Mobius on the rails, N Scale Railroad that is ...

[BobDiaz]

I drove to the Belmont Shore Model Railroad and it didn't take much to talk the members into putting the Mobius onto an N Scale flat car and running it around the layout. We shot 1 hour 4 minutes of video and this is 5 minutes of the best part of the video. In the raw video below, it took us 0:59 to get things going:

or

The Mobius would work better on an HO or larger railroad layout, but with work we got it to run around. There were some places where we had problems, but most of the run it did OK. The heatsink did make the camera a bit higher than I'd like, but in the places we couldn't fit, we hand carried it around.

I'm still working on the edited video of the full run, but the Mobius really shined for this shooting.


Bob Diaz

 

[Rubiconmike]

Wow that vid looks really cool.
Way better than any RC car vid I've seen.

 

[Dashmellow]

This is great stuff Bob! Especially liked the tunnel shot and the view down the valley with the second train in view.

 

[Grimm]

Very nice! Makes me want to pull out all my trains from the attic and start building again.

I like the giant heads! Scary!

 

[xreyuk]

Model trains aren't very popular in the UK, that's the first time I've seen one.

That landscape is huuuuuge,

 

[Byr0n]

Model trains aren't very popular in the UK, that's the first time I've seen one.

That landscape is huuuuuge,

I don't agree, there's quite a big following, because your not into it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You seen old Roy Cropper on Coronation Street lately?

Where we live there's a mini railway ride you sit on, you pay 50p for a ride, it's mainly for kids but I jump on with them sometimes

Website - http://www.gmmes.co.uk

 

[kamkar]

N,,,,ice
I will put my innovv C1 on the train ( G scale ) in my friends garden this summer, witch remind me i have to install the soundbord in my big 2-6-6-2 Baldwin Again.

I bet the train Guys where impressed by the Little camera.

 

[GJHS]

I like how people were curiously watching it and then hiding.

 

[Dashmellow]

That landscape is huuuuuge,

The Belmont Shore Model Railroad BobDiaz visited is in California, so of course the guys that built it were obviously inspired by the landscape of the American West. To see landscapes like that in person is truly breathtaking which is one reason I find this particular model railroad installation so impressive along with the wonderful way the Mobius captured it. It makes me pine for the days when I was a kid and had a pretty cool model railroad set-up myself. I did some tabletop photography on my set-up back in those days that looked almost like the real deal. Anyway, I returned to my childhood home from school one time to discover to my shock and dismay that my mom had given away all my old Lionel trains and paraphernalia thinking that they were a part of my childhood I no longer had any interest in, which on a certain level was true I suppose; but I just have to shake my head when I ponder how I could probably retire on what some of that stuff would be worth today!

 

[kamkar]

Mothers

Mine allso desided to trow out my toys at times, but keep school stuff of mine dating back to 2-3 grade was no problem

Hording it totally okay

 

[BobDiaz]

One of the biggest problems we had was the fact that even the tiny Mobius was a bit too big for N Scale Trains. We couldn't go through all the tunnels and sometimes it hit things beside the tracks. I work on Tuesday nights for this semester, but come June the semester ends and I'm free again. One thing we want to try is turn the Mobius 90 degrees and rotate/crop the video. We think it should be able to make the whole run without problems if it's turned on its side. There's also an HO model train club I want to visit too. The Mobius should fit their layout a lot better too.

Right now my computer is rendering the whole edited video, 45 minutes long, which cuts out all the parts we stopped and fixed things. I had to kill the audio because we talked the whole time. Next time I'll remember to shut up and let the mike capture just the train sounds.


Bob Diaz

 

[BobDiaz]

This is an older video I shot of their layout about 4 years ago:

 

[Dashmellow]

One of the biggest problems we had was the fact that even the tiny Mobius was a bit too big for N Scale Trains. We couldn't go through all the tunnels and sometimes it hit things beside the tracks. I work on Tuesday nights for this semester, but come June the semester ends and I'm free again. One thing we want to try is turn the Mobius 90 degrees and rotate/crop the video. We think it should be able to make the whole run without problems if it's turned on its side. There's also an HO model train club I want to visit too. The Mobius should fit their layout a lot better too.

Bob Diaz

This might be a perfect place to use the 8 inch Mobius lens extension with the camera tucked away somewhere vertically and the lens on the front of the engine. I bought a replacement circuit board and lens extension from Banggood. A bare board suggests some interesting possibilities and might be another interesting way to do this on an N scale train.

 

[kamkar]

The norm ppl run over here is HO scale, and i "offcourse" like the On30 scale among the small stuff.

But i prefer the large scale stuff ( G ) i just wish i had the chance to build a indoore setup, but that will proberly remain a pipe dream.

I run my Little 0-4-0 porter and the 2-6-6-2 Baldwin in my friends garden, or rather his old parents garden witch we "boys" have taken over.

Since this clip where i run my Baldwin with some if not all of my friends rooling stock we have doubled the the length of the track, it run around the Little greenhouse and then do a large 360 while declining Down to groundlevel.
We did not have time to play with the railroad last year, but this year it will have trains going around Again.

Some ppl have jawdropping layouts in ther garden too, i dont even dare to think about the Price for those setups.

 

[extraoneya]

Real neat post, thanks....fun to watch.

Bobdiaz.....what about adding a soundtrack of real train noise to the vid?

 

[jokiin]

Real neat post, thanks....fun to watch.

Bobdiaz.....what about adding a soundtrack of real train noise to the vid?

I expected a real train soundtrack, like the theme from Petticoat Junction maybe

 

[kamkar]

I am now running the phoenix PB11 soundbord, it is 16 bit and have a 3 watt amp.
When driving in my friends garden it stop ppl in ther track outside the fence, and if the chuffing dont do it, they will stop when i hoot the horn
In the summertime when ppl drive with the windows down we have even managed to stop cars and have ppl get out of them and peek thru the fence.

Ppl have even asked for a window to be put in the fence.

This we dident do tho we did put up a new fence last summer, instead we invite ppl in to see, and let ther kids play with the remote control so they can control speed - direction - and activate some of the additional sounds.
Chuffs are offcourse synchronized to the movement of the Wheels
Currently i have the sound for the unitah programmed into my soundcard, http://www.phoenixsound.com/library/am_steam/uintah.htm
But some times i cheat and run the sound for the 2-8-8-2 mallet as it have a more troaty sound, http://www.phoenixsound.com/library/am_steam/mallet.htm

 

[kamkar]

I allmost forgot.

Dont know if you have seen this before, but there is some Germans who have embraced that American saying " Go big or go home"

If you know of a more awsome layout please let me know.

 

[BobDiaz]

You have to REALLY love trains to watch the whole video, it's about 45 minutes long.

I plan to return in the summer when classes are not in session. The next time we'll remember NOT to talk when shooting the video.


Bob Diaz

 

[Dashmellow]

You have to REALLY love trains to watch the whole video, it's about 45 minutes long.

I plan to return in the summer when classes are not in session. The next time we'll remember NOT to talk when shooting the video.


Bob Diaz

It's very late here and I need to go to bed but WAIT just a darn minute here! What the heck is this??!! Godzilla!! Wow! Tomorrow morning, I'll have to watch the rest of the video and see all the carnage! This oughta' be good!