Track Billboards

One broken leg and three months in a wheel chair.

"I got better"

Thanks, S

Well, if a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, then I'm dangerous when it comes to electroluminescent (EL) wire -- 'cause that's what I've got, a little knowledge!

Have I used it myself?  Yes, but I don't know that ordering up a made-to-measure, pre-soldered, plug-n-play kit qualifies as "experience."

It is cool, though; when lit, it looks like a little flexible neon tube!  And in fact, it's been used in scale for just that purpose by many modelers.

The wire is a solid core coated in phosphorous, with a thin filament wire running along it inside a translucent insulation jacket.  The power flowing through the wire and down the filament causes the phosphorous to glow uniformly along the entire length of the wire.  The color of the insulation jacket is what gives it its color, as the wire itself emits a whitish glow.  The solid core has to be connected to one pole of the power source (mine used a 9v battery), and the filament to the other. Because you only have to connect one end, you can cut the rest to length and the segment connected to the power will still glow.  It's purely for show; it won't carry power like a conventional wire (though you can run it alongside a conventional wire to lend such an appearance).

I have had to repair some of the pre-soldered connections, and it's not the easiest thing to work with.  Soldering the solid core wire is pretty straightforward, but the filament wire is a challenge and I was only halfway successful at it.

I haven't yet used the "tailed" wire, which resembles piping or welting used in upholstery, but it seems to me that the "tail" coudl be clamped to the track with a Tyco guardrail clamp and function as a lighted guardrail.  You can also get EL "ribbon," which as its name suggests is a wide, flat strip that lights up.  There's even EL sheet, typically known ot hobbyists under the brand-name "Lightsheet," that can be used to back-light things like scale marquees, signs and even scale soda machines (probably best in 1:24 and larger, though).  If you want to get really complicated, there are even sequencers that can be used to "animate" EL sheet signs.  I have no idea how to do any of that, but I've seen some model RR signs and it sure looks cool!

I should order myself a sample of the tailed EL wire and see if I can make it work.  Gotta pay for the decal-making supplies I just ordered first, though.