Large Scale Central

Google Trains

General Discussion
#1

I just had a cool idea. Many of us use camera cars to film around our layouts and wouldn’t it be cool if the real RR’s did the same?

Last year I saw one of those Google street view cars go by. It was a little car and had a tall mast strapped on the roof with a round thing on top which housed several cameras. They use that rig to get the street views of neighborhoods.

Wouldn’t it be cool if one of those camera rigs could be put on a train heading cross country then we could all ride the rails. Eventually all the track of America and Canada could be available at our finger tips via the internet.

Anyone have a contact person at Google?

#2

Don’t the railroads already have “dash cams” in many of their locomotives. Not quite the same as a panoramic view, but its still a view.

Now we just need to get them to post that stuff somewhere.

#3

A 20 foot tall mast on a 12 foot tall tunnel portal does not work very long.

#4

Dan Pierce said:

A 20 foot tall mast on a 12 foot tall tunnel portal does not work very long.

That could be a problem.

It sure would be cool to be able to ride the rails and see things to the left, right, behind and of course forward.

#5

Todd,

Also consider that little ‘ball’ on top of that tower is in the neighborhood of $100K, and EXTREMELY weather sensitive. Somehow I don’t see BNSF stopping a ‘pipeline’ train to lower and cover the camera equipment. Logistics here could be an issue…:slight_smile:

#6

Add the height of a loco and you can subtract the pole. Might want to increase the number of cameras so you can increase the Circle of Orientation and remove the cab roof from the field of view.

#7

The RhB in Switzerland mounted a Google Cam to a flat car and went all over its system so that people could view what it was like. Pretty neat.

#8

“Darn, the internet connection must be frozen. Nothing’s moved in an hour.”

“No, you clicked on the Amtrak train.”

Later,

K

#9

There are a lot of fascinating cab rides on the youtube; there’s some great real scenery and modelling to be seen in searching for locomotive cab rides.

#10

Swiss RHB links to Google’s street view: https://www.rhb.ch/en/interactive/virtual-experiences/streetview

I have seen a Google movie that shows the entire line, at least as I remember it, including mounting the camera. I do not recall seeing the bright red covering on the car carrying the camera though.

I found the camera car I was thinking of, but not the movie, yet. Click on the pics-there are 6 of them.

http://www.blick.ch/news/schweiz/graubuenden/mit-der-rhb-durch-die-berge-google-street-view-erstmals-auf-schienen-unterwegs-id88476.html