model railroad spotlights

WVRR

New Member
My current project is one of electrical rather then plastic. I have seen christmas lights since I was born, and never even thought of the idea until just recently. I cut the lights off the string, leaving a small length of wire on each end. I then cut a piece of styrene to create a cowl with a diameter at the small end just large enough to wrap around the base of the christmas light, I then glued a piece of aluminum foil inside the cowl to reflect the light as much as possible. All that was left was glueing(JB Welding) the cowl to the light and rewiring it to the plug....presto instant spotlight, just add some sort of base to it (I used sticky tac) and I can move it, angle it, and point it just about anywhere. I'm acually trying this for my layout right now. It brings out detailed pieces far better then the average lights do, is small enough for any scale, and is cheap to build...you can also use colored lights for special effects such as shining them in special places on a white backdrop to create a sun set...Just use yellows, reds, and blues....by moving the lights around you could probably come up with some really wicked effects...I found out the narrower the cowl the more concentrated the light is against an object...just something I thought I would share
 

kf4jqd

Active Member
Christmas lites

The last couple of years, Jessica and I went to Tennessee for Christmas to see my parents. They took us to Dollywood (Dolly Parton's Themepark). They used Christmas lights to simulate moving water. That was pretty cool!

Andy
 

billk

Active Member
WVRR -
Sounds neat. What are you using these spotlights for? Photos? Permanent lighting FX?

I've seen other posting mentioning the use of Xmas tree lights. It just occurred to me - aren't most of them 120v? (Not to question your electrical abilities.)
 
yes they are 120 volt but when you use one or two the voltage drops i used them on my ho layout that i had ran in my son's room one would run off a 9 volt battery but to use them with a power pack you would need to get some voltage dropers. their is a nother tiick you can do if you have kids those cars with the light in them work good for crossings and fire and cop cars and use 1.5 to 3.0 volts or one AA or two of them that is what i love about this hobby is you can use anything on my layout i'm running all my power to my building on ploes real wire real power. it gives them a perpes to be their. just call me crazy look i'm added real water. and working on power lines for my buildings.
 
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