Camera Car Prototype, Yeap.

Was that Edison's camera?

That's pretty cool.

Looks like it could be an early movie camera, maybe an effort at generating advertising posters for the railroad?  Certainly not hard to model...one business

car coupled to one flat car, and loaded with a simple construction and a few figures.

That's a good find, pretty neat.

Here's a link to another prototype camera "car."  SP 8799

Actually it's the former Southern Pacific's repurposed Kraus-Maffei ML-4000 diesel-hydraulic converted into a camera car for use in training simulations.  This same engine is now owned by the Pacific Locomotive Association and has gone through some massive cosmetic restorations to bring it back to it's "pre-camera car" configuration (check its progress here.)

That's one way of filming the right-of-way or a following train.

Hollywood movie crews came up with all sorts of ways of filming scenes on moving trains. They built camera mounts that could swing out from the sides of locomotives and cars. If we could see them, they would really look dangerous. Movie cameras were big and bulky, and there had to be a seat or a stand or some support for a cameraman.

Scenes were also filmed from tenders and from pacing trains or trucks on adjacent highways.

One place to see stationary sets and moving trains is the TV series Petticoat Junction. "Action" scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad with 4-6-0 No. 3 and a "shorty" combine built for the Angels Branch. A sign pointing to the Shady Rest Hotel was placed at the bottom of the Jamestown water tank. That would have been a long walk. The sound stage was 350 miles away. Scenes there were filmed with the actors and a wood and fiberglass replica of Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 (constructed for the movie A Ticket to Tomahawk) and another replica of the "shorty" combine. Drivers on No. 20 lack the wide separation of the third driving axle on No. 3. Another clue is the multiple shadows cast by spotlights on the sound stage.

Looks like they're set up for filming the "aft" view. 

Rusty

Madison, you find the darndest things!

Kinda neat.

Here is the new thread...https://ogrforum.com/topic/interesting-photos