Tag: Railcam

Ribblehead Relaunched

What do you do when your ‘viaduct camera’ can hardly see the viaduct any more? Thats the question we have been asking ourselves here at Railcam for a while now…

Some of you may have noticed that the trees now obscure almost all of the view of the Ribblehead Viaduct from our established camera at the Station Master’s House, installed over 10 years ago with the help of the Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line.

Well, we have a solution, and it doesn’t involve long poles, drones or a chainsaw!

Welcome to our new cameras at Ribblehead, courtesy of The Station Inn, which provides us with a grandstand view of the majestic Batty Moss Viaduct (Ribblehead Viaduct to most folk), plus an additional more railway focussed camera showing the Low Sleights Road over bridge. Thank you to the team for allowing us to share their wonderful views with you all.

The Station Inn is more than just a pub by the railway, they are proud to offer locally sourced food and drink, including home cooked meals and a fine selection of Yorkshire ales, accommodation that is perfect for a nice night away or to base yourself for a big Yorkshire adventure.

“First and foremost The Station Inn is a traditional inn for the thriving local community. It is the warm welcome extended by both staff and regulars that makes The Station Inn feel like home for those visitors whose homes are perhaps hundreds of miles away from the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales.“

“The pub boasts a large car park which can accommodate up to 50 vehicles. Camper vans are welcome for overnight stays. The Station Inn is also a popular stop for cyclists who like to take advantage of the miles of green lanes that cross the Yorkshire Dales, and is also a favourite of motorcyclists who are in the area to enjoy the stunning local routes. There is plenty of common land at the back of the pub and Ribblehead Station is directly opposite with its train connections to Carlisle in the north and Leeds in the south. There are all manner of easy ways to get to The Station Inn but, regardless of how you arrive, we are committed to ensuring you leave happy and keen to return!“

Find out more about The Station Inn by visiting their website at https://www.thestationinnribblehead.com and follow them on Facebook.

The cameras….

Camera 1 – Viaduct Camera.

Ad-free for supporters on Railcam and on The Station Inn website. Ad-supported for non-subscribers on Railcam and YouTube viewers.

Camera 2 – Low Sleights Road Bridge

Ad-free for supporters on Railcam. Ad-supported for non-subscribers on Railcam and YouTube viewers.

As always, we would like to thank those who have worked behind the scenes, our installation team and everyone at The Station Inn. We hope you enjoy the cameras as much as we have enjoyed bringing this project together.

Railcam & Watchet Visitor Centre partnership to promote harbour town

Railcam are delighted to be partnering Watchet Visitor Centre, in a project that aims to increase our coverage of the delightful West Somerset Railway, whilst also helping to promote the Somerset harbour town to a wider audience.

The project is kindly funded by Watchet Town Council and Somerset Council to support the promotion of the town, with two cameras situated at the Watchet Visitor Centre/Watchet Boat Museum building. The cameras were installed by the Railcam team, who will manage and maintain them moving forward.

Watchet Camera 1

The camera gives us an excellent view of the approaches to Watchet Station which was originally the terminus of Brunel’s broad gauge that opened to Taunton in 1862. You’ll see trains arriving and departing to Minehead with the camera directly above Minehead bound departing locomotives, providing a unique view over the drivers shoulder as crews prepare for the guards whistle.

Watchet Camera 2

The camera gives us an excellent view along the length of Watchet Station. You’ll see trains arriving and departing to Bishops Lydeard with the camera also providing far reaching views out across the Bristol Channel with the island of Steep Holm clearly visible. Watchet Marina, East Quay and the Goivers Lane foot crossing provide the backdrop of this ancient port of a 1000 years. 

The cameras will be available to watch for free, 24/7 via the Railcam website, Youtube channel & the Watchet Visitor Centre website.

Important Links

Watchet Visitor Centre – Website | Facebook | X/Twitter

Watchet Town Council – Website | Facebook

Somerset Council – Website | Facebook | X/Twitter

West Somerset Railway – Website | Facebook | X/Twitter

Railcam ‘Making Tracks’ with groundbreaking broadcast

We are delighted to be partnering with Pete Waterman and his Railnuts to bring exclusive coverage of ‘Making Tracks 3’, live for SIX weeks from Chester Cathedral; a groundbreaking project that has never been seen before on this scale within the model railway community.

The subject may be the same, but the scale vastly smaller! It’s Railcam, but not as we know it…..

