camera car-thanks to all of you

Thats reaaly cool Jeff.  How about some details?  Are the camera and monitor a kit?

I'm looking to build a new camera car to replace this one. Details would be appreciated.

That camera looks like the ones I have.

The camera and receiver I bought together at York. You can get them cheap on eBay. It outputs with RCA jacks. I bought the 7-inch monitor on eBay also. 

 

The camera runs on a 9 volt battery. I convert the AC 18 volt track power to DC 9 volt for the camera. The drum head is running on track voltage. Using a LCD calculator it told me what resistors to add to the LED headlight and 2 side lights: wired in series.

 

I would like to give more specifics but this was my first project like this. I'm hoping it won't burn out. I also used capacitors for the LED headlights and the 9volt DC camera feed. 

 

The boxes to hide the electronics were from a Lionel car that came with them; I air brushed them in PRR color after prepping and cutting them and added decals. 

 

I used craft sticks cut and weathered with India ink then stained for the floors and light housing.  

 

The wood beam was to hide some wires. I added a winch to it and my daughter glued on some people 

 

I did not write down anything I used for electronics as I built it so I can't explain much more. It does work very well. The frame was from a beat up Williams passenger car, I should have used a shorter frame to look better. I used a constant current charger power supply to change the AC to DC. $6.00 shipped on eBay.  Thats it. 

Looks good Jeff, I'm still looking for a likely locomotive to put my camera in, but maybe I should just do a car like that.  I was also thinking about putting it in a boxcar.

Jeff....that's really cool.  Congrats on your project.

Will you be able to post a video on the forum?  It would be neat to see the camera in action.

 Sante Fe VA, I will do a video and post here. Gunnrunnerjohn; most of what I was able to do with this car came from reading all your posts and the many questions I have asked and you answerered. It all finally came down to stop thinking and reading and just sitting down and doing it. Thanks.

You did all the heavy lifting, and it came out great.

I think a camera in one of those passengers car with the high observation area would be cool.   that way it would be above the train, and you could place the car anywhere in your consist.

I did some experimenting and the heigth of the camera from the track makes a huge difference in the feel of the video.  All heights had good and bad points. My favorite is mid box car height with camera facing forward and a long empty flat car between the camera car and tender. The use of mirrors helps when camera nears layout edge if making a serious video. I got some large mirrors from a blown projection TV that work very well. When filming if car is moving slow you can move mirror into place before car gets there. Like anything...depends how crazy you are.

That looks cool.  Neat project.