Cameras
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:58 amTo the gang that tends to the C&T,
The webcams in the yards at Chama have become a happy element of my daily life. I visit at least a half-dozen times a day during my breaks from Internet business and writing. I’ve even figured out the general schedule for arrivals and departures. Sometimes I keep the cams open on the screen as a comforting background.
Nothing has to "happen" on these moments to make me happy about the experience. To tell the truth, just watching the engines steaming quietly on the ready track or moving up to the coal tower are gorgeous moments to savor. The sound of the hissing steam gently whistling and the thud of heated metal contracting and expanding in the background is a gentle song. Steam is alive, is it not?
But what I find most compelling is that C&T is a real railroad doing real business.You can feel it. People talking and moving purposefully. I’m old enough to remember what real freight yards sounded and felt like from decades ago, and Chama has the perfect feel, the right sense of proportion. People and machines are doing real work.
What compels me about Chama is the reality of it. It’s not showbiz. It’s a railroad. That feel is what I most remember from my childhood and what I most miss. The smoke and the steam and the grit are no illusions. The webcams capture that perfectly, and draw me back to the place. I visited once and the webcams inspire my passion to return.
I always check in at dawn, to see the light starting to change the color of the yard’s landscape and I always make sure to catch the scene as dark descends and the lights take hold as the steam swirls near the engine house.
Whoever took charge of making this happen deserves great applause. It's a debt we owe you. The images reach out to me thousands of miles away in Chicago.
I hope the cams can even be expanded to all the key scenes of operation. Expanding the webcams would be an initiative that many of us would happily back with our donations.
At any rate, I love the C&T and Chama. The cameras reaffirm my deep affection for the lovely little place and the little railroad that makes it live.
Regards,
David Rutter
Wilmette, Ill
The webcams in the yards at Chama have become a happy element of my daily life. I visit at least a half-dozen times a day during my breaks from Internet business and writing. I’ve even figured out the general schedule for arrivals and departures. Sometimes I keep the cams open on the screen as a comforting background.
Nothing has to "happen" on these moments to make me happy about the experience. To tell the truth, just watching the engines steaming quietly on the ready track or moving up to the coal tower are gorgeous moments to savor. The sound of the hissing steam gently whistling and the thud of heated metal contracting and expanding in the background is a gentle song. Steam is alive, is it not?
But what I find most compelling is that C&T is a real railroad doing real business.You can feel it. People talking and moving purposefully. I’m old enough to remember what real freight yards sounded and felt like from decades ago, and Chama has the perfect feel, the right sense of proportion. People and machines are doing real work.
What compels me about Chama is the reality of it. It’s not showbiz. It’s a railroad. That feel is what I most remember from my childhood and what I most miss. The smoke and the steam and the grit are no illusions. The webcams capture that perfectly, and draw me back to the place. I visited once and the webcams inspire my passion to return.
I always check in at dawn, to see the light starting to change the color of the yard’s landscape and I always make sure to catch the scene as dark descends and the lights take hold as the steam swirls near the engine house.
Whoever took charge of making this happen deserves great applause. It's a debt we owe you. The images reach out to me thousands of miles away in Chicago.
I hope the cams can even be expanded to all the key scenes of operation. Expanding the webcams would be an initiative that many of us would happily back with our donations.
At any rate, I love the C&T and Chama. The cameras reaffirm my deep affection for the lovely little place and the little railroad that makes it live.
Regards,
David Rutter
Wilmette, Ill