I saw a picture in a magazine of a rail tunnel through a mountain that had lights in it. Has anyone here ever put lights in their tunnels? And if you have how about some pics. The idea intrigues me. Thanks. Brent
I had a six foot long lit tunnel on one of my previous layouts (no photos of it sadly). The top of the tunnel was removable for easy access. The lights were in the removable section and were wired to metal plates on the edges of the section. These would make contact with identical metal plates in the mountain base. When the top of the tunnel was in place the lights were connected to their power source through the plates. When the top was removed the connection was instantly broken and the lights were cut off. It was a very simple arrangement and was considered as a stroke of genius for a boy of 12 (this was back in 1972) working with limited materials.
I have subways. I provided lighting in the tunnels, on the inside walls of the curves, pointing outwards, so that the video camera in the front of the the train can see what’s going on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g82i9arQMyw
My tunnels are accessed from liftoffs, too, but the lighting is on the fixed side walls, not the roof section. I have a number of liftoffs (7, right now) and I’ve learned that it’s really, really much better to have no electrical connections to liftoffs at all. I have one liftoff area with a bunch of illuminated structures, a number of streetlights and even an intersection with operating traffic signals. Believe me, that is NOT the way to go.
The prototype tunnels I have seen that had lights were ‘illuminated’ with a (dirty) 10 - 15 watt incandescent lamp every hundred meters or so. That changed impenetrable darkness to barely-penetrable gloom…
All of those tunnels were traversed by electric railroads, so electrical power was readily available. I wonder if tunnels on un-electrified lines are illuminated. (IIRC, the ones I passed through while riding the front ends of JNR DMUs weren’t.)
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I had two tunnels on the layout that were lit differently. One had a single light at one end only. To the driver this appeared to be the light at the end of the tunnel.
The second tunnel though was equipped with lights the full way through. This was seen to aid the drivers with tunnel vision.
Hope this helps.
Bob