BUILD A VIDEO CAR
See your layout from the engineer's seat
BY THOMAS FRANKINI
SOME TIME AGO, Lionel presented Railscope®. It was a video camera inside a locomotive allowing you to see your railroad from the engineer's perspective. It was a good idea but it had drawbacks. The image was black-and-white, the photographic resolution was only fair, it lacked sound and, since power to the camera traveled through the rails, every minor interruption created static on the picture.
If you liked the idea of Railscope but insist on first class video quality, I offer an alternative: The Video Car. It records color and sound videos of your railroad and you may edit the results. Not quite the same as Railscope's "hands-on" operating characteristics? Better!
Many people taking part in the home video craze of the past few years own a "palm size" camcorder, a video camera and video cassette recorder together in a single unit usually weighing under four pounds. To that you may add a video transmitter/receiver unit. Just connect the transmitter to your camcorder and the receiver to your VCR or television and voilį! Top quality color and sound video from the engineer's point of view.
TIPS ON BUILDING A VIDEO CAR
- Build the car around your camera. Be sure to distribute the camera's weight evenly over the axles and center it to eliminate wobble. Build the frame so the camera will fit snugly in the car. Look through the camera's viewfinder (in wide angle position) to determine whether to add shims to angle the lens up or down.
- Build the car on two stationary axles. That is very important because the camera must "turn" with the car to give the impression of looking along the side of a locomotive. If you were to use a car with two independent trucks, such as a flatcar, the camera would make sharp, sudden turns as the car rolled about halfway through a turn. You could kitbash a two axle car from, for example, a bobber caboose. The one I scratchbuilt from wood seems a little more stable.
- Use metal wheels. Why? Their added weight will stabilize the car and the camera's microphone will pick up their realistic "clickity-click" sound. I used the largest Gary Raymond® wheels I could find. They work extremely well.
- Set your camera on "auto-focus" and use an "ultra wide angle" lens. The reason for using auto-focus is simple: Distances from the camera to the scenery constantly change; the auto-focus setting helps to compensate. An "ultra wide angle" lens (you may call it a "fish-eye" lens) is an accessory available at your local camera store. It screws over the video camera's lens. It will greatly increase the depth of field and keep almost everything in focus. After you mount the lens, adjust the camera's zoom to suit your taste.
THAT'S ALL?
Yes. It's that simple. But such a project will add tremendously to the enjoyment of your railroad. Incidentally, if anybody comments on how silly a video car looks, ask whether he or she recalls ever seeing a 20 by 30 foot camera rolling down the tracks at the local railroad yard.
