with them losing time and going behind the others. Then they're not displaying the same train from different angles. I'm still learning how to use the various tricks to keep up with what trains are where also.

Some of the conductors wave to the camera as the trains pull out, when they're on the near side. There's supposed to be a sign at the terminal showing where the cam is so people know where to wave.

During the day these birds chirp close to the microphone on the camera, and it's so relaxing I just leave the sound on so I can listen when there's no trains to watch. Ashland is a nice quiet place except when the trains are passing.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. I'm not a member. I don't subscribe. I don't log in.

Virtual Railfan comes in on the Roku like everything else on YouTube. That's all I know.

Where the trains are: https://asm.transitdocs.com/

As I write, 94 is just about to make a station stop at Ashland. 89 is out of Alexandria, and it goes through Ashland without stopping.

Ashland is one of the more scenic places in the galaxy of railfan webcams. Most have all the charm of toxic waste dumps. Randolph Macon College is there, so you'll see lot of kids boarding trains on Friday afternoons and getting off trains on Sunday afternoons. They then walk across the street, and there's Randolph Macon.

In northern Alabama, you've got 19 and 20 coming through. Check out the Howell Wye in Atlanta. It's one of the free sites on Railstream.

https://railstream.net/

19 just left Atlanta 1 hour and 13 minutes late.

Still raining.