Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

The 2 cameras are mounted on the Coal Tipple, which was built in 1925. One faces north (railroad east), the other south (railroad west).

Field of Vision



South Camera





Friends Board Member John Engs working on cabling


North Camera

In September 2013, Joe Kanocz and I cleaned the camera lenses. I was in Chama with my family on vacation and my wife, Michele, took these photos.

Some of the regular viewers got a close-up view of a bottle of Windex!

Here is the Friend's report from The Dispatch on the camera installation:

http://www.RioGrandeExplorations.net/pi ... Report.pdf


Here are my Trip Reports:

Part I: http://www.RioGrandeExplorations.net/20120618.html

Part II: http://www.RioGrandeExplorations.net/20120924.html

First and foremost, I appreciate all of the gratitude that has been expressed here and directed at me. However, John Engs, Steve Forney, and Joe Kanocz and I are a team. No one did any more work than the others. This was absolutely a team-effort, as are all of the Friend's projects.

As neat as this camera is for us fans to see what our favorite railroad is doing, the catalyst for this project was marketing. A TV station in Albuquerque specifically requested an up-close view of the action to use as a backdrop for weather broadcasts. This will put the railroad in front of 10's of thousands every day and won't cost the railroad a cent. I don't know when those broadcasts will start, but I'll pass along any information I get. Eventually, I hope stations in Denver, Amarillo, Kansas, and maybe even Dallas-Ft Worth will pick up the feed.

In addition to the camera, a firewall was finally installed. This required a complete re-engineering of the network and now Chama Yard has a first class LAN adhering to Cisco's industrial standards. This greatly enhances security and remote management.

Special thanks to Steve and Joe for ensuring that all of the gear is grounded. This was a big concern after the outage last spring due to lightning. We also staged spare network appliances so that (hopefully) we can recover quickly from any loss of hardware.

Special thanks to John Engs for designing the mount the camera sits upon. It's brilliantly simple and took almost no time to assemble and install.

For the moment, this camera is opened to the public. However, as soon as I have the free time necessary, I will develop a method that will allow access to Friend's Members only. Being a Member deserves some perks, and this will be a big one. The two coal tipple cameras will remain opened to the public as they always have been.

If you haven't yet participated in a Friend's Work Session, please do so. You won't regret the experience. There is much to do and we need your help.

A few photos:





Joe




Steve


View from on top of the bathroom building








Looking the other direction from the roof of the bathroom building

Excellent pictures Jason, and a rare view of the far South side of the yard in those last couple shots. A job well done by the four of you on the whole cam install.

Bravo to all who brought this project to fruition. As stated above, hope it serves its primary PR role well and as another neat window on the RR too. Many thanks to all involved this project!!

I would also like to express my appreciation to John Engs, Steve Forney, Joe Kanocz, and Jason Rose for promoting the railroad and providing us with this great new window into Chama.
Thanks guys!
John

Excellent work fella's, and I am sure I speak for those of us overseas when I say how appreciative we are of your efforts, I have that form at home that allows me to tip some money into your coffers so a donation is coming.
I have to say that the yard is looking gorgeous, the coach's are eye catching beautiful in that colour, there is enough variety in freight stock colours to make it interesting and the country is nice and green- I don't suppose it is green enough though? Now if the paint fairy can work some magic on the rotary the scene would be perfect.
Can some trees be trimmed so we can see the back of the shops??? just kidding.

Wayne

Here is the field-of-vision for the Depot Camera and the updated field-of-vision for the north/south cameras.

u need to update the south tipple cam coverage since you adjusted the lens.

Tom C.

Thanks, Tom. I hadn't thought to do that yet.

It's done.

It would be neat to have one more camera aimed at the board in the station that shows the daily ridership. As a hand scribed "message board", it would be a great way to convey the daily traffic plus anything else that the RR would like to share with the public. Just a thought.