ideas for lighting in a tunnel

[nik_n_dad]

There's a lot of reasons why Nik's train layout seems to be perpetually "a few months" from completion.... we keep messing with it.  As we're making great progress on the downtown, Nik thought it would be cool to have a little tunnel for the autos on the layout to be able to "leave downtown" and drive "off the layout".  No problem, I've spent the afternoon pulling up a little track, digging a trench in the foam, building a ramp and underpass.....

 

But I digress.  I was thinking that Nik might like having lights in the auto tunnel.  It makes sense.  Any suggestions what I should use for an auto tunnel lighting?  Just bare warm-white leds?  does someone make a semi-appropriate fixture?

 

TIA

[Mr Frosty]

I would have thought a strip of surface mound LEDs would be ideal. The actual LEDs themselves are unlikely to be visible. Something like this-

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Warm-White-5M-16-4ft-300-LED-3528-SMD-Strip-Flexible-car-lamp-Light-waterproof-/130680970117?pt=US_Car_Lighting&hash=item1e6d315b85

[Hobby Dreamer]

I like what Mr Frosty suggests!

 

N scale is pretty small so is the emphasis on a lit tunnel or that you can see some fancy light fixture. You can mount these LEDs on the tunnel ceiling and maybe cut some styrene or other material to either make a cover to either house or soften the light.

 

Or, you could mount these on the ground against the tunnel walls (or even slightly under the roadbed) so the light shines the walls.

 

I bought one of those ICE tunnels and plan to light it. I find these LED light strips pretty inexpensive (is there a cheaper light product for what you get?) and many can be cut. You can get different colours and some can change colour.

 

I've blown my budget lately but plan to get a lot of different lighting to try but the easiest one on the wallet with known success are these LED strips.

 

Brawa and others make some nice LED lamps that you could use for a tunnel and just outside the tunnel..

 

The best part about these strips is their price, light and flexibility. You could get these now to experiment with and if they don't work you could stick them in the kitchen. Not a huge investment..

 

Cheer

Rick

[inobu]

Your best bet is to use transparency and a printer.

 

Lets say you want florescent lights lights along the tunnel at 10 and 2 oclock.

 

Measure the center of the sheet based on the arc of the tunnel. Place a solid black block on your page. Then place long white blocks representing the florescent bulbs and fixture.  

 

When the printer prints on the transparency the black shaded ink represents the wall and the clear area/white represents the bulbs. Now you need to place your light source above these areas to shine through the transparency. Play with the opacity in some areas to mimic the light bouncing on off the concrete giving that glowing effect.

 

This is the method I came up with the portal project.

 

Controlling light intensity with the transparency is the key.

 

Inobu

 

   

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Yes strip LEDs is my best lifelike idea*.

 

Better than sending the light from an led down an acrylic rod.

 

Study some real tunnel pics/video.

 

*Subject to artist's interpretation.

[Mr Frosty]

I think the strips with the "PCB" part painted black would work well and give the right effect.

 

If you dont have 16 foot of tunnel, you could probably sell the rest of the strip to other members. I doubt you would need to light more than the first foot of a tunnel.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

You're in luck.  I was was contemplating some T-Gauge today and saw the 12v Flexible Lighting Strips!

 

Designed for 12v. Lower voltages will give you dimmer illumination.

 

http://trainaidsa.com/shop-leds.shtml

[JR 500系]

Was browsing Yahoo Auctions and Suddenly...

 

http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f117956390

 

MAN! Now that is a good idea to light the tunnel! 

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Fiber optics.

 

I ordered some fiber optic street lamps with my new T-Gauge. One led is needed to illuminate all 5 or more fiber pipes.

 

Maybe using one tube in the tunnel and black painting in spots to create the dot light effect will work for you.

 

Challenge is keeping the fiber pipe from looking wiggly.

[cteno4]

fiber optics will look great for doing small pinpoints of light, but its tough to get much in the way of lumens out of them for really bright lighting. you also cant sharply bend them, if you do you loose a lot of the light out of them fast. when i was a kid i did a bunch of n scale detail lighting with plastic fiberoptics and it was great fun. you could do things like little lights over doors in the train shop. but they only give little accent/detail lighting in n scale.

