Lengthen Bachmann N Scale Depressed Flat Car

[freescopesdad]

I recently received a like-new Sony HDR-AS100V action cam. This camera is .95" wide 1.75" tall and 3.21" long so it seems good-to-go for n scale if one doesn't have any tunnel portals to deal with (I don't). I hope to take a Bachmann 52' depressed flat I picked up at a train show last week and lengthen the depressed section by about 1.75". That will leave it a total length of about 5.5" excluding couplers, which should still navigate my Kato 11.125" minimum radius curves.

So can I simply cut the car at the midpoint and lengthen with styrene shapes? Any pitfalls I should worry about? I'm not too interested in aesthetics as it will only be used for cab videos. Thanks for listening.

[nscaler711]

I'm sure you could do that, but I do wonder about the minim radius and the three axle trucks not pivoting right after lengthening the car.
I hate to suggest it, but would a modified Walther's well car work better? They are 3⅝" long in the well, and are metal. So you could feasibly cut off the sides with a Dremel and it should have some rigidity left in the floor. Or leave a 2mm rail above the floor just in case.

[freescopesdad]

Thanks for the reply. I went to the Walthers site and searched for n scale flats and intermodal. Both in/out of stock. I could not find what you are referring to. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

[ednadolski]

Lengthen Bachmann N Scale Depressed Flat Car

Hope that will cheer it up....   

Ed

[garethashenden]

Thanks for the reply. I went to the Walthers site and searched for n scale flats and intermodal. Both in/out of stock. I could not find what you are referring to. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

This one probably: http://www.spookshow.net/freight/waltherswell.html
I had a quick look at ebay and didn't see any under $30. You're probably best off with the Bachmann car. Or maybe just make something out of styrene? If its just a camera platform it doesn't need to be pretty. But you would probably want two axle trucks.

[nscaler711]

Thanks for the reply. I went to the Walthers site and searched for n scale flats and intermodal. Both in/out of stock. I could not find what you are referring to. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

Walther's Ditched N scale a couple years back, so you'd have to find them second hand. They can be found pretty cheap occasionally.
Either that do as @garethashenden said.
But you'll most likely want something with 4 axles and not 6 due to your radius.
Or if you are a whiz with electronics, take it apart and mount it in a locomotive like @peteski did years ago.

[freescopesdad]

I found Walthers 932-8053 on ebay. Called a stand alone well car. Is this what you are referring to? She wants $65 for it, which seems awfully high.

[nscaler711]

I found Walthers 932-8053 on ebay. Called a stand alone well car. Is this what you are referring to? She wants $65 for it, which seems awfully high.

Yeah that would be one too look for. But that price is ridiculously high. If I had any spares, it'd be a different story.

[Cajonpassfan]

One consideration regardless of what car you choose: the longer the wheelbase, the farther off the line of camera vision will be  from the track centerline on our sharp curves. I would look for the shortest possible car to minimize the offset. If you're not concerned with looks as you say, why not just build a short camera flat from 3/4" brass stock and and a couple of trucks? A lot cheaper that way...
Have fun, Otto K.

[peteski]

That Sony camera is relatively large for N scale. There are zillions of really inexpensive  tiny "spy" cameras available out there.  Like ones mounted inside a pen, or tiny cube.  Searching eBay or maybe even amazon should provide some options.

The one I used dates back to abut 2005, and while it sends live video (which is  a really handy feature), the video is only VGA (640x480) resolution and the very low power 2.4GHz transmitter results in dropouts during operation.

Some time ago @C855B (Mike) experimented with some more modern inexpensive WiFi cameras.  We had a thread going on that. I also bought some of those cameras but with the plethora of half-finished projects I have, those also ended up in the to-do pile.

[Kentuckian]

If you stay with your original camera could you use an idler car? That is, mount the camera on say a 50’ flat, letting it hang off on one end. Then use a 40’ flat as the idler car. Solves the long wheelbase issue.