NTS&B Outside platform lights

The outside platform is too narrow to actually put on any street lights or station roofs, but I still wanted some  lighting on it.  I found some soft brass tubing, and used it to make overhanging fixtures that are mounted under the upper level.  The tubing may be too soft though, because if you accidentally hit it when placing trains underneath it, it will bend out of shape.  I then took some bases from the Model Power 12-16 Volt Peel and Stick lights, and made fixtures from them.  Here are the results.

NTS&B Tinseltown platform to mainline platform lights installed

Up until this time, the poor passengers from the Tinseltown platform had to walk down 2 long flights of stairs in the dark to reach the main station platforms.  I decided it's time to add lights for their safety.  I added three 3 volt light poles in series, since they were using the same 12 volt supply that the Tinseltown platform is using.  Even though the voltage was correct, they were still to bright for my preference, so I added 1 diode and 10 Ohm resister to dim them down appropriately.  Here are the results.

NTS&B Bigville Platform Street Lights Added

I had installed lights over the Bigville platform and stairs under Bigville, but the poor passengers had to walk the from there to the main station platform covers in the dark.  I therefor added 3 street lights for their convenience and safety.  Since the Lionel street lights are much brighter than the wheat lamps used in the rest of the area and I am using only 1 AC power supply for both, I added a diode in series on the street lights to balance out the lighting.

View from under Bigville.

View from Tinseltown end.

NTS&B Remaining 2 station platform roofs designed, built, and installed

When I laid out the passenger yard, I had four removable platform bases that I had planned to cover with roofs.  Unfortunately, I had not planned on the subway entrances taking 2 of them.  Therefore, I had to make the remaining 2 roofs over the permanently installed platform. This required a different strategy for removal for maintenance.  Two of the vertical posts are glued into the platform. The post on the left is removable, and the horizontal piece holding the lights are glued to this post.  That makes it possible to remove the post and the lights in one piece.

NTS&B First 2 station platform roofs designed, built, and installed

Since the station platforms were so narrow, I had to make my own platform covers.  I had pre-planned for two, so the platforms were cut to the appropriate length.  This allowed me to build and light the structure on the bench, and then mount it to the layout.  The platforms are just laid on top of the plywood, with 2 pins used for alignment, so they can be easily removed for maintenance.  Here are a couple of pictures of one of them.

Structure before mounting.

Underside, showing alignment pins.

Platform in position.

Platform lit up and roof installed.

NTS&B Starting Passenger Area scenery with subway entrances

Jennifer bought me a really neat subway entrance for Christmas from Lowes a few years ago.  I liked it so much, I ended up buying four more to make stairways from the passenger platforms to the (fake) people tunnel underneath. Three were just the right width for my platforms. I had to cut some off the sides of other two using a table saw, since that platform was narrower.  I also removed the paper stands from the sides and added them to the front of each entrance.  I added lights and people and installed them in the appropriate areas.  Each pair is mounted (hot glued) on a lift out platform that is aligned by pins underneath that go into the plywood, for easy maintenance.  Here is what four of them look like.