I’ve just started work on a straight tunnel for my HO ceiling train. I want it to be at least a passenger consist long, say, 600 ft. I’m using blue 1/2" styrofoam liquid nailed to a 1/2"X4" pine roadbed.
I’m using a double width for single track so I can put some detailing through the tunnel, like emergency stations & exits. i will be doing some miniature filming and any additional space always comes in handy.
But aside from filming sessions, would it be appropriate to light the interior?
If a LED goes forward-biased in a tunnel, but no one is there to see it, does it still make a beam?
Unless you can actually see into the tunnel, why bother to light it? If you’re going to put in a catwalk along the tunnel, then some sort of lights would be appropriate. Otherwise, no.
I illuminated my subway tunnels for this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5OvZtI-QU&feature=channel
I used a miniature train-cam for the filming. i only put the bright tunnel LEDs on the inside wall of the curves, so the camera wouldn’t see them directly.
Some prototype tunnels were lighted, but I would guess the majority were not. Of the tunnels that were lighted some had the lights on all the time and some were approach lighted. If you decide to light your tunnel, making it approach-lighted will probably impress visitors as the lights come on as the train enters the tunnel.
Great video Mr. B.[tup]
If your going to go to all that work detailing the INSIDE of the tunnel as well as film it then ya, I would add some lights. When I think of tunnel lights I think very dim and dungy so maybe you could have them on a dimmer. That way you can make it nice and bright to show it off and then a more realistic dim type of lighting for filming. 600 feet is a long tunnel.
I didn’t think 600 feet was that far out; aren’t the Rapido passenger cars 80 feet long? 5 of those is 400 feet, not counting couplers; plus a couple of engine cars (loco & tender, or diesel & a steam genny), I thought a CN Supercontinental or a CP Canadian could easily double that length. I just want the train to disappear, briefly…
When I was living in suburban Tokyo, my friendly, neighborhood mountain railroad (JNR O-me sen) had a number of tunnels. Only one was lighted. Of course, it was the longest, about 1.7 kilometers.
The New York City subway tunnels are illuminated - sort of (one dirty, low-wattage bulb every 100 feet or so.)
One model railroad I encountered had two `tunnels’ running along the fascia line. One was modern, concrete lined, with emergency bays every 100 scale feet and lights at each bay. The other was modeled as if it had been blasted out of solid, stable rock and left as-was. The lighted tunnel drew more attention. (Note that trains traversing those tunnels were fully visible.)
I am planning one visible, well lighted tunnel - to be occupied by a working tunnel boring machine.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I would think if there are areas bored into the side of the tunnel to allow people to slip into if they happen to be in the tunnel when a train comes, or something similar, there would be a light there. Otherwise a normal railroad tunnel wouldn’t be lit. Keep in mind if you’re filming in the tunnel you’re probably going to be filming from the front, and the engine’s headlight would illuminate the tunnel ahead.
The next development is going to be to use posts & girders from a Kenner Plate & Girder set for tunnel supports, probably weathered & appropriately smoke-blackened. They would also open up possibilities for setting up an access port.
For my subway tunnels, I used Evergreen’s “H-girders”
I had one of those Kenner sets when I was a kid. I used the girders back then for a construction scene. I’ve still got them in a box somewhere.
Tunnel lights aren’t usually used except for some area of subways. Remmber the loco’s bring their own lighting. Any other lighting is usually for maintenance crews.
It sounds like you are modeling a tunnel or a subway in a city. If so i would say yea. but if your modeling a tunnel out of the city then i would say nay.
I’m actually modelling a mountain tunnel, but the responses have been from subway modellers, so I can see how the confusion arose. But good, practical advice! Thanks to all for their input; I now see I can save my lighting installations for the station & yard dioramas…
a mountain tunnel would not be lighted. have you done reserch on the railroad you are modeling? because depending on the railroad they could. if you know the name of a tunnel that is in the area your modeling you could type the name of the tunnel in to a search engine and find out.
Nothing so grandiose or involved; the ‘railroad’ is just a pastiche of all my trains, and the tunnel exists only in the country of my mind (which could make it a very small country…!) But I’ve found that my friends are impressed by tunnels, so, we get a tunnel. Further to the ‘ooh’ factor, I’ll probably incorporate a desktop fountain into the rockwork. The width is determined not just by track size, but also so I can have the tunnel open into an evergreen-lined ‘forest’ (both sides), with enough clearance. Pics to follow soon…
Thanks again for all your input.
!(http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l490/bigpianoguy/Hamilton Train Layout Summer 2011/tunnellid003.jpg)Here’s a pic or two…!(http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l490/bigpianoguy/Hamilton Train Layout Summer 2011/tunnellid002.jpg)!(http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l490/bigpianoguy/Hamilton Train Layout Summer 2011/tunnellid004.jpg)
The challenge in this layout is the fact that this whole assembly will be attached to a ventilation duct in an apartment, so NO NAILS! Which is what I’m using, ‘No More Nails’. So that’s the real reason for the big flat backside, giving more surface area to support the weight of the assembly. Other, lighter sections will be applied in the same way, but by using the odd styro ‘rock’ and rock outcropping. I plan to build up the middle area using balled-up newspaper before applying paper mache. More to come…
I would vote for NOT lighting the mountain tunnel. ANy of the excursions I have been on that weren’t subways have NEVER been lit, SAVE for the light coming in from and overhead air shafts periodically placed along long deep tunels…
Alrighty, then! I’ll keep the emergency shaft open (maybe a straw!) up through the paper modelling…
Thanks.