Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

The webcams are in a word GREAT and I really appreciate the time, money, and effort that has gone into making them work. In fact, they are so good they whet my appetite to have one in Antonito. Maybe on or near the water tank. I know, I know, easy for me to say, but it would be nice.

Welcome to the forum Joe!

I think, Joe, we'd all like that. Jason can likely give a more expert answer, but I believe the biggest issue, other than money and equipment, is the lack of good enough internet to support streaming a camera. Perhaps one day --- we sure would be happy to have one there as well.

Hey, Joe. As Larry said, welcome aboard.

I would also like to put cameras in Antonito. Two on the tank: one facing west down the mainline and the other facing the yard. However, we would need about $20,000 and the railroads blessing to do this.

Using wireless in Antonito isn't an option today. It's terrible. So, we'd have to build our own wireless network mirroring the one we built in Chama and tie it into a dedicated copper connection in the Depot or CRF. This would have the fringe benefit of giving the CRF a WiFi network for use during Work Sessions. The Chroniclers would love that! As it is today, Ed Lowrance has to drive into town or to the RV park to find a WiFi network so he can post photos.

All of the money was donated to construct the camera network in Chama. The IT Department does this for love-of-the-railroad and not a fee, so there's no overhead other than ISP and hardware maintenance costs. Donations and advertisements generally pay for those. It's reasonable to assume that donations and ads by Antonito-based businesses would also support cameras there, but getting the money for the construction is the hard part. 20K ain't chump change.

For those that are tech-savvy, it can be argued that we could do this for far cheaper. I know for a fact that it could be done for just a few thousand. But, cheaper and less ruggedized hardware will require far more maintenance/replacement than I can provide from 1000 miles away. So, the FCTS would be stuck with having to find and pay a local IT guy. In the long run it's less expensive and time-consuming to build a better system up front.

So, if you've got a pile of cash you want to donate to the cause, let us know and I'll set aside a week next summer to build it for you.

As a retired software design engineer I applaud going for a first class ruggedized setup. In my experience, anything less might be cheaper in the short term but will invariably cost more, even a lot more, in the long run. If I had $20K lying around looking for a cause to support the cameras would be high on my list of places for it to go but as I said I am retired.

If we had the necessary permissions from the railroad in place, I wonder if the project could be crowdfunded?

Less than an hour after I posted this, I received some interesting new information from the brass. Can't go into details yet... but this... is... interesting...

We await word on what this may be with anticipation.

Sharon Evans wrote:We await word on what this may be with anticipation.

Me, too.

I'm just the grunt doing the work. Decisions are above my head.