I’ve seen a couple videos of people’s layouts, but they’re always from the onlooker’s point of view. Has anyone considered getting one of those little wireless “spy cams” and mounting it on the engine for an engineer’s view of your layout?
I dont know about tG Scale, but people are doing it in the smaller scales with cameras mounted on flat cars as well as special cars that give not only forward view but other views like to the side. Seems to me it would be a lot easier to do it in G scale, with the size and all[^]
I saw this very thing at Peter Jiggins layout in Essex, it very very interesting and more true to life than anything from above.
Only thing was that is was in black and white and not colour. But he has inpired me to have a go at it. AllI need now is to get Doreen to agree to the allocation of funds after all I have just had a big spen in Germany.
Rgds Ian
Oh I forgot, he has two of them and they look really terrific approaching each other.
Ian SH
Aristo-Craft makes a camera just for that.
Last spring I was invited to set up a temporary railroad at a “picnic.” A friend set his tiny digital camcorder in my gondola and we pushed it around the track a couple times. I never got the see the video.
One of the guys in our local Garden Railway society has one and it is really fun. The only downside is how often are you going to use it? Once you have a video tape of your layout, how often are you going to make new tapes?
If you have friends that also have layouts, maybe you could talk everyone into going in together to get one and rotate it between layouts.
I’ll try this in the Times next week!
It would be fun to stick one in the nose of a engine and operate it from the engineer’s view…
Guy in our club has done that. He can sit in the screen house and run train using video input from camera to tv. tried several camera locations, from flatcar in front of engine, inside cab (engineer’s view), to a couple of cars back from tender.
Consensus of club members was that a couple of cars back was best as gave a wider angle view (more like what the perifrial vision of the eye would see) of the road ahead.
Very interesting blokes, But I have a height problem so i would have to do what Peter did and put it in a gondola and push it arond the track with a small loco.
Rgds ian
Hey there,
I have seen the Aristo Cams in action. Indoors there was a lot of interference causing the picture to break up. Outdoors it was much better and very clear. It sure gives you a different perspective on your layout all right. Might get one in the future but for now my mini DV will go for a ride instead. Later eh…Brian.
There was an article in Garden Railways a few issues ago on building a cmaera car.
I’ve been kicking the idea around with using a dummy diesel to house my DV camcorder. It’d basically be a flat car with just the cab portion remaining. The area where the engine and generator would be in a prototype is just too narrow. A powered unit behind it would push it around.
David Prins
DDEZ Railroad
Holland, MI