Which webcam is your favorite to watch Amtrak trains?

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Remember when the lady stepped off the train at La Plata to smoke and the train departed? She went running trying to catch it. That was horrible for her but made a funny video. The La Plata cam caught it all and is still posted on YouTube.
I loved that video!! In fact it was watching it that got me interested in watching railcams.
 
I was never sure where Santa Fe Junction was in relation to Kansas City Union Station. I tried watching for the Southwest Chief a couple of times but never saw it. For westbound #3, for example, is Santa Fe Junction before or after the Kansas City Union Station stop? And approximately how many minutes before or after Union State would I see the Chief under normal circumstances?
 
Here is the location of SFJ in relation to Union Station
1615695560703.png

If #3 is going westbound it comes to KCUS before the junction. When it passes thru the junction it moves left-to-right across the camera(s). It takes 3-5 minutes to go from the station to the junction

It will be going thru tonight in about 20 minutes - it will depart KCUS about 22:42 cst

The MRR (#313) just did it's turn around about 20 minutes ago

If you miss it live - you can always use the progress bar and find it to see how it moves across the screen thru the junction


An interesting thing about this junction is that the State Line goes right through it (as seen in the pic) so State Line Road has the line running down the street
 
Last edited:
Are there any railcams on the NEC? Particularly between PHL and NYP there would be a lot of traffic to see.

Not Amtrak related, but Seashore Trolley Museum has a railcam where you can watch trolleys arrive and depart from the Visitor Center. Not much to see currently as regular operations don't begin until May.

STM Live video stream
 
Are there any railcams on the NEC? Particularly between PHL and NYP there would be a lot of traffic to see.

Not Amtrak related, but Seashore Trolley Museum has a railcam where you can watch trolleys arrive and depart from the Visitor Center. Not much to see currently as regular operations don't begin until May.

STM Live video stream
Ashland VA is in the NEC - the railcammers there are pretty active posting arrival times etc of NEC trains that stop in Ashland as well as ones that pass through -Carolinian, Silver Star, etc. As well as the Autotrain.
 
Are there any railcams on the NEC? Particularly between PHL and NYP there would be a lot of traffic to see.

Not Amtrak related, but Seashore Trolley Museum has a railcam where you can watch trolleys arrive and depart from the Visitor Center. Not much to see currently as regular operations don't begin until May.

STM Live video stream
You want the Norwalk, CT one. Its the closest you will get to the NEC. Sometimes they show this cam on their Youtube channel.

https://virtualrailfan.com/norwalk/
 
There's one in Springfield, MA showing Hartford Line trains to New Haven, CT, Valley Flyer extension trains to Greenfield, MA, once daily Vermonter, and once daily Lake Shore Limited.
Thanks for this! I'll look for it. We had a riot talking to and dancing for the people watching the Flagstaff webcams when we spent a couple nights there.
 
On occasion I'll watch the Bangor, MI webcam. It catches the Pere Marquette, the train I take the most. Quite interesting when I'm riding it, watching it simultaneously via the cam.
 
Fort Worth - Tower 55, Texas, USA (Sponsored through August, 2022) | Virtual Railfan LIVE

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I made myself a list of all the publicly accessible railcams I could find that show LD trains. So I decided to clean it up a bit and upload it to Google, so anyone who would like to look at is welcome, using this link: Railcam train times

  • Column A includes a link to the camera.
  • Cols D & G are my guess at the approximate time the train passes the camera if it's on schedule. Some of the cameras are between stations, and I tried to come up with a time by looking at the cameras & the maps on transitdocs, but it's just a guess and YMMV.
  • Cols E & H are the same times adjusted to Eastern time, for convenience and sorting.
  • Col I has the station code for cameras that are at stations; or for cameras not at a station, I tried to estimate the time to the nearest station. Again, it's just a best guess, as actual times are highly variable. I suggest using it as a guide to find the nearest timepoint on the map on transitdocs.
For those not familiar with Google Sheets, you can sort the table by clicking on the column letter. It will only change your view, not the actual sheet. I find it useful to sort by train or by Eastern time.

Please let me know of any issues or questions.

One more thing: most of these cameras are from Virtual Railfan. Public access to some VRF cams is sponsored on an ongoing basis, but others are sponsored for a limited time or made available by donations within YouTube. Therefore, public access to any particular VRF cam may be removed at any time.
 
