These lanterns had red on the sides and white on the front and back. This means that if the arm was over the track, a red signal would be presented to any locomotive on the track in either direction, warning the driver that the arm was over the track. When swung away off the track, white lights would be presented. The official signal designation is Ve7
I explored the possibility of creating illuminated replacement lamps for the water cranes I am building.
I used transparent styrene to create a lantern the same size as the original solid plastic items supplied with the Faller 120137 kit. Into that I inserted a surface mount LED. In order to keep the brightness very low I used a 47K Ohm resistor at 12V - resulting in a current of only 0.2mA!
Here is the first lamp with the Faller original lying below it. It is supported only by the two wires going to it.
The next problem is going to be mounting the wires to the water pipes and somehow finding a way to get them to handle the crane being rotated through about 100°
The lantern is just 3.5mm wide at the top!
Update: I have attached the lamp, still have to paint the wires and do all the weathering...
Update 2008-01-11
I tried to get some pictures of the cranes on the layout..
The background is rather busy so it's somewhat hard to see... and that erosion problem will be rectified when I finish off the surface...
