Does anyone have a source for close to scale lamposts? The Lionel ones are way to big and i havn't seen the railking ones in person but from what i can tell they are to big too.

Thanks but I think they only have HO-S scale lamps unless i missed something.

Brawa has some HO scale lampposts (> 80 mm height) that will work in O scale. Check out http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/.

Eric,

Check these out http://users.adelphia.net/~bweisman/jasonspolesite_003.htm
I've only seen photos of layouts with them, but not in real life. I think they look great, especially the bottom ones. Another option would be Plasticville if you don't care if they light up or not.

-Glenn

The best lamp posts and street lights come from aristo-craft(not the G-gauge maker)

Aristo-Craft sold these in the 50s and 60s but if you look on eBay they usually show up 4 to a box. There are eight different types of lamps for O &S gauge, from florescent to incandescent, but in certain applications you can use the HO versions.

I use these everywhere.

In many cases, the HO scale lamps from Walthers work and look great. I also use some Lemax streetlights and they, too, look great. I fully agree Lionel and MTH are way too big! Try www.TownCountryHobbies.com

When looking for stuff like lampposts, don't discount the HO department. I've used HO and even N scale Model Power lights. I use N scale for architectural lighting. Just cut the base off the bottom, drill a hole and drop the whole thing down until the lamp sets on the ground. I've also used HO boulevard lamps and added the next size diameter piece of K&S brass tubing to the bottom to make them a little taller. Walthers makes some really nice looking HO lights. They make a light that's supposed to be for the side of a building that if you scale it, it's actually about an 8 foot light. That makes about a 4 foot light in O gauge. I used a couple on the side of an industrial building to light the side of the building. You could also use it over top the entrance door or to light up a sign on the side of the building. They look a lot better in O gauge than they do in HO.

A couple years ago, I made some parking lot lights by bending a piece of K&S aluminum tubing in the shape of a shephards crook, added the next telescoping size of tubing to the bottom, glued them together with Super Jet, added some more Super Jet where the two tubes come together, filed the Super Jet in a taper and then painted it all black. I used Plastruct lamp shades and strung the wires of a grain of wheat bulb down throught the tubing. I'll try to get some pics when I get home from a mini-vacation.

I agree that Lionel lights are too big, especially if you're trying to keep to 1/4" scale. Some of the MTH lighting looks pretty good, but Model Power makes a lot of the same lights in plastic, at a fraction of the cost for MTH's metal ones.

For old fashioned street lights I am using lights from Carole Town. These are sold at Christmas time, for Christmas scenes. The street lights come with a little red bow that I remove. They make a few different styles. They also have flashing cross bucks and operating traffic lights. I have seen some of these same pieces sold by some of the train companies at 2 or 3 times as much money. The Carole Town pieces are quite inexpensive.

Is not the Carole Town items the Lowe's Christmas building line?

I purchased mine at Lowe's and at one of the craft stores in the aria. I don't remember the name of the craft store right now.

Keil Line makes very nice lamp posts & telephone poles. They are scale-sized and very detailed. I purchased mine from Walthers. They come in a kit with a wooden dowel for the pole and white-metal castings for the lampshade, crosbars, transformers, etc. They also come with grain-of-rice bulbs and resistors. You can put them together in many different configurations and you must paint & weather them yourself. When I bought mine (about 2003) they were $8.50 each.

I installed four of them on a 2ft by 4ft module, and over the last several years of banging the module around, three of the four bulbs had blown. Recently I pulled all of the light poles from the module and upgraded them to LED lighting.

Over the years I have used a few hundred street lamps from Town and Country Hobbies as listed in a post above! Good folks and very easy to use. Russ

The CT line is Lowe's Christmas building line, and I think it is mad by the same people who make Dept. 56. (Lemax?)

Also, the Sears line I do know is made by Lemax, also!

The lights I use is from JoAnn's, when they go on sale.

It is the heart of tropical storm season down here in Houston, so the Christmas stuff will be out soon!