Viofo A129 and the Flying Scotsman

Nigel

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Dash Cam
Gitup F1+G3ꞈꞈꞈꞈꞈ Viofo A229ꞈꞈꞈꞈꞈ Blueskysea B4K
"Is that a GoPro sir?"
"No, it's a Viofo!"

I've not been asked that question before...
Next question was:

"Plenty of Megapixels?"
"Yes, 2 Megapixels :)"

He proudly shows me his phone and says:

"20 Megapixels;)"

He didn't seem to appreciate that 6PM on a dark, cloudy, October evening was not the time to be using a tiny 20MP phone image sensor. He showed me his phone photo afterwards, it actually looked OK on the little phone screen, which is fine if that is how he is going to view it.

However my Viofo A129 2.3 Megapixel video was sharp and noise free, and if it hadn't been for the red tinges to the clouds and somewhat yellow lighting from the sunset, it could have been mistaken for midday sunshine!

For those that have not heard of the Flying Scotsman, she is the world's most famous steam engine and has been out of service for a few years for her 4 million Km service, so everyone was out to see her back on the rails, the bridges where crowded, people in all the fields etc:
  • Built 1926.
  • World record holder as the first steam engine to reach 100MPH in 1934.
  • First locomotive to run non-stop between London England and Edinburgh Scotland.
  • World record holder for the longest none-stop journey by steam train in 1989, Parkes to Broken Hill in Australia.
  • Toured the USA and Canada.
  • A film star, including "The flying Scotsman" and Disney's "102 Dalmatians"
  • Appears in Thomas the Tank Engine as the brother of Gordon the Green Engine.
  • Appears on the cover photo of the Microsoft Train Simulator.
  • Latest appearance is in the new racing game Forza Horizon 4 (October 2018) where you can race the train.
MSTrainSimcover.jpg



Here is my 1.2 Megapixel video, best viewed on the big screen with surround sound:
 
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Nice use of the front & rear cameras to get 2No angles from the same viewpoint
 
Nice use of the front & rear cameras to get 2No angles from the same viewpoint
Thanks,

Would have been a rear view for the first section too, but the Gitup G3 was struggling with the lighting:

y4m9iPEdGby9wMSXe2YREVdDXML3SiZWYd1HlSwsKLcBv2g94c26AP001bN7_T46IBCLf6n5VmlykghRqRco1dM3bXC3dJWNEQ9tv_YRP6gQarHRbmCq3qeSrU9OLNeqeQgKtp44_xn-UlyYqdzG57Hy38MuOmZiBJvsL3MMfN5Ns1hukAAnTrqXQCY8YdsYCi6


Too dark as well as looking into the sunset. In the second and third sections, the A129 is looking into a fairly low sun (10:30AM and 4PM), but with it's better dynamic range is able to do a decent job.
 
I think it is also the only steamer to have a top gear presenter shoveling coal :giggle:
 
I think it is also the only steamer to have a top gear presenter shoveling coal :giggle:
For "The Race to the North", Top Gear wanted Flying Scotsman since it was the correct age to match their car and motorcycle, but Flying Scotsman was not available so they actually used a 21st century steam engine called Tornado (built in 2008). Earlier this year Tornado passed her test drive for a 90MPH mainline operating certificate, by running at just over 100MPH (160 km/h), not long after she broke a connecting rod and has been unavailable most of this year undergoing repairs!

Saw Tornado last summer going way too fast for my drone to keep up, no issues with low lighting in this video:
 
I like when captain slow and the hamster raced a letter from the south to the north in a Porsche, and lost as i recall, you could do the same over here but on a bicycle and win :oops:
Just spoke to my friend and he had a parcel from the UK arrive here in Denmark, and then nothing happened for a week, and then it was not the tracking that came to life but rather the postman knocking at his door.

If there was a world cup for postal services and the thing they compete on was incompetence, we Danes would be in top 3 i am sure, other postal services might well be much worse, but then they also operate on a budget thats 90 % under what our guys operate with ( not factoring in the annual loss )
 
I like when captain slow and the hamster raced a letter from the south to the north in a Porsche, and lost as i recall, you could do the same over here but on a bicycle and win :oops:
Just spoke to my friend and he had a parcel from the UK arrive here in Denmark, and then nothing happened for a week, and then it was not the tracking that came to life but rather the postman knocking at his door.

If there was a world cup for postal services and the thing they compete on was incompetence, we Danes would be in top 3 i am sure, other postal services might well be much worse, but then they also operate on a budget thats 90 % under what our guys operate with ( not factoring in the annual loss )
The distance travelled by the TG letter was about 2.5 times further than the longest distance you could get in Denmark, however they did end up on the Orkney Isles, so maybe that is the equivalent of ending up in Greenland. I think you may have difficulty winning that race on a bicycle! How long does it actually take you to send a letter to Greenland?
 
just need an upgrade
A penny farthing can easily do 40 miles a day so it could easily beat a letter anywhere within the Danish mainland, but to get to Greenland you will need something more like:

153pedalboat-1-488.jpg


Although I'm not convinced that is a real upgrade on a Viking Longboat once you get out into the Atlantic!
 
