Sandstone & Termite night pics and videos

[gregh]

I had built lights into my first couple of stations 15 years ago. I then found it was too cold to go outside on winter nights and too many mozzies in summer, so I never connected them up. They are grain-of-wheat bulbs with styrene shades.

But recentlyI decided to do some 'test' pics and videos, so I wired them in and also used small a torch taped to piece of dowel to simulate a platform light on a pole.

I was quite please with the results.

It's cold waiting for that last train at night! I supplemented the light with a torch shining on the loco.

Maple Jn station is a small building.

I also tried a video:
http://youtu.be/ROIE-UJPnhs
Overall I'm pleased with the effects and will keep experimenting.

 

[trammayo]

Very effective indeed! The video scenes were great too - I really loved the goods train sequence - shows a different aspect of the station lighting!

 

[annieshalt]

realy good night time video which reminds me i still have'nt wired up all my buildings yet.

 

[garrymartin]

they are beautifully effective and look the part unlit too

 

[tramcar trev]

Wow Greg wonderful effects. Good lighting really brings a sense of reality to your railway, maybe its just so much more dramatic, but by jove old chap its "cool". Did you see my per way yard lights? easy to make and because I have embedded the leds up to their domes they cast a sort of spot of light which is what you're trying to achieve with the torch...
http://www.gscalecentral.net/tm?m=249354&high=per+way+yard
there are shots of them casting their beam at night too somewhere on the forum...

 

[ge_rik]

Great stuff Greg. Certainly something to add to my todo list. I was thinking I might use LEDs and solar power. That way, I could localise the power source for each station rather than having to run a wiring loom around the garden. I've seen some solar powered fairy lights going cheap - though I suspect those LEDs give a focused beam rather than a spread of light. Just wondered if you had tried experimenting with LEDs.

Rik

 

[ge_rik]

Did you see my per way yard lights? easy to make and because I have embedded the leds up to their domes they cast a sort of spot of light which is what you're trying to achieve with the torch...
http://www.gscalecentral.net/tm?m=249354&high=per+way+yard
there are shots of them casting their beam at night too somewhere on the forum...

Sorry Trev, just realised I should have read your post before enquiring of Greg's experience with LEDs
Rik

 

[gregh]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys.
Trev- they are beautiful lights. But my 'experiments' are just to see what I can use as temporary lights for photos. I don't want permanent lights - as I said before I'll never use them.
Rik - the internal lights inside the big station are leds - I just 'threw' 3 of them inside - they aren't even on the roof. The light seems to bounce off the walls OK. They are 'sunny' white leds. (they hadn't invented white leds when I built the station !) I will try making a platform light with them soon and post some pics.

For all this temporary stuff, I'm just using batteries and clip leads - you can't see them in the dark!

The experiments have at least shown that:
- you need more light for movies than stills.
- I notice that red leds (signals, tail-lamps) don't show up very well in the movie, so will experiment more.
- white (blueish) leds as headlights don't look good.

I want to make a movie of "a nightime at the station" and I will be tryinga few more things before I start, such as
-the same leds up a pole for platform lighting or yard lighting
-more torches on sticks - but I notice they are visible in movies but not in the stills
-better lights on the front of a loco.
-lights in more carriages (probably permanent) and guards vans
- better (brighter) signal lights.


Does anyone know how to get rid of those blue lines from the lamps in the movie?????

 

[gregh]

Great stuff Greg. Certainly something to add to my todo list. I was thinking I might use LEDs and solar power. That way, I could localise the power source for each station rather than having to run a wiring loom around the garden. I've seen some solar powered fairy lights going cheap - though I suspect those LEDs give a focused beam rather than a spread of light. Just wondered if you had tried experimenting with LEDs.
Rik

Did some testing today. I don't see any problem with leds being too focussed.
I set up a 'sunny' white led under the awning of this station - it's 100mm high approx. The led is a 5mm dia type and I roughened the surface with sandpaper. I just blue-tacked the led to the underside of the awning. From this pic you can see the beam is maybe 100-200mm dia on the ground. It's running at 20mA

second pic compares a sunny and 'blueish' white led about 250mm above the ground to simulate a tall yard light. The blueish white led is at 10mA and the sunny white at 20mA. There is quite good lightning for 200 mm dia. at least.

