Crandell, thanks for the compliment. I couldn't get your trackwork and mountain scenery done in three lifetimes either. Hey, maybe if we built a joint layout, we could get it done in one lifetime.
Jeffrey, you need a dump truck and skip loader next.
Josh, the common traffic light in California are those on arms mounted to street light poles, four per intersection, as you say. This is really only common in the west. Down here, they are just starting the practice on new construction. Most traffic lights are multiple heads mounted on wires that go across the intersection. There's nothing to secure them from blowing in the wind and we lose a few with every bad wind storm. I can only imagine after a hurricane.
The duration of red all around before changing is also completely non-standard, with Walthers taking its cue from the west. Most of our lights change instantly from red one direction to green the opposite direction. Our traffic lights in Prattville are all black and the ones in Montgomery, the next city over, and most of Alabama, are yellow. You'd think they could standardize all this and save a few bucks somewhere.
BOC, I know exactly the type of light you're asking about. Sometimes they'd be yellow all the way around, red all the way around, or red one direction and yellow the opposite direction. I have my Life-Like traffic lights set so they will flash yellow if a train is on the downtown spur. I have never seen a working model of one of these, which is strange, since there are thousands around North America. You could probably make one with a hollow block of styrene and four surface mount LED's hooked to a flasher under the layout. Concealing the wires would be a challenge. Now that I think about it, you could use one of the 360 degree LED's with lenses on four sides so you only have one set of wires to contend with. It would be a neat project if you wanted to work on it. I'll bet it would have some commercial value as well considering how well the Walthers traffic lights have been selling.
Ken, nice street scene. It looks like your lights are the original Walthers colors. Painting mine yellow without sloping any paint on the LED's was a real pain. I also painted the support pole flat black so it looked more like a typical light hanging from wires in the intersection. I just took my picture and took what came. It would be nice if the Walthers controller would let you stop the light on one color. I blew two shots because the lense happened to open just as the green was changing to yellow and got both colors in the picture. It looked weird.
Jon, I don't know about the railroad police, that Rico guy sure seems to get around.
That is the best, all-time coolest auto truss bridge I've ever seen. Wood deck bridges like that used to be very common and yours is the only one I've ever seen modeled. Are you planning to put street lights hanging from middle of the span? That would make the bridge perfect. Great job!
