This topic is to show and discuss any and all aspects of switching on a model railroad.
I will get us started by trying something I have never done before: make a video of a switcher doing some switching on my layout.
Having brought this subject up on another thread recently, I said I would like to make a video of switching maneuvers but couldn't do it alone because I would need 4 hands to do it. LOL. Then, someone showed a device that could hold a smartphone to take a video while the model railroader was at the throttle and pressing the necessary buttons at the transformer and control panel to make the switching video.
This evening, a lightbulb went off in my brain; it occurred to me that I already have such a device. It's a tripod that can hold a smartphone.
When I first tried it, I didn't think it would work because my layout is rather high, from 48 to 51 inches off the ground. (I'm glad it's so high, especially at my age, because I don't need to bend over as much to do something under the train tables.) Problem is that the legs of my tripod, when fully extended, is significantly less than 48 inches.
Then, that light bulb went off again. I adjusted the legs of my tripod to minimize their length and put the tripod on the train table so it's looking down at the switching scene. Now, I'm in business.
The video below is my very first stab at making a video by myself of a switcher doing switching. You will see I am not a neat nick, and have more than a bit of a mess in my basement near my layout. You may find this mess distracting, but I believe you will see an MTH Railking Proto 1 Erie Lackawanna NW2 switcher dropping off a black Postwar NY Central gondola into a siding, then uncoupling the gondola, leaving it in the siding, and pulling out of the siding:
I hope to make more and better switching videos and posting them here soon.
This is also an opportunity for you to post videos showing switchers doing switching on your layout and/or telling us something about switching on a model railroad.
Arnold