So what might this look like?

I have a lot of time to waste, but...

I know exactly where you're coming from.

I have one of those jobs that requires me to be at my position for long periods of time with no actual work being done, interspersed with momentary action, so I watch A LOT of YouTube videos!  I've watched many that didn't really require a TOC or index to get the information I was looking for, but then there are others that, as you say, seem to drone on and on, and somewhere in the middle of it is some golden nugget of useful information that you'd never find if you hadn't spent 17:46 watching and listening to useless babble.

I have my own YouTube channel and have a dozen or so videos on it, but they're all relatively short in length and only a couple are modeling tutorial kind of videos (for R/C modeling).  But your post will certainly stick with me, and any future videos I make that have a "How To" or other modeling related theme, will get an index of steps written into the video description with time markers so it can be easily searched.

On a side note, one of my biggest pet-peeves regarding YouTube videos, are those people who shoot using the Auto-Focus on their cameras while doing close-up or work bench shots.  Invariably the focus is on the wrong object/subject or the entire scene is slightly out of focus during the whole video!

How detailed

I like the idea, but figuring out how detailed to be could be a problem.

For instance the TSG weathering videos on trainmasters have chapter indexes because they do multiple models, but you have to figure out where the chapter starts by adding the length of the previous chapters. From the HO weathering & detailing, vol 4: Diesels (TSG):

Intro: HO detailing and weathering, volume 4 (3:04)
Chapter 1: Athearn Genesis FP7, WP 805-A (24:49)
Chapter 2: Atlas C424, CR 2475 (22:52)
Chapter 3: Athearn SD40T-2, SP 8277 (39:18)
Chapter 4: Bowser C630M, CP 4507 (9:39)

While the above is helpful, it will not be detailed enough if you are looking for a specific technique and you have to do the math to get to the beginning of a chapter.

@Joe F re:What does this look like?

Hi Joe,

Have fun! 

Save some time

Don't forget you can save some time by running the videos as 2x speed, under settings on most youtube interfaces.

@Jim re:Speed up

Hi Jim,

I've run them forward and backward much faster than that -- still a waste of time! 

Have fun! 

Personal Marker

For videos, If there was something similar to the place maker found on Google Earth that would allow the user to mark the moment of the video that is of interest, add a comment  and organize all their markers in file folders that would be useful.

The individual could then click on the marker and trigger the video at the moment of interest plus personal comments to help the search.

The TOC would be great, but I find those more helpful for the initial viewing of the video.

Eugene

A great idea but...

I don't think many that produce videos will go for it. It takes extra time to do as you suggest and I'm not sure many would go for it. Perhaps Joe would for Trainmasters.tv but your average Youtuber might not. I have pretty much given up on YouTube for modelling. I do watch anything that Ken Patterson puts out but many others are too tedious. I watched one today that went like this:

Narrator: Remove screw #1 (shows video of removing screw)

Narrator: Remove screw #1 (shows video of removing second screw)

That was enough for me. I think I can remove a screw without being shown how. 

Your typical YouTube video

Unfortunately, your typical YouTube video is like this:

Title: How to solder feeders on track (15 min)

First two minutes: Hello, thanks for watching my videos ... my cat likes the trains ... see?

Next two minutes: Here are the materials you will need for this ... I don't have the right kind of solder right now (I ran out) but I will use what I have to show how this is done.

Next 5 minutes: Okay, let's strip this wire end (just see the back of the hand) ... now let's drill a hole for the feeder (disappears off camera and rummages around for the drill) finally appears again and drills hole. Okay let's bend the wire end, but you just see the back of the hand.

Next 5 minutes: We're ready to solder. Now where did I put that iron? (off screen and more rummaging noise) oh here it is. %*(#!* that thing is hot! Tip: Be careful handling a hot iron! Put the hot iron against the track meanwhile the camera autofocus blurs out the image. Then the hand moves in front of the camera and when the hand moves away, the rail is all blurry again but the solder joint is done.

Final few minutes: So that's how it's done, see it's easy. It's been pretty hot here lately, I almost could have soldered the feeders on the track without the iron! (The kitty walks back through the shot) I'm sure Tabby would agree ... more irrelevant chatter to close out the video.

Granted, not all YouTube videos do this all the time, but most have a long winded front. More than a few times they apologize for not having the right materials on hand so they're improvising or they disappear off camera to go get something they neglected to get in advance. They often belabor simple tasks and don't cut to the chase -- and when they do get the good stuff, the focus is poor and their hands get in the way. Sometimes the advice is just plain bad advice.

Yes, there are good videos on YouTube as well, but they're pretty rare and really stand out when you find one.

Sort of like this?

Old Digital multimeter on flat cars: 

Tank Car Approaching bridge: 

But add a tree menu.

Eugene

Try rev.com; and better production values

The commercial service rev.com, https://www.rev.com/, provides automatic captioning services using a combo of extremely good software and outsourced human checking, and fast. It's not free, but it's cheap. I can vouch for its quality. The resulting captions, which are also delivered in word processor format, could be turned into an index pretty easily.

The real solution, of course, is better production values. The talents that make someone an excellent modeler do not make them a good video producer. People who are great modelers, and want to make a bunch of videos, will have more success if they collaborate with someone who has academic or job experience in production and who can ruthlessly cut out the fluff and get to the valuable content.

moments of sheer joy or

I can see indexing covering this request:

"Fading technique for blue models"

But for this request:

"4-8-8-4 O scale model on trestle with near perfect scenery" (moment of joy).

Someone might get it on an index but if I have seen it and placed the link in a personal database I will always have it.

Of course there are always the A.I.s!

Best guess a train, pretty good now say model train and I will experience one of those moments of joy.

Eugene

@JoeF, @Gregg

Thank you for the humorous observations as they made me chuckle while nodding in agreement.