 

[ge_rik]

Thanks for that, Greg. Most of the cheapo solar light strings seem to be of the bluish variety - haven't seen any 'warm white' or 'sunny white' strings for sale locally.

When I was experimenting with flickering LEDs from those tea-lights to act as lights for semaphore signal lamps recently, I tried filing a 5mm LED to a 45 degree angle to change the focus of the beam - it didn't work that well but did give it a more diffuse light. In the end, I found some tea-lights with flickering 3mm LEDs which I could mount horizontally inside the signal lamps.

Definitely going to investigate solar LED strings for illuminating the stations though, thanks for the info

Rik

PS - one of the flickering 3mm LEDs mounted in a signal lamp (with the remains of the tea-light as a temporary power source)

I found some tea-lights contained 5mm LEDs, some contained 3mm LEDs and a small additional circuit to provide the flicker, and some just contained flickering 3mm LEDs. These are the ones with 3mm flickering LEDs - they were 50p for a pair from my local 50p shop.

Rik

 

[gregh]

Those flickering tea lights look a great idea and value. Haven't seen them in Oz. (but haven't looked either!)

In the above video, I used a normal, blueish led behind the red spectacle plate of a signal, but it didn't show up well at all - just white. Not a lot of the blueish light gets through the red coloured disk. (see around 45 sec in the video)

I checked normal red and green LEDs last night and they photograph and video well.

 

[ge_rik]

Great work Both.

You can buy those flickering tealights on Ebay for about £3.99 for 12 including post..............

I bought a batch - they look good - would make a great firebox light.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-x-FLIC...8241?pt=UK_Candle_Holders&hash=item48571d8721

That's really good value. Not only do you get the LED, you also get a CD2032 battery and if they're like mine, a sub min two-way slide switch. Some of the others I investigated have a push-push switch which was not quite as robust.

They don't seem to include a resistor. I wondered if either the flickering effect meant they didn't need one or if they were considered to be throw-away and hence weren't worried about the longevity of the LED. I assume the resistor offers some sort of protection for an LED (again, a little knowledge! :thinking: )

Rik

 

[gregh]

Great work Both.
You can buy those flickering tealights on Ebay for about £3.99 for 12 including post..............
I bought a batch - they look good - would make a great firebox light.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-x-FLIC...8241?pt=UK_Candle_Holders&hash=item48571d8721

What a brilliant post. Thanks. I found similar ones on Aus ebay, so will order some. What a simple solution for 'temporary' house and building lights, even for in guards vans and maybe passenger carriages. Should be just what I need for night photography.
(I had been considering using real tea candles inside some buildings)
Rik's pic show orange coloured but some on ebay look white. Anyone tried the white ones?

 

[tramcar trev]

Just the LED's themselves can also be bought from eBay, they are 2V....

I bought some for my dad who makes miniature lighthouses for sale at his local craft shop and they look good in those....http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4pc-Rand...AU_WeddingSupplies&hash=item20cb31de74&_uhb=1

You can buy various colours or indeed auto colour changing ones....

 

[tramcar trev]

Great stuff Greg. Certainly something to add to my todo list. I was thinking I might use LEDs and solar power. That way, I could localise the power source for each station rather than having to run a wiring loom around the garden. I've seen some solar powered fairy lights going cheap - though I suspect those LEDs give a focused beam rather than a spread of light. Just wondered if you had tried experimenting with LEDs.
Rik

Did some testing today. I don't see any problem with leds being too focussed.
I set up a 'sunny' white led under the awning of this station - it's 100mm high approx. The led is a 5mm dia type and I roughened the surface with sandpaper. I just blue-tacked the led to the underside of the awning. From this pic you can see the beam is maybe 100-200mm dia on the ground. It's running at 20mA

second pic compares a sunny and 'blueish' white led about 250mm above the ground to simulate a tall yard light. The blueish white led is at 10mA and the sunny white at 20mA. There is quite good lightning for 200 mm dia. at least.

