Last post before bed...Lighting your model railway...

Hello,

Just about to hit the sack, one more question before I do :)

Lights to me are wonderful for bringing a scene to life. I love lights and shadows, and all the in between shades - so much more depth and realism I feel.

I have been browsing a lot of the railway modelling sites online, and I have seen nothing or very little of lights being mentioned. Is it easy to get a hold of model WORKING streetlights, lampposts, station lampposts, etc? If so, how are they powered? Is it easy for a complete beginner to get started with this kind of detail?

Also, what about individually lit items? BT phone boxes, stations with working inside lights, the arrival / departure TV sets which are scattered around today's stations and platforms?

Maybe I am being too ambitious too soon, but its fun :) !

As always, any info greatly appreciated.

Ta,

Gary.

Reply to
Gary Whittle
Loading thread data ...

Same website as the underlay.

formatting link
- under HO Scale Rail; Lights and Lamps

Reply to
MartinS

Hi Gary,

Express Models do a large range of lighting kits for locos and buildings. Take a look at their website at

formatting link
Regards John Humphries
formatting link

Reply to
John H

In article , Gary Whittle wrote: ....

Phil: Back in the early 70's I used Grain of wheat bulbs (orange) in glass melting-sample point tubes from chemistry suppliers (not recommended due to risks associated with broken glass!!) to make the street lights on my first layout. I also had wires between the telegraph poles - but these came down after getting in the way of our cat who likes to sleep on the railway, and me and my arm reaching for far parts of the layout!

Nowadays look for leds as a long lasting method - with white leds available. Although I am still reusing the original bulbs!

Reply to
Phil

hmm, me too. I'm building my railway so that it represents modern day Tokyo at night... lots and lots of lights :)

There's plenty of working lights available in HO, most of which are quite continental in look, but will do for most purposes. I personally find them to be a little over scale because they build the lights to the bulbs, rather than the other way around, if you see what I mean. As such I build my own.

There's also yard lights available from the likes of Eckon and a few others.

Phone boxes are available. I was looking at some in Model Masters a couple of weeks back. £8 for one in N gauge and as I needed six I passed! Don't know the price for 4mm though, sorry.

I've lit the underside of my station canopies with side emitting LEDs (the things used to light up watches and calculators). I use 16 of the things every 8 inches. It looks brilliant although slightly yellow considering they represent fluorescent tubes. maplins also do a 2mm X 2mm completely flat LED that I've used as ceiling lights in footbridges and the station buildings. These would work very well at lighting an arrival/departure TV set.

The biggest problem with using so many LEDs is where to put all the reistors. On my canopies I place them on the underside of the roof and they become invisible. On my subway walls I run the wires to a modelled electrical cabinet at the end of the platform and all the resistors are in there. (just like the real thing :) )

Total price for lighting my entire station has been a couple of pence per LED, a couple of quid for some small bore brass tube from B & Q (much, much cheaper than from specialist dealers) and a couple of quid for various sizes of brass strip.

(outside the station, where I'm building a vast forest of flashing neon signs, is another story..)

Too right :) But once you start on something like this, you may not be able to stop :)

Pete

Reply to
mutley

Use current regulator diodes or an LM317 3-terminal voltage regulator configured as a current regulator. You can connect more than one LED in series depending on the available voltage and the forward voltage of the LEDs.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew

White LEDs are several times more expensive than other colours (and slightly bluish). Yellow ones are good for representing dim tungsten or gas lighting, e.g. for coach or station lighting in the steam era.

In the USA, Miniatronics

formatting link
produces a wide range of bulbs, lighting accessories and other miniature electronics, including electroluminescent "neon" signs. I don't know who might stock them in the UK, but they can be ordered by mail from
formatting link

Reply to
MartinS

Cheers Andrew.

I don't mind admitting that I have absolutely -no- idea what you're talking about, let alone how to build it, but thanks for the input :)

Pete

Reply to
mutley

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.