I can testify the weather just south of Greenland can be really nasty, worst stuff i have ever encountered on a ship, we lost a couple of deck cargo items during that.
I think as Greenland are considered a part of " the empire" in general they say up to 6 days for a letter to reach the capitol Nuuk up there, even longer if the letter go to one of the little towns or god forbid to the top of Greenland where the Sirius patrol roam on their dog sleds, their HQ get a weekly flight ( weather permitting )
Locally here in Denmark it is okay if a letter are 3 days under way.

You can row pretty far in a day if the weather will let you, and i think its okay to call rowing the ocean version of cycling, this past winter ( March 18 ) a Danish guy took his paddle board from Hirtshals in northern Jutland to Norway in 1 go.
That was 138 Km in 19 hours, im sure a kayak or something like that would be much faster.

Setting off.
6862cbe8-9b8f-4f09-844f-23b2dd6642b6.jpg


Arriving in Norway.
fc535c53-da40-440a-a393-574b446309a0.jpg
 
... god forbid to the top of Greenland where the Sirius patrol roam on their dog sleds...
The letter will get lost up there anyway, that is the place that the compass fails to work and GPS is not much use either because the satellites never get that far north!
 
it is a mans world up there for sure, one of our princes did a tour up there too, but he are also Danish seals class of 95 ( not just honorary ) so he did alright.
13561181-saxo-photo.jpeg
 
^^^^ why is my dash cam melting?
Working pressure of the boiler is 250psi, which means working temperature is 205°C / 401°F, presumably the firebox needs to be a fair bit hotter than that otherwise the superheating wouldn't work, so maybe using a plastic dashcam is not wise... should use a brass one to match all the other gauges and controls.
 
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(But then you'd have to polish it...)

I lived in this city, a few blocks from the train station the video starts in, when I was 6-10. Cumberland, Maryland, My oldest brother swears they were still using a few steam engines in the early 60's. I could never verify it, and don't remember.

Here's your steam engine 'dash cam'. :)

 
(But then you'd have to polish it...)

I lived in this city, a few blocks from the train station the video starts in, when I was 6-10. Cumberland, Maryland, My oldest brother swears they were still using a few steam engines in the early 60's. I could never verify it, and don't remember.

Here's your steam engine 'dash cam'. :)

Obviously an American engine - it produces black smoke and pollution instead of white steam!

We didn't replace most of our steam engines until the late 60's, still a few in use into the 70's, and have always used steam for some tourist lines.

Flying Scotsman is part of the national museum collection, kept in working condition by the nation. We are still building a few new ones like Tornado which is a private enterprise and makes a profit touring the country with special tourist trains. Most of the older engines are now either worn out with spare parts unavailable or not fast enough to keep up with the modern electric trains which makes running them on the main lines a problem.

The follow up to Tornado, and the UK's most powerful steam locomotive ever is nearing completion, with the aid/hindrance of Top Gear Presenter James May: https://www.p2steam.com/
 
Nice " connie" i like to get my hand on one of those in G-scale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-8-0

I am so going to ride all the steam i can if i get to the states one day.

see noe due to that James may link i got to think of good old old 9 below zero
 
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Houston Area Live Steamers - https://hals.org/

These guys have a large setup at a county park a short drive from my house. Brought the kids out there and rode the trains. The "diesel" engines they had running that day are nicely detailed, and appear to run off of some small v-twin gasoline engine, possibly from a riding lawn mower, based on the sound. In some of them you could see the valve covers through the driver's windows. It was free to ride, with donations suggested, and merch for sale too - kids got patches for their scout uniforms - why not?

The "passenger cars" were basically just 10-15-foot long wooden benches with little rails to help keep your feet off the ground/tracks - you can kinda see it in the pic at the top of their page. The track itself seems to be only about 8-10" wide but doesn't feel like you're going to tip over when riding. It's funny to be riding such a tiny train yet hear/feel the familiar click-clack and the unique sound/sensation of metal wheels on rails.
 
Houston Area Live Steamers - https://hals.org/

These guys have a large setup at a county park a short drive from my house. Brought the kids out there and rode the trains. The "diesel" engines they had running that day are nicely detailed, and appear to run off of some small v-twin gasoline engine, possibly from a riding lawn mower, based on the sound. In some of them you could see the valve covers through the driver's windows. It was free to ride, with donations suggested, and merch for sale too - kids got patches for their scout uniforms - why not?

The "passenger cars" were basically just 10-15-foot long wooden benches with little rails to help keep your feet off the ground/tracks - you can kinda see it in the pic at the top of their page. The track itself seems to be only about 8-10" wide but doesn't feel like you're going to tip over when riding. It's funny to be riding such a tiny train yet hear/feel the familiar click-clack and the unique sound/sensation of metal wheels on rails.
I prefer a little bigger, 15" track seems a nice size: https://ravenglass-railway.co.uk/about-us/history/


"One of the most famous steam engines in the world has been reunited with her miniature version for the first time in 90 years. The Flying Scotsman and Typhoon lined up side-by-side yesterday at the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex.

Typhoon, from the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RHDR), is a third of the size of the Scotsman. They were last together in 1927 at King's Cross in London:
RM-April-2018-p12.jpg


90 years ago, Kings Cross, London:
WQO6XW5Z90WEPBGTFH5U.jpg

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/romney-marsh/news/steam-legends-reunited-after-90-124037/
 
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