Anyone have an idea for replacement front and side windows of your engines?
I’ve seen some 1:1 engines with tinted and reflective glass.
I would like to do this on some of my engines in order to improve looks on some and hide motors & wiring on others.
Any suggestions on a type of material to use?
I thought of covering the existing ‘glass’ with mylar wrap.
How can I stick this to the plastic windows?
Thank You.
Pat Zak
Hey Pat,
Here’s an idea that may help you or if it doesn’t, just send it to file 13.
In the days when I had an HO layout, several cars and engines looked terrible because you could see through the windows and see all the undecorated insides. (Superliner cars were the worst.) So I went over to my nearest car parts place and purchased that tinted plastic stuff the kids put on their car windows. I cut it into the appropriate sizes with scissors and with just a touch of glue put them in place. I guess if you wanted to do a curved window, a little heat from a hair dryer would soften the plastic tint to fit the curve better.
I also found that one of the model paint companies made a tint to put on clear plastic, but I never really liked the results.
try putting some dullcoat on the insides of the windows. It will blur them but will not look messy. thats what i do to model cars.[8D]
How about this, take a green or blue Sharpie marker to the windows from the inside,
the light will still shine through. Most tinting films are applied to the inside of the window anyway, making that method easier, once you remove the shell.
I’m not sure if any real locomotives have anything but CLEAR laminated safety glass in their FORWARD FACING windows for two reasons. First: SIGNALS color distortion would be very bad. Second: NIGHT tinting would only lower the effectiveness of the headlight from the engineers point of view.
In most states it is illegal to tint or mirror a windshield on a car, side and rear windows are OK. I would think that the AAR would take a similar view on this issue.
Thanks everyone!
and YES Elliot,
There are indeed locos AND cars with ‘tinted’ front windows.
The one loco I remember off the top of my head was a Metra, F59(I think) that runs in the Chicago area. From the ground they appear to have a mylar coating on them.
I assume this is done to reflect the sun light. Which would be a very good safety feature. While I have never been inside the cab I would bet that this is unnoticable from that view.
As far as auto’s go I remember one (Ford I think) having a combination Heater/Reflector built into the front winshield. From the outside it looked like a Golden / Amber tint. From the inside in looked like a very lite tint. In the winter you turn on the heater to defrost or defog, in the summer it would reflect excess heat from the sun.
As far as the law goes, in Illinois it deals with not obstucting the drivers view of the road.
Which includes tinting, hanging objects, etc. and pertains to the front winshield as well as well as the front side windows. I actually know someone who has a ticket to prove this.
Sorry eZAK, I believe you, and now you have me curious. From the engineer’s perspective it must just look slightly gray, and not really cut out too much light, just glare.
I have a bunch of scraps of this material, and would be happy to send you some if you want, once I find it. The Sharpie idea of blue or green is more closely related to passenger car windows, as those also used to be tinted (pre Amtrak).
Minnesota still allows tinted side windows on cars as far as I know, but they may have changed it so that the cops can see the driver in the event of a traffic stop.
Now that you mention it I haven’t seen any of those gold Ford windshields recently, wonder what happened there?[:)]
my black 54 buick had factory installed blue tinted windows(all) which were named “ez-eye” … so they have been around for at least a half century.
as for toy trains… plastic school bookreport binders come in various colors and can be cut to fit as windshields