Making Tracks 3 is, as you would expect, the third layout to be produced in the series by Pete Waterman and the Railnuts, with all three based on locations on the West Coast Mainline. This years offering depicting the present day Milton Keynes station.

After being approached in early June, Andrew has worked tirelessly to source cameras suitable for streaming trains 76 times smaller than we are used to. With such a diminutive scale to cover, the options for off the shelf accessories was very limited, so the answer was to design and produce our own bespoke mounts and brackets that would be both functional and not overly intrusive for guests visiting this marvel of model railway construction.

As part of this very special broadcast, we have a dedicated page which features 5 cameras covering the main layout and an overview of the fiddle yard. Viewing options include a ‘Quad-cam’ view with the 4 main cameras on one page, ‘Cycle-cam’ which rotates between the 4 main views individually, with the final ‘Aerial-cam’ covering the fiddle yard.

Making Tracks 3 is on display at Chester Cathedral from Wednesday 26th July to Saturday the 2nd September, open to the public and live streaming Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm.

Click here to got to Making Tracks 3 LIVE

Making Tracks 3 is bought to you with support from Chester Cathedral, Railcam UK, Chester Model Centre, Model Signs, PJM Bespoke Models, Accurascale, Peco, Hornby, Hornby Magazine, MegaPoints Controllers, Hanson Plywood Limited, Tom Connell & UK Departure Boards.

125 Preservation Debut Running Day

Sunday 9th July sees the first public running of 125 Preservation’s HST at Nene Valley Railway.

©125 Preservation/NVR

The 125 arrived at Nene Valley in January and a small team has worked tirelessly to get it ready for visitors.

The class 43 powercars last operated with Colas Rail, but before that were part of the Midland Mainline fleet for many years.

43045 “The Grammar School Doncaster AD1350” and 43060 “County of Leicestershire” will both be operating on the day.

©125 Preservation/NVR
©125 Preservation

Two of the coaches operating in the train are from the Prototype HST dating from 1972 (42000, 41002), so although they look modern they are actually 51 years old!

©125 Preservation

Currently fitted with GNER/VTEC/LNER standard class seating, the team have rearranged the seats inside the vehicles into groups of 4. 

©125 Preservation
©125 Preservation

The GWR buffet car, dating from 1976 was the first built production MK3 buffet car (40001) and has full leather seating. They will be serving hot and cold snacks and drinks, as well as selling a selection of souvenirs – mugs, keyrings, badges etc.

©125 Preservation/NVR

For more information and to keep up to date with everything 125 Preservation, you can visit the website or Facebook page.

Railcam Round-up

Another week of upgrades and installs this past week from our dedicated team, but what have we been up to…..?

Andrew Jebb and Andrew Cooper kicked off the week with a visit to Doncaster, and our hosts Foodtest Labs Ltd, where we have upgraded the camera to one of our latest PTZ models from Dahua.

On Wednesday our team moved onto a new location, more on that to come on Monday (24th April), but in the meantime here is a little preview….

On to Thursday and the two Andy’s were over in Altrincham for another upgrade project, and we have taken the opportunity to install a ‘Cleethorpes’ style set up, with a dual camera unit providing us with views in both directions. The south view camera is now LIVE, alongside the existing north view.

Finally on to Friday and Andrew Jebb was joined by Phil O’Ryan for a visit to Network Rail’s York ROC. The job was to install another camera upgrade to ROC camera 1, and to repair the damage those pesky Magpies had done to the microphone mufflers. The fluffy nature of the microphone covers is obviously a very eye-catching nest liner for our feathered friends…. Again we have upgraded to one go the latest Dahua PTZ cameras.

As always, we would like to thank our dedicated install team this week, Andrew Jebb, Andrew Cooper and Phil O’Ryan for giving up their time, and to our hosts across all our sites for their continued support, without you there simply wouldn’t be Railcam.

The continued program of upgrades and installs is only made possible by our subscribers, and you can be part of that for as little as £4 for a month, or a bargain £30 for an entire year. It’s not all about the cameras though, we have one of the most detailed live signalling diagram packages available, as well as schedules and user sourced allocation information, find out what you get with your subscription here.

Railcam’s Review of 2022

As a challenging 2022 draws to a close, we look back on a year that has seen Railcam continue to grow with numerous camera additions and upgrades, website and back office upgrades, and continued improvements of our data and diagrams, putting them right up there with the best the industry has to offer.

