Discussion of making replica headlights for two D&RGW K-37 2-8-2s on display at Antonito. Concern that applying originals would only see them stolen. Some good ideas for making presentable fakes presented here:

http://www.ngdiscussion.net/cgi-bin/NGDF.pl?read=27766
ryarger@rypn.org

I have used the stainles steel cooking bowls in a sheetrock mud bucket trick. You can make decent stage lights from coffee cans and porcelain sockets too.

BTW, anybody out there have a source for the convex front lenses for Pyle National headlights? Bernie and Strasburg don't make them and out of ideas.

Dave

Hows about the folks that make stage lighting ... they make some neat spotlights that just might match what a headlight beam sould be ?


http://www.altmanltg.com/prod.htm
lamontdc@adelphia.net

No GE, different configuration. Stage lights use Fresnel, PC or step lenses rather than the thin convex exterior / concave interior headlight lens.

I think the headlight lens was more for protecting the reflector which did most of the focusing of the beam than for actually directing the light.

There might be some architectural stuff out there somebody might know about I haven't been able to locate yet. Almost everybody I know has gone to flat glass, including the railroads in the later years, just trying to do a better restoration job.

Dave

Ah So: Interurban headlights feature all three, Plain glass (scribed for planned breakage), exterior plane fresnel and interior plane fresnel. Sure would be nice to find the replacements for "golden glow", I like them better than sealed beam and ge13031 would look better!

lamontdc@adelphia.net

I wonder if we couldn't find a friendly glassblower somewhere who would heat and soften a piece and shape it into a mold?

Dave

> I wonder if we couldn't find a friendly
> glassblower somewhere who would heat and
> soften a piece and shape it into a mold?

> Dave
-----------------
If you don't mind using polycarbonate, you can vacuume form your own, using your oven to warm the plastic, and a good vacuum cleaner for suction. You make a wood mold conforming to the shape you want, and drill many many holes in it. The base of the wood mold has a "manifold" usually also made of wood to connect all the holes to a common chamber to which the vacuum cleaner is connected.
The local glass shop around here does this procedure all the time.
Mark D.

mnmach@lakes.com

> I wonder if we couldn't find a friendly
> glassblower somewhere who would heat and
> soften a piece and shape it into a mold?

> Dave

Unfortunately it has to be tempered (pyrex) glass.
Then again maybe we could convince one of the glass dish manufacturers they need to make a pan cover of a certain size and we would be in business.

Polycarbonate sounds like a good alternative if it would hold up to the heat ?


lamontdc@adelphia.net

> Unfortunately it has to be tempered (pyrex)
> glass.

It does? Am I the only one out here using a sheet of flat window glass successfully?

> Polycarbonate sounds like a good alternative
> if it would hold up to the heat ?

Don't know but it sounds like it is worth a try to me.

Dave

> It does? Am I the only one out here using a
> sheet of flat window glass successfully?

> Don't know but it sounds like it is worth a
> try to me.

> Dave

If I consider that my stuff has never been in real service ... rain, snow & sleet etc. ... I bow to your experience with plain glass, its good to know. Replacing the sheet metal parts is much easier.

lamontdc@adelphia.net

> If I consider that my stuff has never been
> in real service ... rain, snow & sleet
> etc. ... I bow to your experience with plain
> glass, its good to know. Replacing the sheet
> metal parts is much easier.
----------------------------------------------
Lexan is a trade brand of polycarbonate. This material will soften if hot enough, but I doubt a locomotive headlight will get hot enough to do that. I could be wrong. The upside of Lexan is that other than succumbing to excessive heat, and not being as scratch resistant as glass, it is nearly indestructable from a vandals point of view. It can also be bent in a brake, cold, and machines easily. There is one thing to be cautious of when trying to warm it and form it. If too much heat is applied, it can develope bubbles that will not go away. I believe this is from gasses separating from the material.
However, in quantities of the size needed for a headlight lense it is also not especially expensive, so you can try and fail a couple of times and not be out much other than time.
Mark D.

Golden Glow was a brand name, I think it had something to do with the golden tone the light had, in part due to the reflecting material. Anyway, when I was last out in Dayton looking around, many of the older junkyards had trolley buses with Golden Glows, some included the lenses and reflectors. That was perhaps 15 years ago now. There was not enough cash in my wallet at the time to gather all the parts up.

> Golden Glow was a brand name

The rear reflector is a heavy silvered glass and I think irreplaceable ... I'll keep mine inside safe (i hope) from some jerk with a rock.

lamontdc@adelphia.net

> The rear reflector is a heavy silvered glass
> and I think irreplaceable ... I'll keep mine
> inside safe (i hope) from some jerk with a
> rock.

It is the glass used by the "Golden Glow" headlights that gives them the distictive color. The glass has a yellow (goldish color) and the reflective plating is silver. I have been told that the color is caused by one of the rare earths.

Brian Norden

bnorden49@earthlink.net

"Golden Glow" was the trademarked name used by the Electric Service Supply Co. of Philadelphia, for its line of headlights. While I suspect they primarily made electric railway items, they also produced steam railroad headlights--- the New Haven's steam power carried cast metal ESSCo. "Golden Glow" headlights.

The "Golden Glow" name has come to mean any reflector/single bulb headlight arrangement, whether made by Pyle, Sunbeam, ESSCo, etc. Sort of like "Kleenex" or "Xerox".

hpincus@mindspring.com