Lloyd's Camera Car

We've all seen model railroad videos where the camera’s position depicts views of people riding onboard.  Mostly the images and videos posted on the CCMRRC website and Newsletter are recorded from an elevated point of view with few depicting the view of an engineer, fireman, brakeman, or passenger. 

 

To capture these views on club member railroads, I experimented with a camera car using an inexpensive WIFI capable mini-camera purchased from Amazon. The HIDVCAM is a $18.99 camera capable of recording video on an internal Micro-SD card (not supplied) and/or cell phone. 

 

After unboxing the camera, it must be charged for at least 5 hours using the supplied cable and a USB charger (not supplied).  Once charged, camera setup must be completed using the minimal and often confusing documentation.  My suggestion:  To increase signal strength between the HIDVCAM cell phone app (available free from Google Play or Apple App Store) and the camera, users should choose their household’s secured WIFI network to maximize the camera’s operating range.  This is especially true if recording an outdoor layout.  The other option is to connect the camera directly to your cell phone and bypass a WIFI network entirely.  (Most often I used this setting when recording club member layouts without connecting to anyone's WIFI network.)  However, this configuration limits the camera-to-cellphone operating range.

The .MKV  video files recorded on the camera's Micro-SD card must be moved to your computer and converted to .MP4 files before editing.  After trying several free converters, which included one that left the developer's watermark on the converted video, I chose HandBrake (https://handbrake.fr/) for its good results and simplicity.  Files recorded on a cell phone do not require conversion as they’re already recorded as .MP4 files.  

Loosely following the article “Building a Camera Car” by Lou Sassi (Model Railroader December 2023) my Lionel-specific camera car is shown below.  

The project began with a 6-wheel passenger car truck - thank you Terry Schramm. A platform for the camera was cut from 0.080” styrene, painted black, and screwed to the bolster.  A large-scale camera car was also built - thank you Larry Schneider for the trucks.  At this point, however, coupler size and height variances with other large scale equipment has prevented proper testing on a G scale layout.  In all cases, Quakehold! Museum Putty held the camera securely in place and prevented any surface marring.  (Thank you, Bryan Enarson for suggesting museum putty.)

During this year’s CCMRRC Open House I discovered the camera's capabilities on the layouts listed below.  After you choose a layout to view, scroll down to the December 2023 Update for the latest videos (and/or photos).  Depending on the layout, the videos were made on a cell phone, the Lionel camera car, or the camera was mounted to a location on the train such as cab, boxcar, or caboose.

Paul Bottino - https://www.colorcountrytrains.org/p/paul-bottinos-garden-layout-ivins-ut.html

Tim Fitch - https://www.colorcountrytrains.org/p/blog-page_24.html

Dick Saunders - https://www.colorcountrytrains.org/p/blog-page_94.html

Terry Schramm - https://www.colorcountrytrains.org/p/terry-schramm.html

Al Thorne - https://www.colorcountrytrains.org/p/al-thorne-lionel-layout.html

 

Impressions of the HIDVCAM

This camera is best suited for recording in daylight situations at slow train speeds. It doesn't adapt quickly to rapid changes in light levels and is often blinded when moving from dark areas to bright ones.  When train speed (camera speed) increases, image quality quickly decreases because of the camera's slow frame rate.  The camera's cell phone connection can be disrupted when traveling through a metal truss bridge resulting in degraded video.  Video files recorded on the Micro-SD may behave differently.  Wood truss bridges don't appear to create the problem.  Lastly, the need to convert video files from .MKV to .MP4 recorded on Micro-SD definitely adds more complexity.

 

So what's next?

The Lionel 6-wheel truck platform operates well for the HIDVCAM (even at Lionel speeds) and should support the increased size and weight of the GoPro Camera.  In all fairness, I chose the inexpensive HIDVCAM camera to test the idea of capturing views from a moving train.  It's sold as a discrete mini-camera to monitor activity at a fixed location with the camera held still.  Its 15 frames per second recording speed severely limits its capability to capture smooth videos with the camera in motion.  The GoPro, on the other hand, is designed as an action camera with capabilities far better than those of the HIDVCAM "spy" camera.  Recording at 60 frames per second the GoPro should create much sharper videos.  

 

Once the GoPro arrives, the HIDVCAM will find a discreet location outside my roundhouse to monitor hostler activities.  In such a place, the layout's constant light level combined with a fixed camera location will result in the best videos the HIDVCAM can produce.