Hovercams Growing From Toy To Tool

I get a little excited about a new technology on occasion, or an old technology that suddenly made the leap into an affordable price bracket. Since yesterday, I've been contemplating the Parrot AR Drone 2.0. Yes, you read that right: a drone.

Looking more like an insect than a camera, is a drone
the next step in railroad photography and video? 

Like a model helicopter, it flies using rotating blades. Like some copters, the drone takes pictures or video in HD. Unlike a helicopter, it has software and a hi-tech control suite that keeps the drone from crashing as easily. Notice I didn't stop at the word crashing, because I'm sure it's possible to crash these. Yet how many potential photographers have shied at the prospect of model aircraft or rotorcraft due to the likely prospect of turning a $1,500 work of art into a decorative bench ornament or worse, that eyesore sticking out of a neighbor's roof.

Head gear? Guards give the drone a
more visible if ungainly appearance

Is a Parrot Drone or any of its competitor's creations just a toy or is it a valuable tool that photographers can use to check out locations or even use to produce an image? Could this toy/tool be used to photograph trains, or capture video of sufficient quality? One store is already quite willing to let serious photographers find out.

Imagine a dolly shot starting on one side, going up and over a moving intermodal and down the other side moving against the trains direction of travel ...without the dolly or the time and effort it takes to build such a rig and put it in place. What about programming a course to fly via GPS when the train comes by, hitting "Go" as the train passes a certain spot and, while the drone does it's thing, you rip as many frames as your dSLR will let you, just like before?

I'm beginning to wonder about other uses. How could Union Pacific or BNSF, or even San Luis & Rio Grande use this? Railroad police could use it to inspect those areas of the yard that aren't as accessible or safe as they'd like it to be. What about using one with a track crew to survey ahead of a boulder that's blocking their high rail vehicle or getting access to see if the string of coal cars are all empty and not just the first three? Some benefits might just be worth the expense, especially if a company smartphone or tablet can control it with no special training for the employee. There are applications that may only present themselves after they spend a few weeks out there. I wonder if there's a division or sub already using these.

What about you? Would you buy one or rent one?

Thanks to B&H for letting me steal the photos of their fine product.◊

Drone Video For Railfans Raises Artform To Cinematographic Heights

Is it November already? No, but if you live on periodical publishing time like Trains magazine, it's close. November 2014 is Trains' technology issue, and they've reported on something I posited here last December: Photo/video shot via drone (page 7). Since then, I've seen them numerous times on geek blogs like Tested, but no one, to my knowledge, has sunk the money into the hobby and actually risked their robotic pride for elevation and for glory.

No one, except midwest-based Delay In Block productions and Evan Lofback of Knoxville, Tennessee, Trains reports. Rather than talk about how I envisioned the use of drones in railfan videos, I'd rather let Mr. Lofback show you exactly how good it can be. I've watched this quite a few times already and it's not getting old, even with diesels and eastern railroads!



So, now does it make sense?

If you're itching to try it, I can tell you that the first one to upload on YouTube a Colorado railroad video using a drone and notifies me or leaves the link in a comment on this post will have it appear as the first video highlighted on the sidebar on Colorado Railroads.* It will be up for at least a month. That's exposure! A narrow gauge and/or steam train video by drone would last longer, given the scenic and aesthetic value.

Evan Lofback has quite a few drone videos on his channel worth your time if you're interested.◊


* - content must meet basic standards. No bonus, bounty, payment, or other benefit (expressed or implied) will be given. No links to non-railroad related sites.

POTD - Old Bridge With a New Perspective

Today, we are finishing our look at Timothy Tonge's work along the Joint Line between Larkspur and Palmer Lake, an examination that wouldn't be complete without a stop at the ATSF bridge just south of Larkspur. This bridge is no stranger to those familiar with the line as it passes over both East Plum Creek and West Fox Farm Road as it splits from South Spruce Mountain Road. Spruce Mountain, of course, was the old Denver highway before I-25 was built. On July 19, 2019, a pair of BNSF swooshes lead a coal train south over the bridge on the climb to Palmer Lake.

Photo of the Day - Timothy Tonge

Now to reveal the hidden theme mentioned last week: All three of the Photos of the Day have been taken using a drone. It would be impossible to get each of these shots any other way, unless Mr. Tonge has quietly developed an ability to fly and take photos at the same time. Each of the shots has given us a new view of BNSF operations on this very picturesque, scenic portion of the Joint Line. Done well, a drone can elevate anyone's photographic abilities. Done poorly, it can be a menace and even illegal. I think we can all agree that long-time railroad photographer Timothy Tonge has done well!⚒

Video: Alpine Tunnel by Drone

One area of lasting interest by railfans and historians in Colorado is Alpine Tunnel. Built by the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad in 1881, it connected Denver and locally Leadville with Gunnison, reaching the station on the west side of town in 1882.¹ Crossing beneath the Continental Divide, the tunnel carried traffic in all seasons until the line was abandoned just 28 years later in 1910 by the Colorado & Southern after a partial cave-in. The Denver & Rio Grande, having connected Denver to Leadville and across Marshall Pass to Gunnison, had siphoned away most of the business between these points. 

