A week or so ago I read Chris Nevard's Blog entry where he had made some nice non working lighting columns for his Brewhouse Quay layout.

I was so impressed (and commented so at the time) that I knew then I just had to have some like that for Pen Y Bont.

Now the hard bit!

I wanted mine to be working lights, so I spent some time thinking about how to do it and came up with this idea.

Brass is one of my favourite choices for modelling material. It is stronger than plastic, light, and easy to cut and solder. I just like using the stuff.

(Maybe I have got a brass fetish???)

Anyway, about 4 hours was spent at the work table today and I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

The hardest part of this job was keeping the insulation of the centre conductor intact. The brass column acts as the current return so I had to be quick with the soldering iron and use plenty of flux to get a quick flow of solder round the joints.

Here's the same lamp finished and painted.

There are a few things that let this design down though. The swan neck tube is a bit too big to be honest, but, I had to use that size to accommodate the wire to the lamp.

The bulb itself is a 12V grain of wheat lamp, I could have used a L.E.D. but, to be frank I don't like the light from these devices. Nothing simulates a tungsten filament lamp like a Tungsten filament lamp! So. being a tad over size I'll have to live with it.

I plan to run 3 of these in series across a 18V supply so they won't get top hot or be too bright. The picture above is a bit deceiving due to the long exposure time on the camera. The lamp is not that bright in reality.

Well, there you go, another job done, well almost, I've still got two more to make!

Cheers!

Frank