All very helpful thoughts- Thank you!
I agree with the idea of a light on each city corner and then fill in between if necessary to obtain even lighting. Older pictures of my town also show street lights hung in the center of intersections. By the time I moved there in the mid '60s, the traffic lights were mounted on poles by the sides of the streets with the street illumination still hanging above the center of the intersection.
The downtown of my town (Toledo, OH) was platted with two different sized city blocks and two different widths of streets. This was due to the city originally being two different towns in the early 1800s. The smaller sized town (Vistual) had 100' long blocks with 66' wide streets including the sidewalks on each side. The larger sized town (Port Lawrence) had 300' long blocks with 99' wide streets, including the sidewalks. For this reason, streetlight spacing was different. On the wider streets, you might see street lights staggered on opposite sides of the street. As time went on, the older incandensent lights were replaced with the newer higher output lights (mercury and sodium vapor) that extended out over the street and the spacing changed accordingly.
If your local library has a local history section, they may have pictures of city streets in the time period you are looking at.
Jim - Preserving the history of the NKP Cloverleaf first subdivision.
Your answer doe not start with lights, but with utility poles.
In the older days power poles were about 100' apart in the city and maybe 150' apart outside of the city. Lights of course, went with the poles. On some streets, where the city put up light poles they were shorter and thus closer together. (Thing gas lamps in England or something).
As a matter of fact, if you are modeling 20s, 30s and early 40s there was a whole complicated mechanical transformer contraption to power the lights sort of in series. Actually transformers on each pole were wired in series, and the lamps were attached to these transformers thus if one lamp should fail the rest would remain lit, and that aforementioned mechanical contraption would adjust the voltage accordingly.
With today's mercury and sodium lamps each lamp had its own detector and operated independently especially if the city contracted the lighting to the power company.
In big cities and especially downtown there were no power poles, and the city had to erect street lamps. With the increasing power of these lamps 100 - 150 feet apart is still possible after all they want enough light for public safety without wasting money on redundant infrastructure. These could operate interdependently, but since the city had to wire them, they were usually wired in blocks with only one light sensor for a whole string of them.
Build your city. and then put up lights at the corners, and at least every 100' apart (two boxcars). Then look for shadows, and see where the little thugs would hang out, and put more light there. Lamps do not cost you as much as they do the city, so going overboard on them might make your city look larger.
The LION set up light poles every 100' along Franklin Avenue but the Model Power lights do not throw all that much light so closer together might have been better. And remember that in modern cities with stores set back into parking lots, the have their own lighting, and usually lots of it.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I think a street light spacing of four connected buildings or business would work.
Start at the corner and put a light there, then one at the next corner. If there are four connected buildings or business between the corners, then no more lights would be needed. If there are six or eight business between the corners, then one more light would be logical to me.
If the buildings are not close to each other or not connected, you may need more to make it look good.
What you could do is this; (and this assumes that you are going to instal working lights) First buy some cheap non working street lights and set them in place where you think they would look good. Leave them there for a while; move them around if the spacing doesn't seem right. Soon you will find locations for them that work for each situation. Once you find the right locations, then instal the working lights.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I sort of remember this topic a few years ago but can't seem to find the thread, so apologies.
What are some thoughts on "proper" or reasonable for streetlights in
- a modern urban/downtown area
- a 1950's - 1970's small town downtown area
- modern highway?
We're doing n-scale, btw.
Thanks in advance