Endoscope in tunnel


F

Frank

Active Member
I'm wondering has anybody tried setting up an endoscope in a tunnel to view the trains as they go through?

Obviously, you still want physical access to the tunnel in case the train derails, but since I already picked up one for when I'm working on my motorcycle that it might be cool to find a way of inserting it into a tunnel to watch my trains go through the tunnels I plan on making.
 
I'm sure there are quite a few ways of getting a video image that would be cheaper than an endoscope. Go on ebay and find a cheap video cam and link that to a monitor.
 
Frank said:
I'm wondering has anybody tried setting up an endoscope in a tunnel to view the trains as they go through?

Obviously, you still want physical access to the tunnel in case the train derails, but since I already picked up one for when I'm working on my motorcycle that it might be cool to find a way of inserting it into a tunnel to watch my trains go through the tunnels I plan on making.
Click to expand...


You could do a web cam and a abandoned laptop (if you have one). You can get great webcams for appox $20.

If you do not need video, you could also do a mini spy-cam type setup where you use a tiny camera and just check the pictures (for example a camera
on a raspberry pi: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3508)
 
D&J RailRoad said:
I'm sure there are quite a few ways of getting a video image that would be cheaper than an endoscope. Go on ebay and find a cheap video cam and link that to a monitor.
Click to expand...

Probably not much, less expensive. You can get a cheap endoscope for working on engines for not that much money and they're actually designed for being put into small places. Video cams and web cams are really not designed for this kind of work.

That one I've picked up was only $30 and can broad cast to whatever computer or phone I'd like
 
number9 said:
You could do a web cam and a abandoned laptop (if you have one). You can get great webcams for appox $20.

If you do not need video, you could also do a mini spy-cam type setup where you use a tiny camera and just check the pictures (for example a camera
on a raspberry pi: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3508)
Click to expand...

TBH, that's a lot of extra money to be spending on that and probably not as good of a solution. Web cams are designed for a completely different purpose and usually have a wide angle lens that may or may not be appropriate for tasks where you're looking at things in tight spaces.

I was mostly wondering if anybody has done this, but when I did a search, I didn't see anybody talking about it. In fact, this thread was the top link after I posted it.
 
wombat457 said:
Try this -

I had one and used it a lot. The video is pretty good and it is very small. Uses an SD card so no wifi or blue tooth needed. Does a very good job especially for the price.

https://www.banggood.com/Y2000-2_0-...ital-DV-Webcam-Camera-Camcorder-p-970809.html
Click to expand...

Interesting, I'll book mark that for the future. For the time being, I was planning on using the scope that I've bought for other purposes, but something like that looks like it would work well as a more permanent addition to the set up.
 
Don't be turned of by it coming from China like I was. It did take a week to get here but as said, worked very well. Just to give you an idea of the quality for the price, here is a video of my old (now defunct) G Gauge using it:

https://vimeo.com/133790311

Ignore the date time stamp - never did figure out ow to change that :rolleyes:
 
I would think a Bore Scope would work; but, wonder why a sedentary view inside a tunnel would be interesting, instead of a camera on a flat car being pushed through a tunnel? Which brings up an important (I think) observation! I have seen many many train cams being pushed through tunnels and the modelers don't seem to feel that modeling the interior of tunnels to be important. All you see might be the underside of the scenery. I have attempted to model the bore in my tunnels, I've done it poorly; but, at least attempted to make it look like a bore through solid rock. Had I known that we would be pushing cameras around on flat cars filming movies of our layouts, I would have done a better job. At the time I felt that simply looking into the portal should reveal some details of the interior going in a ways.

We model the interiors of or passenger cars and some of our structures, why not the bore on our tunnels?
 
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NP2626 said:
I would think a Bore Scope would work; but, wonder why a sedentary view inside a tunnel would be interesting, instead of a camera on a flat car being pushed through a tunnel? Which brings up an important (I think) observation! I have seen many many train cams being pushed through tunnels and the modelers don't seem to feel that modeling the interior of tunnels to be important. All you see might be the underside of the scenery. I have attempted to model the bore in my tunnels, I've done it poorly; but, at least attempted to make it look like a bore through solid rock. Had I known that we would be pushing cameras around on flat cars filming movies of our layouts, I would have done a better job. At the time I felt that simply looking into the portal should reveal some details of the interior going in a ways.
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The main reason is that I've already bought the scope for other uses, so, I'll just find a place for it in my layout as there's basically no cost associated with doing so.