I use the warm white LEDS under driven (10mA) to create a "tungsten" ambience. I can't find a listing for "Sunny" white LEDS, do sunny = warm white? The Persil white ones are OK if you want to imitate flouro lights but don't drive them too hard or you end up with the blue tinge creeping in....

 

[gregh]

I use the warm white LEDS under driven (10mA) to create a "tungsten" ambience. I can't find a listing for "Sunny" white LEDS, do sunny = warm white? The Persil white ones are OK if you want to imitate flouro lights but don't drive them too hard or you end up with the blue tinge creeping in....

Trust you to suss out the leds alone Trev. Interesting - I'll bookmark for later, but the 'self-contained' tea lights are just the thing I need for temporary building lights I hope. Ordered 14 today from
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261201190597 < Link To http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws...&item=261201190597

I guess I invented the term 'sunny'. I'm using these "golden warm white" ones:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350326235790 < Link To http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eB...&item=350326235790

Probably got the link from you in the first place!.

 

[tramcar trev]

I use the warm white LEDS under driven (10mA) to create a "tungsten" ambience. I can't find a listing for "Sunny" white LEDS, do sunny = warm white? The Persil white ones are OK if you want to imitate flouro lights but don't drive them too hard or you end up with the blue tinge creeping in....

Trust you to suss out the leds alone Trev. Interesting - I'll bookmark for later, but the 'self-contained' tea lights are just the thing I need for temporary building lights I hope. Ordered 14 today from
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261201190597 < Link To http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws...&item=261201190597

I guess I invented the term 'sunny'. I'm using these "golden warm white" ones:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350326235790 < Link To http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eB...&item=350326235790

Probably got the link from you in the first place!.

Ok....... Yes well an Amercian streetcar aficionado (who shall remain nameless) was trying to convince me to buy Tram headlight leds from him claiming they were "Golden Glow" Leds... Actually they are a pale orange led.... So warm white leds it is then; I just bought a 100 with flat tops for the price I could buy 10 at Jaycar.... There are some of those tea lights with an RGB led in them which with a bit of imagination may simulate a TV reflection or in my case maybe the reflection of a cinema....No hang on I'm modelling in the Monochrome era so I need a flickering "grey" led tealight....

 

[gregh]

I received these flickering tea lights today and did a little testing last night
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261201190597 < Link To http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws...&item=261201190597

Notice I cut the 'curly' flame end off and rounded it up - looks like a gas globe.
I put 3 in the ceiling of a tram car using blue tack and they provide a good light.

This shows 2 in a guards van - a bit dim. Maybe they had flickered off when I took the pic

I've also fitted the warm white leds into a sitting car (not these flickering ones)

and a sleeper - this took 12 leds to light all compartments and corridors. I did the LED NO-NO and actually wired some directly in parallel - tested them first to ensure equal looking brightness. The lady in the compartment on right has her blue night light on as she climbs into the top bunk

These 2 carriages have 9V batteries.
So my testing continues......

A bit more info on the flickering led tea lights.
The ones I bought do not have any external circuitry - just the led which just falls out when the base is prised off. So it's easy to use the led on its own. Viewed on an oscilloscope, it just takes a square wave current with a varying on/off time. It seems to take 10ma during the on time, for 2.5V then increase quickly to 30mA at 3.0V. I didn't test it at the battery volts of 3.3V.
But it does work with two, NiMh cells (2.4V) OK, so could wire them in to a 2cell pack if the button cell does not provide long enough light time. (Too bad it doesn't operate on one cell.) But since the led operates down to at least 2.4V then the button cell can get pretty discharged before the led stops.
A VERY useful item!!!

 

[Madman]

That's what I like about these forums. Our members are always coming up with new ways to improvise. Using items that save on precious railway funds and ending up with excellent results.

 

[beavercreek]

Really excellent Greg

O love spending evenings outside with the layout lights twinkling. It sort of feels even more real than during the day ....the little folk going about their nightly activities.................