A few changes to my Grand Central station

Ok Johnny, I'm in. My layout will have the cameras, great idea. The square colums look great. I planned on those but didn't picture them looking so good. They look good all the way down the station. Nice work!

Great Idea! What camera models did you use and the approx. cost?

Thanks!

Hi Brian, Yeah the cams are a lot of fun, but the cheaper ones like what I have (around $24) on Ebay are very sensitive and will have problems with frequency drift and broadcasting distortions at times. I am not really too fussy, so these problems don't bother me too much. Also if you have more than one cam broadcasting at the same time you will want different broadcast frequencies. I have two cams with the same frequency, so I can only run one or the other at the same time. However three running at the same time is not bad.

There are a range of prices for these on Ebay starting at $24 on up depending on the quality, features and frequency choices. They are listed under mini wireless cams.

Here is an example of one of the ones I have. Read all listing for these carefully as some listings have European plugs. Also there are many different types available.

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/WIRELESS-MINI-NANNY-PINHOLE-CAMERA-SPY-CAM-NIGHT-VISION-/130430061033?pt=US_Security_Cameras&hash=item1e5e3cc9e9

Very nice work Johnny!!! Will need to pick your brain when MCD4X4,Chris and I start the stations on his layout. We will have to use cameras.

The funny thing is with a cam you will notice things differently than you would normally. For example, I always thought the distance between the subway car and the platform edge looked good to me. With the cam it looked like it was a few feet away from the car. So I had to notch out some of my Fastrack roadbed to get much closer to the platform. At one point I got a little too close, because the passengers went flying in all directions when the train pulled into the station! Well it is all a learning experience as I go along.

Sure! Anytime you want suggestions contact me via email in my profile.

I am sure I could have had much clearer video images if I went with a hard wire system. I was going to go that route until I saw these inexpensive wireless cams and decided to try it out.

Do you have the video of the people flying in all directions? I have a lot of pictures of my Subway train crashes.

LOL, No Brian Unfornunately I don't. Although maybe someday I might have to stage some accidents.

That's awesome.  Love the idea of cameras in use on a layout.  Even thoguht of a cheap B&W security cam set up that does a 4 camera quad split screen inside tunnels etc.

Hi Chris! Thanks for the kind words and nice to hear from you again. It has been a long time since I have seen you post. Hope to see more of what you are doing with the subways also.

Use the wired cameras to a cheap DVR.    Much easier and no interference  We have about 20 cameras around the layout 

Thanks Jonny...life took a few left turns so been busy with all of that...trains have taken a complete back seat for the past 2 years or so.  Just moved to my new house but have A LOT of work to do to it before I can really get things going train-wise, but at least it's back on the radar...you could say I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...and this time it's not a train coming at me! 

Yes I agree that you will get clearer pictures with a hard wire system.  The one advantage of having a wireless cam however is that by adding a 9 volt battery you can have the wireless cam completely mobile. As a matter of fact on one of my cameras which shows an angled view of my Grand Central Platform, the camera is actually mounted on a gondola car and sitting on a track which you cannot see in the video. By detaching the constant 9 volt power cord and hooking up the 9 volt battery I can get moving video of the train as it goes around the layout. The camera I am talking about is the one with the image 4th one down from the top.

Below is the camera car minus the battery needed to run it wireless