need street lights and traffic lights

[nik_n_dad]

What are some of you using for n-scale street lights and traffic lights?  Prefer LED over bulbs, and for the traffic lights, would be cool to have them change as well.  Our layout is very eclectic, so no bounds for European vs. North American vs. Japanese or style (or era).

 

Thanks

[keiman]

I use bulbs for street lighting and inside buildings.

Have LED for signals,Yard Lamps,and Cars.

Did toy with the idea of fibre optics but not yet done the experiments.- on the try and do list.

[nightshade]

there are some street lights from HK on ebay (they come standard with normal bulbs )

but the seller is willing to make a LED ones (meseged them and they said just tell me which

ones u want )  preatty cool :)

[nik_n_dad]

I've found some great sites on how to make some, but since I hardly have time to work on the kiddo's layout, I'm not wanting to tackle any more projects.  I'd like to find some decent looking ones that I can just plunk down on the layout and wire.

 

Tomix had some that looked good from the images, but they appear to have sold out.

 

I've been looking at:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/769-6490 (the led version)

 

but these are cheaper, wasn't sure how they would look:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10129927

 

For the traffic lights that sequence:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/189-5943

but they are hard to find & pricey. I haven't seen an alternative, has anyone?

[bill937ca]

I`ve seen these used before.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/L333-20pcs-Model-Railway-Lamppost-lamp-HO-N-4-5cm-12V-/250817930241?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3a65e9e401

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/L004-10pcs-Model-Railway-Lamppost-lamp-HO-N-4cm-12v-/250777207932?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3a637c847c

 

Seller`s N gauge page:

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/N-Scale-/19119/i.html?_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A5555&rt=nc&_catref=1&_dmpt=Model_RR_Trains&_ssn=cnmodelnt&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1513&_pgn=1

[KenS]

For my expressway I used an HO-scale Viessmann LED light, but they also make N-scale (I needed a very tall pole for my expressway).  Based on this site (which I haven't ordered from; I bought mine locally) they're not too expensive, particularly if you buy the six-pack sets of the bulb type.

 

One thing I really like about them is that some (marked "socket system") use a socket arrangement, where you mount the socket to the layout, but can remove the pole and cap the hole when painting or doing scenery work.  You pay more for that, but it's a very handy feature. it may only exist for the HO lights though.

 

Note that many of their lights still use bulbs, meaning a shorter lifespan and fewer per power supply.  If it doesn't say LED, it likely isn't. But for occaisional use on a small layout (i.e. a half-dozen on a typical DC throttle accessory output), bulbs aren't necessarily bad.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Take a look on eBay for we honest.

 

He has a variety of lamp posts in black and white with wheat lamps. He said he'll do led, and silver paint. Just ask.

 

I have a lot to do before adding lights downtown.

[nik_n_dad]

I have a lot to do before adding lights downtown.

 

Yeah, me too.  I'm probably being over-optimistic or just nutty, but just in case it all comes together, I'd like to have the parts 

[rpierce000]

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138136 and http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138592 always looked cool to me, but the price put me off.

 

Let me know if you try them out, I would like to know how they are in operation.

 

GreenMax makes some lovely streetlights that you could convert to LED if you wanted to go through the effort. The hard part would be hiding the wires from the top down.

 

I have seen some very nice, and convincing street lights done with a piece of brass tubing and a bit of shrink wrap over it. Then cut it out to let the light shine where you want it.

Bob

[Guest Closed Account 1]

9V battery?  Just add the correct resisters and use the constant voltage from a typical 12V power pack.

 

I'm using the 16V off the DCC main lines or use a dedicated Kato Power pack.

[nik_n_dad]

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138136 and http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138592 always looked cool to me, but the price put me off.

 

OUCH!

 

The Busch set would be the same price if you add the expansion set (total of 4 lights)

[The_Ghan]

I find the eBay Store: WeHonest is pretty competitive with these kind of things.  They also have a good range.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[KenS]

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138136 and http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138592 always looked cool to me, but the price put me off.

 

Let me know if you try them out, I would like to know how they are in operation.