Also, I haven't found any suitable for n scale railroad cars. I'm likely to pick up one of those cameras that Wombat457 recommended for my nephew's O cars as that's probably been doable for years, but n scale seems to still be a bit on the tough side.

But, hopefully, by the time I've got things built up enough to justify a camera on a train, the options will be better.


NP2626 said:
We model the interiors of or passenger cars and some of our structures, why not the bore on our tunnels?
Click to expand...

That's part of my plan. I'm likely to model a mining crew digging a new tunnel spur even though no tunnel that I know of ever has a switch in the middle of a tunnel.
 
Frank,

I went through the same thing as you are going through in trying to find a camera for N Scale to do engineer views etc and found the same problems - the physical size of the cameras available or at least ones that are financially viable.

I found hundreds (slight exaggeration) of "Spy Camera's" that are only 3 and 5 mm in size that would work; however, is forking out between $200 and $1000 just to video an engineers view worth it? Not in my opinion.

The little camera I referred you to was bought for HO scale and it worked fine so would work very well (size wise) for O Scale. I am still going to get one for the N Scale, but might have to modify some of my clearances if I want to use it.

One of the things I found annoying, even using the little camera mentioned, with my HO was how dark things were in the tunnels I had. That is still going to be an issue I think. What Mark suggested is what I am going to be doing in my tunnels on the new layout - running lights through them so they too are lit. Is that realistic, probably not unless your in an "underground" in down town London or New York but the tunnel wont be a dark dingy void and might even look okay depending on the type of light used and where it is placed in the tunnel.
 
wombat457 said:
Frank,

I went through the same thing as you are going through in trying to find a camera for N Scale to do engineer views etc and found the same problems - the physical size of the cameras available or at least ones that are financially viable.

I found hundreds (slight exaggeration) of "Spy Camera's" that are only 3 and 5 mm in size that would work; however, is forking out between $200 and $1000 just to video an engineers view worth it? Not in my opinion.

The little camera I referred you to was bought for HO scale and it worked fine so would work very well (size wise) for O Scale. I am still going to get one for the N Scale, but might have to modify some of my clearances if I want to use it.

One of the things I found annoying, even using the little camera mentioned, with my HO was how dark things were in the tunnels I had. That is still going to be an issue I think. What Mark suggested is what I am going to be doing in my tunnels on the new layout - running lights through them so they too are lit. Is that realistic, probably not unless your in an "underground" in down town London or New York but the tunnel wont be a dark dingy void and might even look okay depending on the type of light used and where it is placed in the tunnel.
Click to expand...

I think that there will eventually be cameras that are small enough, but the ones I've found are like you said, quite expensive and I found the specs sheets to be rather limited. If I could get a great picture, I'd consider setting aside money to buy one after I finished buying the pieces for my current layout as having an engineer or really even just one of the other cars have a camera pointed out would add a great deal to the appreciation of the layout.

As a photographer, I'm very much aware that lighting is going to be crucial here and I'm going to have to put some work into figuring out how to point the camera so that I'm not getting the blaring white at the end of the tunnel and being unable to see anything inside.

I'm contemplating putting fake torches in there even though it's not prototypical because it could look cool. I may also fashion a removable bit of rock that could house a camera when I want to take photos.
 
"...I'm contemplating putting fake torches in there even though it's not prototypical because it could look cool. I may also fashion a removable bit of rock that could house a camera when I want to take photos...
Click to expand...

That's an intriguing idea!
 
wombat457 said:
That's an intriguing idea![/COLOR]
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I have no idea how well it would work, but I was thinking about trying to use those newfangled LED campfires as the actual torchfire. And then just place them at some spacing along the way.

Unfortunately, it's going to be a while before I have any tunnels to test it out with. I'm looking at probably $2-300 worth of track and switches before I even contemplate building out the foam and creating tunnels. So, we'll see if I follow through on it.

It would be nice if somebody stole the idea and got it figured out before then. **hint to any random person reading this**
 
I'm going to use lights in my tunnels but not sure if I want to worry about those DCC camp fire lights. A light is a light at the end of the day so I don't think it would matter what was used, other than not having the "torch effect" which would look very neat indeed.
 
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