The James River Branch Z Scale Model Railroad: Lighting

Lighting

Lighting has always been a passion of mine. It is doubtful I would ever model a layout or scene without lighting it. And I will do my best to take it to the highest degree of completion possible: my philosophy has been to light in the model whatever is lit in life (where practical, of course).

Not to make excuses, but I'm making use of Miller Engineering's Light Works USA kits to add lots of lighting effects to the layout with relatively low effort. Although I would not ordinarily use so many of these products (some of them, while interesting, are not especially realistic to my eye), I'm trying to choose them carefully, and include enough to add plenty of interest without overdoing it. Although, admittedly, when it's finished I think I will have overdone it...

Once I got bit by the lighting bug on this project, however, I could not stop myself, and so I took over where the Light Works signs stopped. Flea-sized surface-mount LEDs will allow me do things that were once a challenge in larger scales. And so the layout will acquire such things as stop lights, crossing flashers, street lights and loads more.

I also thought about extending the lighted sign concept well beyond what is available commercially. Small, lensed UV LEDs (I literally had to sign a release to purchase these stating that I won't sue the supplier if I blind myself with them) may allow me to create neon signs that are well beyond the capabilities of commercial products. Also, surface-mount LEDs mounted behind bits of lithographic negatives can create miniscule "OPEN" signs and so forth. My head is practically exploding with thoughts of all the possibilities...

This page will serve to document both plans and achievements. At this writing (3 February 2007), I have the following lighting ideas in the works. There is no knowing which will make the final cut; for the sake of history, I will leave the list intact, activate links to detail pages for those projects that are completed, and add new items that happen to materialize after the fact.

Excluded from the list is interior lighting for structures; this is more or less a given that will happen no matter what. Projects marked with an asterisk (*) are based on commercial products. In no particular order:

Triangle bar animated sign *

Window and wall signs in bar

Diner sign *

Open sign in diner window

Hotel signs *

~~Bank sign~~

Cafe sign *

Window signs in cafe

~~Used car lot animated open sign~~

~~Neon signs on gas station roof~~

Rotating gas station sign

Arc welder in gas station *

Campfire

Fireflies

Theater sign

Theater marquee

Full road intersection traffic lights

Railroad crossing flashers

Intersection blinker

Street lights *

Road construction warning flashers

Emergency vehicle flashers

Automobile headlights

Blinking light on top of radio tower

Position-style railroad signal

UPDATES LOG

The used car lot animated open sign is much too large, and will be dropped (February 2007)
The commercial neon signs for the gas station roof are not useable; alternatives are being investigated (February 2007)
Neon signs for the gas station roof have been dropped (March 2007)
Using the commercial theater sign and marquee is looking to be more work than building them from scratch, so plans are being revised (May 2007)
Streetlights were going to be scratchbuilt, but using commercial ones from Märklin will save an enormous amount of time (June 2007)
The bank building design is being heavily revised, and plans for a lighted sign have been dropped (June 2007)
Plans for a position-style railroad signal have been added (June 2007)

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