Mini cam in a "See" Liner

R

Ralph

Remember...it's for fun!
Jun 18, 2002
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St. Paul, MN
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I received a mini videocam for Christmas and have installed it in the chassis of an old AHM dummy C Liner. I have two shells for it. One I painted as PC loco although I couldn't find any info on NYC or Pennsey C Liners surviving the merger.

Here's the PC camera cab with the hole drilled out in front to accommodate the lens.

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I painted the other shell for my freelanced road so I can get an engineer's eye view running either road on my layout

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I wish the picture was more clear but the camera is in the nose of the chassis while the AHM body neatly accommodated the battery and cable. I had to build up some plastic shims in the nose to hold the camera firmly in place.

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Here is the set up with an old TV next to my nearly life size model of an EMD drum style control stand. The stand contains an MRC power pack that lets me run a loco in a near prototypic fashion. The minicam and the TV now provide the closest thing to a view out the cab window! The TV is currently perched on an old kitchen cart that I plan to paint gray and add more industrial features to blend it with the control stand.

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Here's a closer view of the TV image. Its so cool to see my HO scale trains look HUGE on camera!

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What fun!
Ralph
 
Wow Ralph, you take modeling to the NEXT LEVEL! Not only do you have scale trains, but you seem to now be trying to make a 1:1 scale control system!sign1 The next thing you'll probably do is start turning your house into various train cars...:rolleyes::mrgreen::p
 
Sorry guys! I don't have a video camera but i might have a friend who does and perhaps can someday come over and record a trip around the layout for me.

I can show you a couple of photos of the control stand. Here's the model of the drum with working throttle and reverser. The model of the locomotive brake is hooked up to a can of compressed air and makes an air hiss when you move the handle. Visiting kids love it. The large toggle switch to the right controls a continuous loop tape of a train bell when activated. You can see a photo of an F unit cab interior next to my Atlas selector switches that was the inspiration for this project.
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Here's a shot of the very simple mechanical "guts" that make the control stand work. The thick dowel has a cap from a detergent bottle screwed onto the bottom of it that rests perfectly n the knob of the power pack. The upper part of the dowel has a hole drilled through it that accommodates the throttle handle I move to run the train. The reversing button on the power pack is moved back and forth by the stairway spindle on a hinge. A small block of wood under the spindle has a hole drilled into it that fits over the slide switch on the power pack. Cheap but effective technology.
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Ralph
 
Awww...that took the mystery right out of it! It would have been cooler if you had said something like how it took you forever to fabricate the stand get the internals to work with scale trains. A good blood sweat and tears story...LOL!!!
 
Ralph if those rca plugs going into the front of your tv are from the camera feed you could plug them into a video capture card in your pc.
 
Ralph,...

...that is one of the cleverest...

Do you know you're now gonna need a video mixing generator so we can watch you driving the train!!! I betcha didn't know that.

Absolutely outstanding. Thank you for enjoying yourself the way ya do. Brilliant.

Mark:thumb:

(P.S. We need a green with envy ICON)
 
Triplex said:
They didn't. Most roads withdrew their C-Liners in the mid-to-late 60s. The only road I know of that had them later is CP (to 1975).
Click to expand...
Ok, how about Ralph says that one "C" liner ended up in a deadline, and a sharp drop in availiable power forced said C liner back into service for the PC. Afterwards, said C liner was allocated to a paticular section of the PC, the section Ralph models.
 
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