Shamus, you must have gone bonkers reshaping the fibre for the headlamps. I'll bet after the first one you were ready for a parking lot full of cars!
Perhaps we're not getting bites on this topic because the idea was never widly pushed.
Hey out there! It's CHEAP and it's EASY! Now, Shamus's craftsmanship and the christmas tree idea shouldn't dissuade anyone. Look at the history of the use of fibre in this hobby.
I don't know when fibre was first utilized but I know when I first saw it. Around 1971, a friend brought over a brand new Geep painted in Burlington red, and manufactured by COX. This is the same COX corporation that manufactures model gas driven planes that fly.
What first caught my eye was that the headlights worked on both the front as well as the rear of the locomotive. There was a light bulb in the lower part of the cab,which cast a convincing cab light glow. When we removed the body shell from the chassis, we were truly amazed to find one thick strand of fibre leading away from the bulb! A sanded area was the feed point, the ends were worked into the headlight housings inside the body. the length of the fibre was painted light to keep light from escaping and being seen underneath the roof. As Shamus bent his fibres to fit into the areas he was working in, COX did the same.
Think about this. No more messy soldering in a tight space while worrying about melting plastic. No more complicated wiring to add another pea lamp housing. Isn't it a shame that Irving Athearn never opened up a COX motor and went; "GEE!"?
Though there have been numerous articles in the mags regarding the use of fibre, people still opt for a complicated wiring installation to add ditch lights to their locomotives. I've seen one such job with fibre on ditch lights which one could never tell the difference from separate lamps. And the joy is when a lamp goes, it's a larger easier to procure type, and not a teeny tiny one with wire leads instead of a screw or plug in that's a headache to work with.
I remember in the late 60's, people were making wooden boxes with various plexiglass forms mounted on the top. Various colours and shapes were used, with a standard 40 watt bulb inside the box. The effect was usually to give the impression of an urban skyline lit at night. Neat!
As I mentioned in the previous note, a standard lightbulb can be used to drive your lamps. Buildings are quite different from smaller details such as automobiles and street lamps. One friend years ago who was taken with "Fibre Art" took a plexiglass cylinder and sanded the sides so that the light would be diffused around the cylinder, rather than travel through to the end. When installed, even using a 100 watt lamp underneath to feed the tubes to the individual structures, the glow wasn't blinding by any means.
Shamus, you brought up the issue of heat. Good point for those not familiar with fibre. The bulb will generate some heat, a welcome commodity this time of year. I haven't used fibre since the 70's, and I don't really know why, but I remember this. Fibre conducts light, the the heat associated with it. Hence, you're not going to torch anything using it. Just make that the bulb is secure and away from anything that cold be moved, thus smashing it. My friend back then tried using 25 watt bulbs up to 100 as I said to experiment with illumination intensities. Needless to say, boulevard lamps will appear brighter than an illuminated window in an apartment building or a house. Thus, you will probably want to use more than one type of bulb if you go fibre.
Wouldn't the doctor be thrilled that we've been talking about fibre so much??
-- N Gauger
