I have this idea to put cameras in a yard tower’s windows so that the images can be transmitted to screens in the tower operator’s office allowing him to simulate the feel of being “in the tower” (and place him somewhere that won’t take up space in the layout if need be). What are we using for that these days?
Doug Tagsold described using 1-inch-square “mini CCTV color cameras” purchased from eBay for tower cameras on his HO Terminal of Toledo RR in the current Great Model Railroads 2015 annual from Model Railroader.
Slightly larger than the cameras Doug described are the ones that are in the Harbor Freight CCTV package we were discussing in this thread in the Layouts forum a few days ago.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/242553.aspx
For their typical price of $80 (frequently a little cheaper), you get two color CCD cameras with sound pickup, a LCD display, all cabling, and a power supply. Quality is decent and image quality is surprisingly good. Stripped of their mounts, the HF cameras with the lens are 1.5" deep x 1.5" wide, by 1" tall (approaximately). These could also fit in many towers.
I thought of that and intend to model a tower large enough for the operator to have a forced perspective of the railroad. May not be feasable but it may be different if it works.
here are the two cams i use the key chain records video 30 min files then starts another. the one on the stand is a swann mini wireless camera thats hooked to my tv. i did have it setup to record on vcr then down loaded to a video program i had on an older desktop pc with a video in. that cam is 7/8"x7/8"x15/16" deep.
here is a crappy (sorry) pic of the tv screen og the yard. looks alot better in person.
later
g
That’s about what I had in mind. It would be nice to have a camera in each window frame that leads to a framed monitor in the same position around the operator’s desk. I’ve seen this on one other layout (can’t remember which one) and I’d like to see just how much of the “in the tower” illusion a boy could pull off.