 

Oh my checkbook...I hadn't seen those before.  I'll probably give them a try, but not just now.  I've bought too many trains this month (just made the payment on yet another preorder).

[Mudkip Orange]

Our layout is very eclectic, so no bounds for European vs. North American vs. Japanese or style (or era).

 

If that is the case, why not do some Texas-style horizontal lights. Much more aesthetic than the vertical kind which seem to predominate in so much of the US and elsewhere.

[nik_n_dad]

If that is the case, why not do some Texas-style horizontal lights. Much more aesthetic than the vertical kind which seem to predominate in so much of the US and elsewhere.

 

For part of the layout, this style would be cool, but other than the painfully expensive Sakatsus, I haven't seen these in N.

[KenS]

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138136 and http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138592 always looked cool to me, but the price put me off.

 

Let me know if you try them out, I would like to know how they are in operation.

 

Well, I ordered a set of the Traffic Signal B lights, and I'm a bit disappointed.  I should have read the description more clearly.  I'd thought US$120 before shipping was pricey compared to North American-prototype lights (you can get a set of four poles with a controller from Berkshire Junction for just over $100). But it's really twice that.

 

And the Hobby Search write-up is all there is, as the instruction sheet is entirely in Japanese (no surprise) and has no diagrams (which was a bit of a surprise). Fortunately the operation is incredibly obvious.

 

What you get in the set are two light poles with a control board and on/off switch, so you'd need two sets for a full intersection.  That much would have been obvious had I read the description closely. However, while the lights are nicely installed and functional, they painted the poles in a dark gray color that doesn't look much like the sun-bleached concrete color of the real ones.  At first I thought they hadn't been painted at all.  I'm going to have to repaint them without painting the LEDs somehow (there are masking fluids for that).

 

Both poles also cycle on the same schedule (i.e., both are red at the same time), and I don't see any provision on the board to connect to another set with some kind of synchronization line, so it looks like you'd synchronize them by turning one on, waiting 18 seconds and turning the other set on, and since both red and green last 15 seconds, that's not a perfect synchronization (since one will turn green when the other turns yellow).

 

The build quality is excellent. The wires are hidden on the back of the pole under the paint, and they're hair-thin magnet wire, so you can only see them if you know to look for them. Each wire ends in a heavier-gauge wire of a different color, with a quick-release connector.  Each light has four wires, and all eight are different colors. The control board has eight wires identically color-coded.  The board also has a 1-foot (~30cm) wire with a miniature toggle switch, and a short wire with a 9V battery snap-on connector.  I wired it up and tested it in under 5 minutes.

 

As described the pedestrian crossing signals are not functional (I didn't expect otherwise). They do look a bit odd not lighting, and I'm tempted to cut them off.

 

The lights are bright (if anything, the green is too bright; you can see it through the painted plastic on the top of the fixture.

 

I'm going to use this in the "village" part of my River Crossing scene, likely supplemented with a couple of non-functional light fixtures although if these ever come back in stock I might buy another. The one issue there is that they kept the large circular base, which I'll likely have to remove for a permanent installation.

 

I'm also thinking I could replace the control board (perhaps with a Digitrax TSMK driven off my signal controller by a JMRI script, or perhaps with the Berkshire Junction controller) so I could more accurately synchronize two sets. The current-limiting resistors are on the controller, not the lights, so I need to be careful if I do that.

[The_Ghan]

Wow KenS,

 

Great report, but unfortunately it reveals what I had suspected - an over-priced half-kit. 

 

I like your idea of using the Digitrax signal gear to control traffic lights and look forward to seeing the results.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Mudkip Orange]

That's pretty crazy considering you can pick up a used Caltrans-spec 170 controller for about $60 and a new one for $500-1000.

[Mudkip Orange]

Caltrans-spec

 

Should clarify that this is the historically-dominant controller for the whole west coast and can be found at most of the older intersections in Portland, Tacoma, etc

[The_Ghan]

That's pretty crazy considering you can pick up a used Caltrans-spec 170 controller for about $60 and a new one for $500-1000.

 

I might have to install one of those at my parents place.  My mother drives like Batman! 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan