Traffic Lights For Cars

Hi- Try here:

In the pics you state, these are HO scale. I know he says he has N scale, but there are no pics here of his traffic lights. Besides, modern day traffic lights are an overhead boom, not a dangling head over the center of the street or a post on the corner. I have seen a number of what is called traffic lights, but nothing that truly resembles what is being used today. I'm not looking for 1950 era traffic lights to go with 1990 era trains and 1920 era buildings. I want everything be in the same era of time.

I'm also interested in open frame neon signs.

Also does anyone make a plastic building model of a movie theatre? I've seen one a long time ago.

Check out The kingsbury route,a website in n scale. Jeff

It depends on where you go. I have seen all three forms of traffic lights. In Toronto and Hamilton there are all three. Some are in the center of the lane suspended from cables, usually on wider streets. On small street, they are right on the pole on the curb and on two lane streets they are on a boom attached to the pole on the curb. So the models are prototypical of what is going on now. You might want to make your own using Fibre optics and three light chambers under your bench. Build three light boxes, in one put a green bulb, a red in one and a yellow in the third. Then run your fibre optics up to each light. By turning the lights on and off, you simulate traffic signals. Getting the motorists to respond is another matter.

For neon signs, check out Micro Structures.

For the theatre, check out Heljan, IHC, Model Power and Scale Structures.

My house was built in the 20s, the traffic lights at the end of the block are on posts, and when trains go by they look like 1990s.

What era am I in?

Early on, there were a lot of Red/Green signals. Eventually, the yellow got inserted to warn of the impending activation of the red aspect for safety reasons. A bit of electronics, a counter and a decoder, can provide the timing needed for the signals. If you're driving a number of signals, changing the phase or building multipule electronic modules is wise as most systems are not all that syncronized over the whole town.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

It's not THAT long ago :-). I grew up in NYC where virtually all the traffic lights were two-light units. Simultaneous red+green served as the warning now provided by amber in a three-light system. I think there are still some two-light signals around.

When stopping traffic, the sequence is: green --> red+green --> red

When starting traffic, it's just: red --> green

As with three-light systems, red is on top, green on the bottom.

-- Bill McC.

snip

Well, the first part explains the second part. Don't tell the CBC.

Regards,

DAve

Actually, new filters were more bluish than older ones as the filters gradually faded over time. In addition, the lamp itself is quite yellow in color (yellow lamps burn a lot longer than white ones) so there needs to be blue added to the filter (just like the old kerosene lamp lights on the railroad) to balance to a more neutral green. Go look at the actual colors of the filters and you will see that the green filter is actually a medium blue color in the sunlight and the blue is a deep, deep dark blue.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

The new ones being put up in around southern Ontario, are all LED's..

Bob May cried out

Pretty much all new traffic lights are LED's The filters are just added so the color of the light is disinguishable when the light is not illuminated. With the new LED's they can accutally use a clear filter or shield

Yep, the new lights are indeed LEDs but we're more discussing what was rather than the newest stuff. Even taillights for trucks and cars are coming out using LEDs! Unfortunately, that isn't applicable when you're trying to do a '50s era layout.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

Bob May cried out

yeah i know just a random comment, i was bored

Does anyone know where I can get some information on building traffic lights for cars in N-scale? I have seen Kalmbach's book on a two light system, I just don't know what country they're modeling. Aren't traffic lights supposed to be a three light system?

Sorry, I was gone all week.

The kits I sell could be easily adapted to do a modern style overhead set up.

The LED light assemblies themselves are separate entities, so all you'd need to do is scratchbuild the specific type of post.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin" Operating Traffic Lights Crossbucks Special Effects Lighting