fiber optic lights

[Anonymous]

I was going thru some of my old MRR mags. and came across an article in the April 1992 issue, Fibre optic street lights, HO scale. Has any one tried to make fiber optic street lights for N scale. If so I would like to know what you used so I can give it a try.
Thanks Beeline

[Anonymous]

Hi there!!

Your question sparked off a thought! There was an feature in MR "Great Model Railroads 2000". It featured the "White River" N scale layout and i'm sure that while reading through the article they said that the Craftsman of the layout used fibre optics for all his street lights, urban lighting.

I have a copy of "Great Model Railroads 2000" and I'll have a look and get back to you!

I don't know how much use I've been(I model in HO scale Myself)but I hope it will at least get you started.

Good luck!!

If you want to contact me then this is me:

[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Terry from the article in the 1992 mag. for HO it looks simple, you need fiber opticc cut to the lenghts you need, heat one end to form a bulb, bip it in some two part epoxy to enhance the light, you need campbell street lights you have to cut them and drill a hole for the optics to slide thru and rework the lantern section to accept the fiber optic bulb, then you bundle them all together under your layout cut the ends even and install a 7 watt night light bulb which transmits the light to the lamp posts thru the optic cable. Nice you willnever have to touch the street lights agaun only change one 7 watt bulb. I am looking for N scale lamp posts that I can rework so far the ones I found are to small to drill for the cable, I might have to make them myself. According to the article they throw a nice soft natural looking light on the layout.
Beeline

[Anonymous]

I imagine you could make the lamp posts with either small brass or styrene tubing. Probably make some kind of jig to bend them properly and I think the brass at least would need to be heated....Walt