I think I might have developed a concept of replicating interior ceiling lights for HO coaches. Where can I get a 3-5mm rectangular transparent tubing from a vendor? If I can obtain the tubing i will then get a 3-5mm Rectangular LED and inset it inside the tube which I hope will diffuse the light and create a rectangular light bar. Is there any vendor that makes 3-5 mm rectangular tubes? If so there’s no need for such project.
I’ll mention it again, alloboard. Do yourself a favor and buy a Walthers catalog at your LHS. It contains oodles of manufacturers for scratch-building ideas. You can let your imagination run wild.
With that said, Plastruct might make something along those lines. Actually, old Bic pen housings might do the trick, too. Course it’s more hexagonal than rectangular.
Tom
That’s it! Plastruct; never heard of it; will do! Thanks for the info.
The Walthers printed catalogue is truly comforting to hold, knowing that they offer so many things to satisfy your needs. However, I think that buying a hard copy is a bit of a waste of money. The catalogue is available on line for free, and it tells you exactly what is in stock or when it will be. You can also build a wish list for all your wants and desires. You can even build an order (your shopping cart) where you can accumulate the things that you want/need and buy them all at once to save shipping fees. Having said that, most of the Walthers stuff is available from other sources for lower prices (except when Walthers is discounting things). None the less, the on-line catalogue is a great resource.
Dave
Good going, Alloboard!
I’ve been fantasizing something along those lines for a few years and have been planning to use LED lights in a fashion to make them look like florescent lighting inside streamlined Budd and Pullman Standard cars.
Look at the lights in the train on this video clip. Is this basically the look you’re trying to achieve?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAXVjnIV87o
Although I plan on trying out one “Easy Peasy” light board on one of my metalized Rivarossi cars, I generally want to have white LED lighting with power coming from the track.
I would agree with you to some extent, Dave. While you can do searches on the Walthers site and see what they have in-stock (or not in-stock), you can’t really skim through the site as easily as you can with the catalog. The site is much more geared toward those who “know” what they are looking for rather than for “general” browsing.
I like the fact that the catalog is divided up into “sections”. There’s a section on locomotives. There’s a section on rolling stock. There’s a section on scenery. There’s a section on supplies. You can peruse each section and compare products and what’s available much more easily than you can on the web site.
I would agree that both have their place and their advantages. However, if you want to see what’s available with the flick of a thumb…or you’re looking for something that you don’t know the name of, or if it’s even manufactured, the catalog is much more suited to that. And it doesn’t require electricity or getting online to do it.
For a newbie (or not-so-newbie), I think the catalog is still a good investment and resource.
Tom
LION would agree, but then disagree.
LION tried to make fluorescent lamps from a drinking straw and a pair of LEDs. Light only at the ends of the tube, not in the middle. I made a bunch of lamps about an 1.25" long, and they were ok.
Better yet seems to be some of this stuff: http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Sideglow.htm
ROAR
Tom
You are right - the catalogue is much easier to browse when you are just looking for ideas or to see what is out there. I do recall being thrilled when I was a newbie when my LHS gave me a previous year’s editon for free because the new one had arrived.
Today my searches are much more specific because I pretty much know what I want. To that end, I now use the internet version exclusively. However, I still haven’t thrown the catalogues out![(-D]
Dave
I think Lion hiton somethign there. Large diameter fiber optic, with an LED in each sned, sealed to the fiber with shrink tuning so the light doesn’t leak out. Sand the coating at regular intervals to simulate the bulbs in flourescent fixtures - when the cladding is disturbed on fiber optics, the light will leak out.
I’m sure I saw this somewhere before, I doubt I just came up with this now. But I may give it a try to see what happens. I don’t have any passenger cars to light up, nor do I have any structures that would likely be lit with flourescent light. But now I’m curious if the theory will work out in practice.
–Randy
The lighting inside the VIA Rail HEP-2 Budd cars you posted the video of are actually a more interesting example. Those cars have two rows of ceiling mounted fluorescent lights (on the ceiling along the edge of the enclosed overhead bins), as well as two rows of lights mounted under the overhead bins right above the windows (you can see these lights in the video). Both sets of lights are normally on when the train is operating. As a result, the lighting inside is slightly more complex in terms of point source.
Have a look at this photo, and you can see what I mean: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8453967@N08/3972521304/
Something else to consider would be using hot glue sticks in a manner similar to what has been described with the fiber optic tubing. The advantage of the hot glue sticks is that they are generally semi-opaque so the light is diffused without having to sand it. I know this works because I used the effect on a costume many years ago. The LEDs were mounted into the ends of the glue sticks and created the effect of a glowing conduit. The down side is that you’d have to keep the cars in a cool environment.
I have been looking at using Electroluminescent panels for passenger car lighting. I understand it comes in flexible strips about 1-1.5" wide and up to a couple of feet long and is trimable. It is basically a thin flat sheet that glows or fluoresces when voltage is applied. It is used for flat instrumeent panel illunination and could be adapted to model railroading. I just havent tried it yet but it is on my list of things to do.
Also, clear acrylic strips could be used and by painting areas you don’t want to emit light from an LED you could simulate individual light fixtures. You must sand the surface where you want the light to come out, similar to light tubes used in locos where only the ends are frosted for light to travel through.
-Bob
THayman,
Thanks for the info on the VIA units. Now I understand why the interior looks slightly brighter than the in the Budd Heritage cars that Amtrak is still running as well as the ones I rode in past years.
Farrellaa,
OK, these “Electroluminescent panels” sound very intriguing and at the very least, merit checking out!
Is this an item that a typical “Radio Shack” would carry? Ordered online? Or purchased at an industrial electronics business?
I have been working on reproducing florecent lighting for an engine service building. I checked out the product lion saw but it recomends 150 watt halagon at the end of the tube to light it, plus it’s expensive.So far the product i purchased that has promise is called" hitlights". I purchased it on Amazon. It comes in a self adhiesive roll about 16 feet long with a square led every 1/2 inch . It’s 12 volt with built in resistors so you can cut it to whatever length you want. It makes a nice row of lights, and has promise for house lighting as well. I experimented with little strips of thin styrene in front of the led’s and also with glow in the dark plastic , but the results still look like a square of light every 1/2 inch. Randy, I know I have some 1/16 inch fiber optic around somewhere, but can’t find it just yet. I think that idea just might work. Let us know if you try it, o.k.
Thanks,
Philip