One of the best scenery railroad video

[bfagan777]

Here's a video of a layout that has no towns or yards just plenty of scenery.  Enjoy

[kelticsylk]

Here's a video of a layout that has no towns or yards just plenty of scenery.  Enjoy

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Great video. Watching it, it struck me that a train mounted video camera would be a good tool for reviewing how the scenery looks. You could see all the spots that you missed or just don't look right. Kind of like using a still camera to check your modeling efforts.

[wm3798]

Nice B&O theme.  He nailed the Meyersdale area!
Lee

[strummer]

Terrific! Reminds me of the area where I spent my first 11 years, in western Connecticut.

Mark in Oregon

[jimmo]

Beautiful scenery. I would have liked to have seen less of the 1:1 stuff though. The crash at the end was a nice touch...

[Ian MacMillan]

Thing that distracts me the most on the layout is the track nails. 

[John]

Thing that distracts me the most on the layout is the track nails. 

I noticed that as well .. the camera really highlights those

[DKS]

Thing that distracts me the most on the layout is the track nails. 

Yes, that and the fact that the camera is tilted.

[robert3985]

Although I liked the level of "completeness"...the SQUEAKY WHEEL really got to me.  I had to turn down the sound. 

Using a video cam on a run around to improve your layout's scenery and other details (such as the oversized ballast, the prominent track nails, the fugly closure points on the turnouts, etc.) would be a good idea.   However, I'd do progressive run-throughs so that my whole layout wasn't finished before watching the video and seeing things that need to be improved upon.  Best to change 'em if you feel like it's warranted before using them all over your empire, THEN wanting to change 'em out or use something different.

That's one of the reasons I build test-modules quite often.  To test both the application and appearance of a cosmetic feature or technique to see how it goes together and how it looks through my DSLR's hypercritical lens.  I haven't used a cam-on-a-car yet to test anything, since my emphasis is on still photography, but a modern High Res DSLR will take both excellent photos as well as non-onboard videos of trains in motion.  Good point-and-shoot digital cameras with a manual override will do the same thing on a less versatile basis.

It's a lot easier to take criticism from a camera than from your stinkin' rivet-counter detail-obsessive train buddies (  )...and the camera doesn't believe in any 3-foot rule either so you can't get away with sloppy detail work.  That's why I really like 'em as a tool to improve my modeling, and also as a record-keeper so I can peruse results of failed and successful detailing ventures for future reference.

[unittrain]

The topography is captured perfectly with all the embankments and various paths leading to the tracks, it captures the prototype really well.

[Zox]

The Looxcie seems to have better depth of field than I expected--I may have to resume my experiments in building a Looxcie-based camera car.

[bfagan777]

Zox.  I use a flat car with double faced tape to hold the camera in place.  Easily removed so I can use the camera on other scale layouts.

Bill

[jimmo]

I kept wanting to turn to the left or right to get a better look at the impressive scenery. I wonder if there is any technology out there that would allow such rubber-necking--especially when the scene was showing a lot of 1:1.

[Zox]

I kept wanting to turn to the left or right to get a better look at the impressive scenery. I wonder if there is any technology out there that would allow such rubber-necking--especially when the scene was showing a lot of 1:1.

I've thought about adapting the steering gear from some of those micro-sized RC cars to allow remote-controlling the camera angle, but it's on the back burner along with my 187 other unfinished projects.

My curve-anticipating car does a fair job of keeping the camera pointed at where the train is headed, as opposed to looking out into the aisles. Here's the most nearly comparable footage I have:

The desire to make the camera look "into" the curves is one of the major reasons I haven't gotten further with the Looxcie. The whole Looxcie is too big to turn without massive side-clearance issues. The internal connection between the actual camera and the rest of the guts is too short to easily articulate the camera, and too complicated to easily extend (it's a multilayer flexible PC cable, not simple wires). This, and the fact that I usually use the camera car "live" at train shows rather than for documentary purposes, have kept the Looxcie on the back burner for me so far.

[John]

And Zox shows all the warts on my layout