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Any ideas on who does a working tail lamp for a Heljan AC Railbus ?


muddys-blues

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Craig,

 

Didn't Rod do lamps on his West Kirby DMUs?

 

I think with a "lighthouse" LED, or a very small one, it should be possible to drill out the lens of a Slaters' or Springside lamp, fit the LED through a hole in the body and glue the lamp over the lens. Of course, this kind-of makes your railbus uni-directional, which might not be ideal.

 

Making a removable lamp that works must be possible, glue a LED into a drilled out commercial lamp, possibly have a two pole socket in the body, and poke the wires from the LED through two small holes, which would be pretty much invisible when the lamp is not fitted, and hidden behind the lamp when it is.

 

Making life difficult, make the lamp irons out of two layers of (very thin) metal separated by an epoxy-paper insulating layer. Use these to supply a small led embedded in a lamp body. This would be micro-engineering with a vengeance, but damned impressive if you could pull it off.

 

In both these cases, I think you'd need an AC supply with a current limiting resistor in the railbus body.

 

For an alternative, find out how Richard does it on the new Lionhearted mogul, which has moveable working headlamps.

 

Best

Simon

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Hi Simon, thanks for the indepth reply, I found some LMS/MR Slaters lost wax brass types, but can't find any GWR type, with regards to the model becoming uni-directional, I have thought about turning the model on its own turntable or Loco type lift in the fiddle yards, this layout section I will building will be as an end to end affair, so the simple turntable / loco lifts aid me in not handling the model too much.

 

Another reason for turning the model is I will be fitting a driver and a couple of passengers, and the thought of fitting a driver in each in such a short vehicle sticks out like a sore thumb in 7mm.

 

Best regards

Craig.

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Hi Craig

 

If you're turning the railcar, then it's simple to fit a LED through the body. I guess two drivers might well be overkill!

 

GW pattern lamps - Springside I think, I'd bet money on CPL doing them, and I'd guess Laurie Griffin too.

 

CPL don't have a website AFAIK, phone number here http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/suppliers/40478-CPLProducts

 

Laurie does have a catalog, which I'm struggling to find online - phone here - http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/suppliers/41110-LaurieGriffinMiniatures

 

Hth

Simon

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Hello fellow modellers, any idea who does a suitable working tail lamp for the Heljan 7mm AC Railbus ?

 

many thanks in advance

Craig.

 

In practice, although it might be fun to do this, it is completely unnecessary unless you are running at night, and even then the old oil-lit tail lamps were pretty dim. Certainly during the day you would never see if they were lit or not from any distance. So for most purposes the lamp itself will be just fine, with no need for LEDs, wiring etc.

 

John

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