❽ Modified flashlights. During night
operating sessions, V&W crew members
carry small flashlights they can use to
read waybills and other paperwork. A
red filter on the flashlight lens helps
eliminate glare.❼ Headlights and taillights.
Illuminated passenger cars, a flashing
grade-crossing signal, and vehicle
headlights reflecting off the car sides
help bring this scene to life. Featuring
pre-wired headlights and taillights, the
convertible is a Just Plug series model
from Woodland Scenics.42 http://www.ModelRailroader.com
1940s/early 1950s, so I have some cars
where the headlights are separate parts
that don’t lend themselves to fiber optics.
For the epoxy resin cars, drilling out
paths for the fiber optics through the
solid castings is nearly impossible.
For these problematic vehicles,
I adapted a lighting approach pioneered
by John Allen on his Gorre & Daphetid
model railroad. He painted the head-
lights and taillights of his vehicles with
ultraviolet (UV) paint and lit the room
with black lights during night operation.
For some of my vehicles I used small
amounts of fluorescent paint, dabbing
white on the headlights and red on the
taillights. To test the effect, I installed a
25W UV black light bulb in one of fix-
tures behind the overhead valence. The
results were mixed. The car’s headlights
glowed, but so did every white surface
on the layout, including some signs,
freight cars, every piece of white paper
used for operations, and even my light-
colored shirt.
My alternate plan proved more suc-
cessful. I used 5mm UV blacklight LEDs
inconspicuously mounted on some
structure roofs. I placed a straw over
each LED to direct its light down to a
particular vehicle’s UV-painted lights. It
was challenging to hide the LED yet pro-
vide the needed beam of light, but this
method has worked out well. One ofthese LED installations is shown in ❻
on the previous page.
Recently Woodland Scenics has
released its Just Plug line of vehicles with
pre-wired headlights and taillights. I’ve
installed some of these on my layout,
including the convertible in ❼, and am
very pleased with the result.The test: A nighttime ops session
With several hundred lights installed
around the layout, it was time to test my
efforts and run the railroad at night.
I invited a crew that had operated the
V&W many times before so they would
be familiar with the locations of control
panels and turnouts and be comfortable
with the general movement of trains
over the railroad.
I simplified this first night session by
reducing the number of through trains
and local car movements. I also slowed
down the fast clock.
My Logicon fast clock has an option
to automatically reduce the display
brightness during nighttime hours. My
operating sessions are 12 fast clock
hours, starting at either 6 a.m. or 6 p.m.
This session would begin at 6 p.m., and
I set the month as late September when
darkness falls after 7 p.m. That way, the
session would begin in full light, giving
the crews a chance to become familiar
with their assignments. I also gave each
operator an LED flashlight.
At 7 p.m. fast clock time, I turned on
the blue lights, which went unnoticed
because of the well-lit layout room.
Between 7 and 7:30 p.m. I used the dim-
mer switch to gradually darken the
room. I heard crew members comment,“It’s coming! It’s coming!” with a certain
degree of apprehension. However, once it
was fully dark, the crew quickly adjusted
and became at ease. They enjoyed seeing
sights like a string of lit passenger cars
winding its way through the mountains.
Some crew members suggested reduc-
ing the intensity of the LED flashlights,
because the glare off the white operating
paperwork was overwhelming for the
eyes. I remedied this by covering the
flashlight lenses with translucent red
paper, which greatly reduced the glare,
as you can see in ❽.
Having received positive feedback
from my crew, I will host more night
operating sessions. After that first ses-
sion, the crew all left feeling like they’d
truly worked all night on the V&W.Douglas Kirkpatrick is a frequent con-
tributor to Model Railroader and its spe-
cial issues. Subscribers can find a V&W
track plan at http://www.ModelRailroader.com.