This video by YouTube member Searching for the C&S narrow gauge is of such good quality, I had to share it. It has almost a Google Earth-like quality to it, showing the west portal and climbing high to peek over the Continental Divide at the approach to east portal while remaining over the west side. It is a unique and compelling viewpoint that until recently was impossible to get in such detail and resolution. Frankly, I was amazed to see so little vibration or wind for such a high and weather-intense location.

As you can see from the video above and this look at the east portal, the portals have both collapsed long ago, sealing off the tunnel itself from any would-be explorers. Nonetheless, the site attracts visitors from June into September each year. All other times, it is covered in snow, often dozens of feet deep. ⚒

¹ Colorado Railroads by Tivis Wilkins, Pruett Publishing

App Review: Kalmbach's Colorado Railroads

Inside the app, a listing for
the fabled Big Ten Curve

Kalmbach Publications, the folks responsible for Trains magazine, Model Railroader, Classic Trains, Classic Toy Trains, and Drone 360 published a special issue, a DVD and a mobile application, all with the theme of Colorado railroads. The more astute of us probably noticed a similarity in title to this site. Without getting into a long story, just know that they have my permission. Or maybe I have theirs?

Regardless, the special juxtaposition of railroads in Colorado hasn't escaped Jim Wrinn and the editors of Trains. Mr. Wrinn in particular is a notable fan of the narrow gauge! With regard to the app, he has said,

The Colorado Railroads mobile app enables you to search by attractions near you, to find them on a map, and to mark your favorites. You can plan a trip to Colorado, or let this app take you to new places if you’re in the field.

And he's right. If I had unlimited resources and abilities to design a mobile app for Colorado's railroads, I would have a hard time outdoing this one.

The opening splash is the same as the cover for the special issue and DVD, the former Denver & Rio Grande Western Mikado #473 crossing the Las Animas river outside Silverton.

The main screen is set in portrait mode and it doesn't switch to a landscape format. This can be limiting for some users, especially if they have accessibility requirements, but I found I could work around it.

The home screen is the main menu and all the options are duplicated in a pull-down on the left hand side. Giving a user more than one way to reach something and also using a menu to preserve your options are marks of a good app.

The home screen allows you to access the attractions, sign up for the Trains weekly e-newsletter by e-mail, purchase the special issue or DVD, subscribe to Trains magazine, or provide feedback to Kalmbach.

Like a lot of free apps, this one facilitates selling items of interest and opening new lines of revenue for the publisher. That's okay, but to make this app useful, the attractions listed need to be better than a quick Google search for "railroads in Colorado." Are they? In a word, Yes!

First of all, every entry is researched by Trains staff. Second, I personally asked Mr. Wrinn directly, "When will you stop updating these listings?" He said, point blank, "We won't." So if an entry is out of date, use that feedback feature! Be nice though.

This screen cap shows the application's map interface zoomed in to view Denver. The bulk of the locations shown correspond to RTD's transit stations along their active light rail lines. Other locations include the Forney Transportation Museum and the Colorado Railroad Museum (at far left) in Golden. A tap on any one of these red markers will pull up a balloon with the listing and a further tap for details pulls up the full listing (see below).

Colorado RR Museum

Detail listing

Features

The first and by far the best feature is filtering. No one likes to be overwhelmed with tons of information when only a few entries are needed. Here are the present Attraction Types you can filter by:

A trail listing for Phantom Canyon
south of Cripple Creek

• Amtrak Stations
• Buildings
• Hobby Shops
• Mainlines
• Museums
• Restaurants
• Short Lines
• Steam Locomotives
• Tourist Railroads
• Trails
• Transit Stations

Other filters are for distance and ZIP code and you can sort by distance as well. A test sort produced the 3 nearest hobby stores to me followed by the local railroad preservation group.

One final feature is a Favorite List. While browsing in the app, you can choose to favorite specific attractions and then view them in a favorites list. Choosing stuff for your bucket list is that easy.

Final Thoughts

Kalmbach's Colorado Railroads app fills a need for folks who would like to discover railroad-related attractions anywhere in Colorado and appreciate a curated list to choose from. Are you looking for a way to spend an afternoon, a weekend or an entire vacation? This is the app to help you plan it! 🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂

The application is available for Android and iPhone users absolutely free. While it would be nice to see a broader distribution (Kindle, etc.) it's understandable that only the top two phone OS providers are used.⚒