Hi everyone,

Got a small unexpected bonus! My wife is a piano teacher in the greater Washington DC area and quite successful, a lot of younger kids, and I let some of them play with an Xmas layout up that I have up right now. Most of these kids haven't ever operated or even seen a model trainset - even some of the younger parents in their 30's. It's very nice and gratifying to see them get captivated by it. I've let them use the Marklin iPad app connected to my CS3, and this has been easy for them.

Back to the bonus - I'm thinking of getting a Roco 72287 with the digital cam, and this would likely be a big hit with the kids (and, of course, me). But, I've also wondered how rugged these cams have proven to be, whether they are a bit flaky, etc. (I do have good wifi in the house, so that wouldn't be a problem). In short, are they worth it - this loco is a LOT of money.

Does anyone have any opinions on this? I hear good things about Roco in general, but haven't been able to track down many opinions on their digital cam other than a few comments on the AJCKIDS web store.

Off the subject, I tease my wife that her business has picked up a good deal in recent years since I put up the trainset, but I suspect it could be true. I'm 60, my youngest is 26, and they grew up with Nintendo playstations similar to the MS2, whereas the younger piano students have grown up with iPads and touchscreen devices. The piano students had a lot of problems with the MS2 I was using before I got the iPad app. Interesting. It's become a touchscreen world.

Thank you in advance for any comments, John

I have the Roco Railjet camera loco 79234 and as far as a loco is concerned it is great. The camera and associated software work OK but the resolution is not great. Recording the video is very glitchy and replays only in fast mode. I have not been able to slow the recording down and probably need to do so with 3rd party software. The videos I have seen on this forum where people use a railcar self-mounted camera are a lot better quality.

My thanks also for the replies. I made a mistake in my first posting; I am purchasing the Roco 78287, which is the AC version 3-rail version, not the 72287. I think the camera would be the same on both models, though. There is a YouTube video of the 78287:



The video quality is definitely not HD and the camera is not doing much if any post-processing for low light, etc., so I suspect that it will work okay if there is bright light and not so well for low light. Thus, it won't do so well in the dimly-lit staging yard I'm working on, but I am still going to go for it, though, and as I seem to have my share of quality issues with the newer Marklin locos I've purchased, I'm looking forward to the Roco (I hear lots of good things about Roco's quality).

I've also wondered about the wifi needs for a better picture - I'll have the wifi router closer to the layout and I've got a 5Ghz bandwidth, although 2.4 would probably be okay. But I think a poorer signal would definitely affect this camera, especially if the loco is ducking below the layout and into tunnels.

Mounting an HD camera on a rail car or somehow snaking a camera onto the loco would certainly produce better quality. I'm going to use the Xmas break to do some research on that and see what I can do for cheaper. One question I doubt I can get an answer to is, would that camera on the Roco be upgradeable?

Just to give you a feel , here's a video from that camera taken two years ago.

Looking forward to what you record with the camera loco.
As with other such bundles its always an issue of being tied to the components and solutions spec'ed in the combo. Building a solution where you pick a camera separately allows more modern/up-gradable systems - but requires more work and expense and putting together the full solution.

For a camera locomotive I think of solutions in the following groups, though some combinations of them are certainly reasonable:

1) To film from the nose of a train (but the train doesn't itself need to look like a realistic train ) - a camera mounted on a flat-car pushed by a loco can suffice, to a dedicated loco that doesn't need to look like a model loco
2) To film from the drivers seat to depict what the train operator might see - so the loco looks like a normal loco from outside as well.

A) To capture footage that can then be offloaded (flash memory card, cable, network) after recording for post processing, watching, production
B) To live stream footage from the camera to be viewed and/or captured by a computer/mobile device/to the internet as it happens.

For entertaining guests and looking integrated a 2/B combo is ideal, which is the Roco solution.
For producing a higher quality or less expensive alternative a 1/A solution can provide the flexibility where you choose what you want/need and can upgrade the camera gear along the way.

I am using a Polaroid Cube. (The slightly cheaper version without the wifi connection)
https://www.amazon.com/P...ufacturer/dp/B00NEYHIHM/

I shot this video with it on my layout. I push it in a small flatcar.

https://cabin-layout.blogspot.com/2016/01/ice-3-ride-around-layout.html

The camera lok has no sound recording capability.