Subway Platform Lights

Six inches in O scale/gauge equals 24 feet. That's pretty high for a station platform light.

Actually a 2 1/2" high or so HO scale light would work just fine. That comes out to 10 feet in height. Still tall but closer to reality. HO scale lights tend to be oversized for that scale anyway.

Keep in mind for O scale/gauge that 1/4" in actual measure equals one foot in miniature.

Ed Bommer

Marklin used to make very nice HO scale metal street lamps. The have a tapered, hex cross-section post and an arm that extends at a right angle from the post, with a small hooded lamp. They resemble early NYC platform lamps. They are about three inches high, making them 12 feet in real life. You could cut their feet off and make them a little shorter, assuming you like them, and can find them. I found mine at York.

click

I stand corrected. Here are some double-arm examples of the same type, listed as 00, not H0

Dumb question though but how would go about powering HO lamps? I assume you cannot use say a MTH Z1000 transformer acc output since it's 14V. I would think HO lamps run much less volts.

Thanks

The HO lamps are nominally 12 volt. However at 12 volts they will not last very long. I found it best to burn them at 6 volts by wiring each pair of lamps in series. That way they burn dimmer, look more realistic and will last 10X or more longer than if burning at 12 volts.

You can do exactly the same thing with your 14 volt output.
The 14 volts would be shared by each pair of lamps at 7 volts each.
Makes no difference to a light bulb it is using AC or DC current.

Just hook up each pair of lights as a single-line circuit with + in on the first bulb and - out on the second bulb, and joining the wires between them. It's like the way old fashioned Christmas tree lights were wired.

Ed Bommer

Borderman:

Here's a view of the 238th Street Station on the Number 1 Line in the Bronx. I chose a picture which prominently features the platform lights:

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?79737

I hope this helps.

Good luck,

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by CNJ 3676:
Borderman:

Here's a view of the 238th Street Station on the Number 1 Line in the Bronx. I chose a picture which prominently features the platform lights:

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?79737

I hope this helps.

Good luck,

Bob

I would say those look to be about 16-20' tall.

If you compare the height of the globes on those lamps to the height of the roof of the subway car from the top of the platform, those globes are about 9' to 10' or so above the platform surface. Not 20'!

The subway car roof is only about 7 1/2' or so above the platform. Think of how the light blubs would need to be changed. At 8'-10' a step ladder would do. At 20' a cherry picker kind of lift would be needed!

Ed Bommer

quote:

Originally posted by Ed Bommer:
If you compare the height of the globes on those lamps to the height of the roof of the subway car from the top of the platform, those globes are about 9' to 10' or so above the platform surface. Not 20'!

The subway car roof is only about 7 1/2' or so above the platform. Think of how the light blubs would need to be changed. At 8'-10' a step ladder would do. At 20' a cherry picker kind of lift would be needed!

Ed Bommer

Ed I scaled it a little more carefully and am getting about 10-11' to the bulb. Your original post said the HO lights were 10' tall in O scale which was "still tall". It didn't sway they were 10' tall "to the bulb". I thought we were talking about the height of the entire light. However, I agree, it's not 20' or even 16' But maybe 14'. Any way, whatever looks right to the modeler.