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Controlling model trains in First Person View from the engineers seat.
 
 
 
 
         
 
 
 


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G-Scale FPV Model Train
The Bachmann 4-6-0 Baldwin Loco is converted to RC and battery power. This allows for better running and no track wiring. To convert the loco I used a Novak Super Rooster ESC that is commonly used with electric RC cars. I picked this one because it can handle the battery voltage of 16.8 volts (10cell NiCd or 4cell lipo). This is the minimum voltage the train will run on without having to swap/mod the 20 volt motor to a 12 volt. The first thing is to remove the tenders wood load as under it will be the location of the RC receiver, Lipo 4 cell Battery, Novak ESC and sound system (Ipod activated by servo)


Getting started with FPV Train

Im fairly new to G-scale and have been operating N-scale (w/ DC/DCC) trains for the past 25+ years and in the past 4 years i find I'm becoming a big fan of the larger scale....might be I'm older and my eyes aren't what they use to be or the fact my kids love this size also....family fun outside in the garden sounds good to me!
 So I've sold off most of my large N-scale collection and have been slowing purchasing G-scale stock...mainly around Christmas time when I get to set it up in the living room:)
 One of the reasons I wanted to switch to the larger scale is I'm also into RC heli/planes and fly them by wireless video from the cockpit view so having all the RC gear already I wanted to convert my Bachmann locos to battery power so multiple trains could run...like DCC but with out the track cleaning that made running my N-scale trains a chore.
To convert it to RC I use a Novak ESC called a Super Rooster....this is one of the only speed controls that allow the higher voltage battery pack that is needed to be a close match to the DC track power. Since it handles 10 cells at 1.5 volts it powers the locos with a 4s 2200mah 14.8 volt lipo battery (16.4v nor.). For RC control I use my Futaba 9C 2.4ghz radio in Heli mode which allows me to program reverse with the throttle stick set to the center position for neutral....not sure if there's a better way but this was simple and easy. I found the conversion to be fairly simple with the hardest part being taking the locos apart to add the wires. The RC receiver, NovaK ESC and battery are located in the tender and then just the 2 wires run up to the loco for the power with a Deans Ultra connector to make the connection between the 2.
 I have to say that battery powered locos Rock!!....I love the control and No jerking/lunging over switches or dirty track. I will never go back to track power!
 So this Christmas (2010) the train layout has been re located from the living room to the front yard garden...which needed help anyways.
 
For sounds I have added a iPod with real life train whistle sounds triggered by a micro servo pushing the "play/pause" button...though this works ok I can only play one sound when triggered. I would like more sounds (bell,steam,etc) to be triggered using one of the other 7 RC channels I have free. More on this later.






                                                    Small 5 volt fan placed on the video TX to keep it cool



                             
                 Engineer's FPV Pan & Tilt (Part AVM-100upt). Custom servo for 360 degrees panning and 60 degrees tilting.








GoPro HD camera mounted on AVM-100GP Pan and Tilt system controlled with servos.


The California Southern Narrow Gauge Railroad in G-Scale

Dedicated to Aaron Roy (RIP Aug 2010)

In Oct. 2010 the indoor Christmas layout was moved to the outside garden.
This took a couple of years of collecting/buying track during the holiday seasons which can be the biggest cost of starting a G-scale Gauge #1 railroad. The mainline track is LGB solid brass rails and plastic ties. The spurs and sidings are Bachmann steel track.






Working on the G Scale California Southern Railroad. Future site of saw mill and Alber Hill mining area.
On board the CalSoRR #10 4-6-0.



My first steel bridge took about 3 hours to design and weld up. Good afternoon project.



Road Crossing at Grand St. near Elsinore Depot.



Cal.So.RR. #10 loco over taking the Santa Fe #7.


More info late 2010 along with train mods for battery power, sound and FPV system.





History

The California Southern Railroad was a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) in Southern California. It was organized July 10, 1880, and chartered on October 23, 1880, to build a rail connection between what has become the city of Barstow and San Diego, California.

Construction began in National City, just south of San Diego, in 1881, and proceeded northward to the present day city of Oceanside. From there, the line turned to the northeast through Temecula Canyon, then on to the present cities of Lake Elsinore, Perris and Riverside before a connection to the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in Colton. Following a frog war where the SP refused to let the California Southern cross its tracks, a dispute that was resolved by court order in favor of the California Southern, construction continued northward through Cajon Pass to the present day cities of Victorville and Barstow. The line, completed on November 9, 1885, formed the western end of Santa Fe's transcontinental railroad connection to Chicago. Portions of the original line are still in use today as some of the busiest rail freight and passenger routes in the United States.



California Southern at San Bernardino Yard. 1915



California Southern Passenger train (California Limited) at the top of Cajon Pass cooling brakes for the decent.




In order to connect to the Atlantic and Pacific line in the quickest way possible, surveyors and engineers for the California Southern pushed the route through Fallbrook and Temecula, bypassing what was at the time the pueblo of Los Angeles. What the railroad didn't understand was the nature of Southern California's dry washes. The local inhabitants told the railroad of the dangers of building through such an area, that it could become a raging torrent of water, but the railroad built through the canyon anyway.

Despite the warnings, track work through the canyon proceeded at a quick pace. The line was completed to Fallbrook on January 2, 1882, then to Temecula on March 27, 1882.

Many parts of the canyon had suffered storms. In February 1884 a storm hit. The train was delayed and the canyon walls brought boulders crashing down on the rails. On February 3, the train was unable to get through. A few days later, the wires were down. The train from Colton to San Diego was unable to get through. Disaster had been averted because young Charlie Howell hurried up the tracks from his family homestead near Willow Glen and somehow managed to stop the train.[12] A series of devastating washouts on the section through Temecula Canyon occurred amid heavy rain storms that flooded the area starting on February 16, 1884, just six months after the first trains operated the entire route between San Diego and San Bernardino. The storms brought more than 40 inches (1,000 mm) of rain in a four-week period. Two thirds of the mainline through the canyon were washed out with ties seen floating as far as 80 miles (129 km) away in the ocean.[13] Temporary track repairs were made after the first storms, but later in the month, additional rains and flooding washed out the entire route through the canyon. Repairs were estimated at nearly $320,000, a figure that could not be recouped effectively.[6]

The canyon was finally bypassed completely with the completion of the Surf Line on August 12, 1888, and the line through the canyon was relegated to branch line status.



Inside the tender all the RC gear, RX, Battery, iPod, Novak ESC, iPod amp, Speakers and UBEC 5v.