Lighthouses

[AhmadKane]

Hey Guys

 

Got a recommendation for a lighthouse? Thanks in advance

[cteno4]

Are you looking for a manned or unmanned? How big?

 

Small unmanned harbor one in the greenmax jetty set

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10552290

 

some where there was one of a larger Japanese one around n scale and I think there were some papercraft. I’ll search my archives tonight.

 

there are a lot of built models out there of famous light houses for jsut bookshelf stuff that are around n scale and folsk have use.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Little googling brings up options

 

i thought I remembered a cardstock

https://www.kaiho.mlit.go.jp/04kanku/kids/paper.html

 

http://www.nekohigeya.com/misaki_t.html

http://www.papercraftsquare.com/tag/lighthouse/

 

print to your scale and then use as a base for scratch building.

 

3d print on ebay

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283675964259

 

jeff

[AhmadKane]

I don't see much lighthouses where I'm from. Do they need to rotate the lights? Or would a shine be ok?

 

Because I don't think I could do cardstock if I were to place a micro motor within to emulate light rotation

[cteno4]

Cardstock would not effect rotating light, actually easier to cut it up or redesign as needed for mechanics. You could place the motor (and gear box as it will need to be slowed down) even under the structure if too big to fit in the tower. Servos can also give you relatively small geared down motors but tend to be boxes that may not fit inside even a medium sized structure easily so may have to be under it.

 

the big issue with a rotating light will be powering the led on the rotating shaft, this takes some engineering of the shaft to create the circuit up to the led as well as a transfer system to the shaft itself or discs on the shaft. It’s not horridly complicated but fiddly. I’m trying to think of something small that might have a mech like this you could repurpose and not have to scratch build but nothing has come to mind. I’ve seen larger bookshelf models of classic lighthouses with a rotating light but these are like HO scale and expensive architectural models prebuilt.

 

lighthouses are really not used as lighthouse rotating lights much anymore, more as a historical thing where they are restored. Now most just have bright flashing beacon lights for the navigational beacons and big radar reflectors to stand out on radar. Radar and gps have pretty much replaced them. In areas with multiple rotating light in an area they each had their own rotation period so you could orient yourself by the period.

 

smaller beacon towers like the green Max are usually just slowly pulsating lights (not hard flashes), sometimes in a pattern if there are several so you can orient yourself to where you are by the light patterns. The pulsing kind of mimicked a rotating light when viewed from a distance. These are usually leading into harbor areas. Many now are just metal towers. This of course would be easy to do with a small circuit (I’m sure there are plans and maybe even a premade one out there that pulses nicely). Beacons like this are all over and don’t need to be dramatic and have any service access really. One thing you see now are usually solar arrays nearby to charge light batteries and simple to do with cardstock.

 

you probably could do like 6 smd leds back to back in a ring and make a circuit that would rotate around the light passing it onto the next led with dimming and brightening in a sequence. That would take some work. Something an arduino would do well with Pwm I/o for the led and a little dim up dim down routine that cycles around the leds with a little overlap on neighbors.

 

where/what are you wanting this to look like? Japan? What period? How big? What’s the larger scene? I can point you to some ideas once I have a better idea of what you are looking to do.

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

On 11/7/2020 at 3:13 PM, cteno4 said:

the big issue with a rotating light will be powering the led on the rotating shaft

 

You could keep the light stationary and then have a shroud that rotates around it. I think that's how real lighthouses deal with this challenge.

 

That said, I think a pulsing light would be the easiest option.

 

Outland has a 3d printed lighthouse, but you'd have to mill out the windows: https://outlandmodels.com/products/scenery-building-country-lighthouse-n-scale-1-160-outland-models-train-railway?_pos=2&_sid=3b80a59a4&_ss=r.

It's surprising how few n scale lighthouses kits turned up from US manufacturers when I did a search. 

[cteno4]

James,

 

yep great idea. I think all the real ones I’ve seen do rotate the reflector around the lamp!  Tradeoff in no electrical contact needed but fussier micro engineering to rotate the reflector. Agreed flashing beacon is a lot easier! If it’s a current day depiction the you will have to model the lighthouse as a bed and breakfast as so many have been restored and turned into a bnb. I’ve had two different sets of friends do this in Alaska, talk about a hard job...

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

@AhmadKane, I have also spotted this lighthouse from Kibri: https://viessmann-modell.com/en/product-range/gauge-n/buildings/land/1915/n-lighthouse-westerheversand-with-2-annexes-functional-kit

 

Looks like it already comes with a light, so that's a plus.