WoW what a view!!

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

My spy-cam has arrived! After hooking it up to make sure everything was working right. I hooked up the 9v battery and sat it on a flatcar and pushed it around the track of the 8’ X 4’ setup I have right now and started the train along the tracks. And returned to my living room to watch it on my TV.

It was so cool to see the tracks coming to me as if I was really on a train, but the background gave it away as just my train layout because of the HUGE surroundings going by just off the tracks. I mean it’s kinda hard when you see a full size door in the background.

Btw it also gives you a great perspective on scale speed. While my train seemed rather slow to me when I started it down the track, watching the view on my TV as it rolled along felt and seamed faster. Basecly because I was at scale height. Talk about a new perspective!

Now I just have to find the right donor shell to kitbash it so I can get the view I want of riding inside a Locomotive cab looking out of the front window on the engineers side as if your in the seat.

Does anyone have the view of the inside cab view from the engineers seat showing the panel in front of the engineers and what locomotive is it from?

I can kitbash a cab and hood to match so as the view from the cam is the engineers view but having never see the inside of a cab it would be hard to kitbash this part of the view. I would mount this on a flatbed so I could mount the cam in just the right spot to give the right view but I need to dup the inside of the cab to make it look right. I could use a black screen block to do this but the inside of the cab is not black.

Btw if you want to get a unique view of your own layout I would highly recommend getting a spy-cam mounting it on a flatbed car and taking a ride.

Cost so far

1 Spy-cam off ebay with shipping $34.98 us dollars.
1 Video recorder (I need one)

2

What cam did ya use?

Athearn sells shells (say that 3 times) of GPs and Fs, and switchers. Or did. I know there are some at my LHS if yu don’t have any around you. And if you look around, there should be detailing parts for engineer dashes. different era locos loked different. CF-7s and some earlier has a control panel more towards the middle and the engineer had a door in front of him. the panels all had little levers sticking out for the regulator, throttle, sander, brakes and whistle/bell.

(got to drive one, was a blast)

3

Not sure what you have to work with but a different lens with a narrower field of view might help with the giant background issues?

Would a screen shot of a loco interior froma train sim be any good…not a s good a picture of the real thing of course.

Judging by the price I’d guess you picked up a CMOS color pinhole camera? Just a guess though.

4

Go to ebay and put this number in the search box

150207139042

it should bring it up if not search for wireless spy cam or nanny cam

5

I’ve always thought that would be a geat toy to have. Seems like there are lots of fun & creative things you could do with it. Certainly they’re all over Ebay.The natural skeptic in me has always trumped my desire to get one, fearing I’d just end up with a low-quality semi-functional piece of disappointing junk. Glad to hear of your positive report!

If you can find a way to record and post a video, please do it! I know I for one would love to see it.

Jim

6

As these cams get more popular, we are going to have to tear out mountains and rebuild our tunnels paying the same attention to detail inside that we do outside…[sigh]

7

Just keep the contrast down and it’ll look black inside the tunnels[:)]

8

Those were my thoughts exactly when I was thinking about using cameras… Good looking tunnel liners will be a must if we’re running cams onboard! [:slight_smile:

I was thinking of using a camera in the future on a hidden staging yard and realized that in that case it would have to have scenery just like the visible parts do.

9

hmm, infrared day/night cameras… [:-,]

10

These cams are a lot of fun. I’ve had one on my layout for several years now and its a real hit with visiting engineers.

11

I sorta “view” mini-cams on trains like I do sound. For me, it IS fun for a short time. But, after a while, I just shut it off. Kids do really seem to like it.

Actualy, I find it more enjoyable getting my eye down onto track level and watching the trains come towards and go by at various points around the layout.

Tom

12

But I have subway tunnels, too.

13

Agreed the on-board camera is a novelty and the appeal will fade over time. They will wow the kids and perhaps visitors to the layout though. I want to place a few cams strategically around the layout for those trackside views you mention and to keep an eye on hidden track areas. Having a background in video surveillance I already have a few cameras, DVR card’s for the puter and multichannel modulators so I can “broadcast” RF on different TV channels. Just something to add to the technology going on to the layout… but first I have to finish the risers for the elevated subroadbed…heh, getting just a bit ahead of myself as usual. [:I]