Loco No. 2 emerging from the tunnel in the dark, the glare from a lamp above the smokebox is reflected on the railhead.

Lights

A couple of weeks back I posted a  photo from a late night steam running session which took place back in May 2020. The top photo on this post is taken half an hour later the same evening. By this point it was pretty dark, and you can see to good effect the illumination provided by the light mounted above the smoke box.

Close up showing the front lamp mounted above the smokebox of loco no. 2

This is one of the clever little printed scale lamps from SLR models which include not only the LED to make the light work, a bracket for mounting on a lamp iron, but also the batteries and a novel way to turn the lamp on and off. They’re supplied with spare batteries, but after four years (or admittedly not heavy) use I’m still on the first set.

With a red LED they also make a nice tail lamp.

Shot from inside the tunnel of a goods train emerging into the light at the end. There's a red tail lamp on the guard's van.
The tail lamp and the close up are not from that same session in May (they are from June 2020) but this final photo is, it shows No. 2 being rescued by the new Mamod Bolton, No. 5. No. 5 had no lamp irons so no lights, but its cab back sheet is illuminated by the light from No. 2.
Loco no 5 rescuing loco no 2 which ran out of gas. No 5 has no lamps, but light from the front lamp of no 2 is reflected on its cab back sheet.

Published by

Simon Wood

Lecturer in medical education, lapsed mathematician, Doctor Who fan and garden railway builder. See simonwood.info for more...

Leave a Reply