Micro-Scene: Utility Service
The scene was inspired by a pair of wire reels from a very early Arnold Rapido freight loads kit (0649), which I wanted to use but had trouble finding a home for them (interestingly, the tooling would be considered very good even by today's standards). On a whim, I positioned them across the street from the factory. Parked nearby, a pair of Wiking VW vans, doing service as utility vehicles, have working headlights and four-way flashers—I may one day decal them. Granted, the vehicles are illuminated with 0402 and 0201 LEDs, but had I known what I was doing back in the early 70s, I could have created similar effects using fiber optics. To finish up the scene, I wound fine wire onto the reels (brother, was that tedious).
Incidentally, the four-ways are powered by a grade crossing flasher circuit—really cheap and simple. And yes, it meant squeezing in another switch on the already-crowded control panel.