2022 has been a tough year for everyone, with spiralling prices across the board. At Railcam, we’ve seen the cost of new camera hardware and our monthly server bill rise (twice). At a time when everyone has seen their bills rise, we have managed to avoid a subscription increase since January. We will continue to do what we can to keep costs down in 2023.

New cameras came thick and fast throughout 2022, including our largest ever single installation project at the East Lancashire Railway, where 9 cameras have been installed!

Our mainline installations at Epping (in partnership with Epping Signal Cabin), Redruth (in partnership with Kernow Model Rail Centre), Garsdale and St Albans (in partnership with St Albans South Signal Box) have become firm favourites amongst our viewers.

Redruth (Scorrier) & Garsdale

Epping & St Albans

Over on the heritage side, it’s been another bumper year with major projects at Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and East Lancashire Railway, along with a second camera installed at Seaton Tramway.

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway – Damems Loop & Oakworth

East Lancashire Railway – Ramsbottom & Bury Bolton Street

It’s not all about new locations though, we have to continually maintain and upgrade existing locations, and 2022 has seen an extensive program of upgrades, including Apperley Bridge, Bushbury Junction, Cramlington, Crewe, Grateley, Horton-in-Ribblesdale, Newbury and Teignmouth.

Our data and diagrams team have also been extremely busy maintaining and updating signalling diagrams to keep them bang up-to-date and up there as one of the leading sources of live rail data in the UK.

Kings Cross/Moorgate Live Signalling Diagram

Away from the main Railcam website, our social media presence has continued to grow, and become a thriving community of enthusiasts and industry people all getting involved. Subscriber numbers have continued to grow with YouTube now boasting in excess of 70k, with Facebook racking up 41k followers and Twitter approaching 18k. Our Facebook ‘Railcam Gallery’ page has also continued to grow, giving members the chance to screenshot and share their interesting Railcam ‘spots’ from our cameras.

As we look forward to 2023, we are undertaking our first event sponsorship, as we are lead sponsors for Rail Riders Railway Show at Crewe Heritage Centre on June 10/11. The Railcam team will be in attendance and we hope to have a stall set up showing off our cameras and diagrams, along with merchandise available to purchase. Come along and have a chat with us, it will be great to meet you all.

We would like to thank everyone who has made 2022 such a great success, from our installation team, back office, data & diagrams, social media, moderators and the many many contributors behind the scenes. Without their dedication we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.

We must also thank our fabulous camera hosts, without whom we would have nowhere to put our cameras! Each and every one of you form a small part of the Railcam machine.

Finally, our subscribers. Without our subscribers we wouldn’t be able to fund Railcam. Every subscription, wether it be a 1 month, 12 month or one of the numerous additional donations made, every penny helps us do what we do, for you.

We would like to wish everyone a very happy new year, and all the very best for 2023. Stay tuned as we have HUGE plans for the coming 12 months.

Last Orders for Christmas from the Railcam Shop

Due to planned postal strikes in the lead up to Christmas we are closing the order book for pre-Christmas deliveries on at 10am on Monday 12th December.

Any orders placed after that date will held until the 3rd January 2023.

One exception to this will be Railcam Gift Vouchers, which are available in 6 Months for £18 (Click here) and 12 Months for for £30 (Click here) which are sent out via email.

Visit the Railcam Shop NOW at https://www.railcam.shop

Railcam at the East Lancashire Railway camera launch, Day 3

Our East Lancashire Railway camera launch week continues with two more cameras now LIVE.

Ramsbottom South is now joined by Ramsbottom North!

Camera 3 with be available free via the Railcam and ELR websites, whilst camera 4 is exclusive to Railcam subscribers.

Ramsbottom North
©Railcam UK Ltd & East Lancashire Railway
Ramsbottom North
©Railcam UK Ltd & East Lancashire Railway

Where will we be tomorrow? Join us at 10am to find out…

#ELR #RailcamLive

Railcam at the East Lancashire Railway camera launch, Day 2

We hope you enjoyed yesterday’s East Lancashire Railway camera launch, so how do you fancy a bit more?

Today we welcome our first cameras at Ramsbottom, with two cameras at the south end of the station.

Camera 1 is exclusive to Railcam subscribers, whilst camera 2 will be available free via the Railcam and ELR websites.

Ramsbottom South
©Railcam UK Ltd & East Lancashire Railway
Ramsbottom South
©Railcam UK Ltd & East Lancashire Railway

Same time tomorrow for more? See you there.

#ELR #RailcamLive