hello folks some of you may remember the sinclair antennas i presented some time ago. i recently had a discussion with a train buddy covering sources and solutions of working ditch lights in n-scale. seems like only miniatures-by-eric is producing housings. another company sells completely assembled and working ditch lights. quite expensive but at least available (they're based on m-b-e casings). now i consider doing some housings on my own. etched from brass, stainless steel or nickel silver. not sure yet. a rectangular box 1.2mm x 1mm, 0.9mm thick. opening of 0.8mm diameter. there's enough room in the back to fit a 1x0.8mm smd led and still leave some space for wires. i will not go into more details as of now. just wondering if there's a market for ditch light housings. it will cost me approx $1500 before i have a first prototype available. just don't want to spend big bucks if there are no/not enough buyers out there. please let me know what you think about it. oh, anyone in need of sinclair antennas ? need to sell approx 300 more to have my costs covered....
There is a market for ditchlights. As to specific designs and how many of each one could sell that is a whole other subject. I can personally visualize about 6 different designs that were installed on various roads and locos. Most variations that I can think of were retro-fit installations.
Sandro, wouldn't you be better using a non conductor for the casting? That way you wouldn't have to insulate the LEDs from the housing...
I dont model modern era, so I have no need for ditch lights as I model the 70's. However, if I was to model modern diesel era, yes I would DEFINITELY feel that this would be a necessity. I dont know though about making them fully working ditch lights though or not. Maybe you could make some type of casting for them and sell the electronics seperately. That way if someone is tight with $$$ they could just simply put the casting on with a "jewel" to represent the light without having to break the bank to get ditch lights. Does that make sense?
jim i thought of that as well. using plastic avoids short circuits. but due to the density of the plastic and the molding process it is extremely difficult, to produce perfect housings in n-scale. (one of the reasons i don't like the ones from miniatures-by-eric.) etching housings is easier and produces very high quality. the etching company i worked with is able to etch as fine as 0.005mm .... but then the led's need to be insulated. that's why i left some room around the led. a single layer of tamiya masking tape (or kelron tape) should easily work. george, producing different types of ditch-lights is just a matter of money. assume $1500 per type of ditch-light. spending 9 grands for all six versions you mentioned is beyond my possibilities. further assume $5 per pair... you'd need to sell 1800 pairs just to have the costs covered. this is out of reach for me.
I eventually plan to have working ditchlights installed on all of my locomotives. How and when that will happen are totally up in the air at this point. So I definitely think I would be interested in something that is in the ballpark of BN/ATSF/BNSF and/or UP standard-issue. Honestly I haven't researched it that much to know what the diff's are, but I don't think I'd be that picky about it at a $5 price point as long as they have the right "look". I'd probably pay $10+ for a closer-to-proto and LED-friendlier version, and $20+ for a "drill a few holes and solder a few wires" kit.
$5/pair is a very low price for a ready to mount and solder ditch light. We have customers that would need enough to equip about 300 locos. Remember, most locos need 2 pair. Some are mounted on the "deck" and some below. Some have square housings, some rounded. Some have a domed "lens" others almost flat. No matter what design is done there will be people tearing it apart because it isn't the one used on their road.
I'm not into the super detailing part of the hobby yet, plus most of the engines I run already have ditch lights on them, Kato AC4400's, SD90's, C449W's and SD70's make up most of my fleet. It sounds like they will be an interesting product Sandro!
george, i'm talking about the housings only ! i do not consider selling working ditchlights, ready to install. there already is a company selling finished ditch lights. i find the price a bit steep and the housings don't look too good. http://store.sbs4dcc.com/sbs4dccnscaleditchlight-porchpilotmount-warmwhiteled.aspx
Sandro, I'm interested in the ditch light housings. I need to outfit a dozen engines. I also need to order more Sinclairs (yours are amazing).
http://www.nscale.net/forums/showthread.php?14814-N-scale-ditch-lights http://www.nscale.net/forums/showthread.php?22759-Ditch-Lights&highlight=ditch+lights Sign me up too, I have a few locos in need of ditch lights.
too modern for me, but there is 1 GP40-2 that I want to model that has them....there are people that want SP nose lights also
kinda ironic as i write this the radio is playing arlo gunthries city of new orleans anyways sandro how much are your sinclairs in both lengths and what would the shipping be to area code 98251 as i might be interested in several packs in a couple of weeks thanks take care
look kind of crappy like those better need some for my tri-rail post #45 in link below http://www.nscale.net/forums/showthread.php?14814-N-scale-ditch-lights/page3
As much as I would like to help out, I would have too many locomotives and not enough time. I might try a couple of dozen, but that would be about it. Sinclair Antennas, maybe a whole lot more than that!
People who want this kind of detail may also want fairly proto-specific housings, so this makes selling adequate nos. of units a problem. I like the resin castings that come with the Kaslo cabs as appropriate for CN/CP/BCOL; however, you have to prepaint them silver to cut out light shine-through, then paint them the appropriate colour. They are also easy to drill out front and back and have good detail compared with the MBE ones. The lack of metal prevents any shorting issue. The problem is getting ahold of John Whitmore to produce anything, the Kaslo kit line has been pretty spotty in the last few years. I believe he has high and low porch mount as well as various pilot mount ditch light housings; getting him to produce these as a separate item could be a way to get at least the Canadian style (after all, who invented them in the first place?). How about that as an alternative? Richard.