Last edited:
I made myself a list of all the publicly accessible railcams I could find that show LD trains. So I decided to clean it up a bit and upload it to Google, so anyone who would like to look at is welcome, using this link: Railcam train times

  • Column A includes a link to the camera.
  • Cols D & G are my guess at the approximate time the train passes the camera if it's on schedule. Some of the cameras are between stations, and I tried to come up with a time by looking at the cameras & the maps on transitdocs, but it's just a guess and YMMV.
  • Cols E & H are the same times adjusted to Eastern time, for convenience and sorting.
  • Col I has the station code for cameras that are at stations; or for cameras not at a station, I tried to estimate the time to the nearest station. Again, it's just a best guess, as actual times are highly variable. I suggest using it as a guide to find the nearest timepoint on the map on transitdocs.
For those not familiar with Google Sheets, you can sort the table by clicking on the column letter. It will only change your view, not the actual sheet. I find it useful to sort by train or by Eastern time.

Please let me know of any issues or questions.

One more thing: most of these cameras are from Virtual Railfan. Public access to some VRF cams is sponsored on an ongoing basis, but others are sponsored for a limited time or made available by donations within YouTube. Therefore, public access to any particular VRF cam may be removed at any time.
Some additional:
Santa Fe Junction/Kansas City for the SWC and Missouri River Runner
San Juan Capistrano, CA for the Pacific Surfliner (and Metrolink) trains.
Forth Worth/Tower 55 for the Texas Eagle
Hesperia/Cajon Pass for the SWC
Barstow for the SWC
Flagstaff for the SWC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKyqd7Y9TOk
 
Last edited:
I made myself a list of all the publicly accessible railcams I could find that show LD trains. So I decided to clean it up a bit and upload it to Google, so anyone who would like to look at is welcome, using this link: Railcam train times

  • Column A includes a link to the camera.
  • Cols D & G are my guess at the approximate time the train passes the camera if it's on schedule. Some of the cameras are between stations, and I tried to come up with a time by looking at the cameras & the maps on transitdocs, but it's just a guess and YMMV.
  • Cols E & H are the same times adjusted to Eastern time, for convenience and sorting.
  • Col I has the station code for cameras that are at stations; or for cameras not at a station, I tried to estimate the time to the nearest station. Again, it's just a best guess, as actual times are highly variable. I suggest using it as a guide to find the nearest timepoint on the map on transitdocs.
For those not familiar with Google Sheets, you can sort the table by clicking on the column letter. It will only change your view, not the actual sheet. I find it useful to sort by train or by Eastern time.

Please let me know of any issues or questions.

One more thing: most of these cameras are from Virtual Railfan. Public access to some VRF cams is sponsored on an ongoing basis, but others are sponsored for a limited time or made available by donations within YouTube. Therefore, public access to any particular VRF cam may be removed at any time.
A number of the Virtual Raifan locations have two or more cameras. You Tube will get you to the main one. If you scroll down to the decription, you will see the separate links to the other camera.
 
A number of the Virtual Raifan locations have two or more cameras. You Tube will get you to the main one. If you scroll down to the decription, you will see the separate links to the other camera.
Yes, and when the main cam is a movable one, sometimes the 2nd camera is a static one, which can come in handy when the person controlling the movable cam is following the loco on a tight zoom or following a freight when you want to see the passing Amtrak.
 
Fort Worth - Tower 55, Texas, USA (Sponsored through August, 2022) | Virtual Railfan LIVE

Some additional:
Santa Fe Junction/Kansas City for the SWC and Missouri River Runner
San Juan Capistrano, CA for the Pacific Surfliner (and Metrolink) trains.
Forth Worth/Tower 55 for the Texas Eagle
Hesperia/Cajon Pass for the SWC
Barstow for the SWC
Flagstaff for the SWC

Thanks for the suggestions. I added Santa Fe Junction, Tower 65, & Barstow. I also added FLG but made it Pacific time since AZ doesn't use DST.

I left out Hesperia/Cajon Pass because the SWC usually comes by in the dark, and there's absolutely no lighting there. Barstow is nearby and is lighted.

For my own use, I'm only doing LD trains, and SNC only has regionals. If I added all the regional trains, the list would get too long, and I couldn't practically show times.
 
Back
Top