 

they are also designed so that you usually dont get much light out the sides (they are constructed so the most of the light is reflected and travels through the pipe and out the ends, not the sides) so if you stretched it down the tunnel and covered with paint and only let a few holes you would just get some dimly glowing dots, not bright lights. there is some soft fiberoptic light piping that is made to have the length glow when you put light in at the ends. you can buy it in little kits for shoe laces and such to have disco effects on your clothes. but again the glowing is pretty low intensity light so not going to give you a street light effect level of light output and they are pretty thick (ie like a few mm in dia) so large for n scale use.

 

light piping works great on a very small scale like T scale, but just not great for many N scale tasks outside of headlights and some detail lighting, just hard to pump enough light in with small plastic fiber optics. T scale street light needs are about what a small detail light in n scale would need! the T scale buildings come with a light pipe that goes up the center with little side reflectors on it so that if you shine an led up it it lights each floor. again the space to light is tiny like 1-3 sq cm per floor!

 

led strip lamps would be the best option for a well lit tunnel. lots of these on ebay cheap as well. ive gotten 5m strips for under $10. all are the same that you can chop them up in 3 led sections. biggest issue is the color of the white light. they all vary a bit, even on the cool, medium and warm. also would be tough to curve them along the roof as the tape is like 8mm wide and wont bend sideways. would work fine along the side wall to curve. led strips will give you really bright illumination, perhaps too bright, but if you lower the voltage some you can dim them to your desired level pretty easily (use an old train transformer).

 

one last option would be to build your tunnel walls/ceilings as one removable piece then drill holes through the roof at your desired spots for lights and then put some little chunks of acrylic rods through the holes. then put some lights that would light up around these (could have an led like very few inches and cover with aluminum foil tent. this should disperse the light above the roof well and make your acrylic ends glow pretty well. still i doubt it will give you really bright illumination if you want that. its also a lot of work.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[nik_n_dad]

I was at the large LHS yesterday, and found something that I think will work perfectly, and with minimal work:

 

 

Basically a string of SMD LEDs, available in a 3V form with a battery pack or a 12-18V string read to wire-up.  Comes in different lengths and in cool white and warm white.  I'm either going to use raw (hide the wire with paint), or place inside a styrene tube (tried that, looks fine).

 

They're made by Evan Design / modeltrainsoftware and also available at caboose hobbies in denver.  When we get it set-up I'll shoot a few photos, but it looks pretty promising, and may be cool for other modeling applications too.

[KenS]

That's a very nice way to sell pre-wired LEDs.  With 1.25" (~31mm) between LEDs, you could wire a small six-floor building (like one of Kato's) with one string quite nicely, without having to do any soldering. And the price isn't unreasonable either.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

That's a neat website.

 

String of white LEDs: http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/chip-led-string.html

 

Just need to get a DC Stepped (down) Regulator to power these off your 12V power supply (DC controller).

 

For example: http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=407

[nik_n_dad]

Just need to get a DC Stepped (down) Regulator to power these off your 12V power supply (DC controller).

 

For example: http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=407

 

They have a version ($1.00 USD more) that's ready to plug into a 12V-19V supply.  That's the one I picked up, and it lights up nicely off of a DC controller

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Lol. The 3 volt is probably similar to the string of lights wrapped around my apartment sized Christmas Cypress bush.

 

That's also a neat effect they show when you sand (scuff) an led for a diffused light pattern.

 

You're probably going to need a dim light in the tunnel.

 

 

Keep us in formed.

[cteno4]

Just occurred to me that if you built the tunnel first you could then drill holes for 3mm LEDs thru the roof and insert from above. The rounded ends would look like domes. Just wire in sets of three in series to 12v and a small value resistor. Or to come small pots in groups of three to maybe do a cool dimming effect as you go deeper into the tunnel. You can ge 3mm LEDs for a dollar or two for 100 on ebay.

 

You can get little strings like webskipper mentioned as well

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-AA-Battery-White-3M-30-LED-String-Fairy-Party-Festival-Decor-Light-Lamp-EA-/321015013893?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&hash=item4abdfc6205

 

Jeff

[Hobby Dreamer]

@nik_n_dad 

 

Let us know how these lights work out! 

 

Rick