Puffer advice

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

More puffer advice sought! My puffer is as she was in the 1950s. i am taking it that in the 1950s, all the lighting on a puffer including not just navigation lamps, but in wheelhouse etc, would be paraffin/ oil laps rather than electric?  if so, should I get flickering LEDS? Getting a bit ahead of myself here, no doubt!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

That’s an interesting point Alasdair. Lights in the house windows on the Rainbow Rock display on the other topic were flickering LEDs and meant to represent candles.

A dig around online on a railway modelling site and about oil lamps in general suggests that if properly trimmed they would give a very steady light which is what ships would need for navigation lights. For your puffer I would use warm white for the white lights and dim all of the LEDs down by running them at lower than the rated voltage. Many modellers make their navigation lights far too bright. In reality they are often quite dim and hard to make out against an illuminated coastline.

The wheelhouse would not be illuminated when under way as it would destroy the night vision of the lookout, there would just be dim lamps to illuminate the compass and charts.

While I don’t know the answer, I do wonder if a Puffer would normally sail at night given that they would likely be in confined, tricky or dangerous waters with limited shore navigation aids. Anybody know?

Colin

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I have read an extremely interesting book that tells the story, in their own words, of a couple of coastal steamer captains of around the first half of the 20th Century.  They certainly steamed at night even though, as you say, navigational aids were limited.  To the point of causing accidents.

I would suggest that the 1950s were pretty much in an era of change where there were probably still plenty of smaller and older ships not changed over to electric lighting.  Having said that, I believe that in the early days of DC powered lights there probably wasn’t a great deal to choose between oil lamps and early electric lamps.  As you say I think flickering is probably not realistic as the lamps were well shielded internally and the flames adjusted to give a consistent light.

Interestingly many underestimate the effect of the lens in ship’s lamps.  All ship’s lamps are designed such that the glass is actually a powerful lens designed to magnify the effect of the lamp.  When the regs all changed in the 1980s and copper ship’s lamps were all replaced by plastic ones, the ship I was on went through the process.  We found ourselves with a full set of copper ship’s lamps in the engine room workshop to be scrapped.  Not surprisingly the Captain had first choice, then the Chief etc. so by the time it got down to the Fourth Engineer there were only a couple of badly battered lamps left.  I picked the best of them, which was the stern anchor lamp, in a sorry state as it had spent it’s life sat on a post down the back end rattling about with the vibrating effects of the propeller.  I had to solder a new base into it and do a few more repairs but was very pleased with it when I took it home.  The intention was to put a small bulb into it and leave it on the floor in the lounge.  The trouble was, even with a small bulb, the light was surprisingly bright and overpowering.  Consequently it got a plant out in it!  It made me realise what a powerful lens the glass is.  It also made me realise just how critical it was to have the bulb in the exact centre of the lens otherwise the lens didn’t work.

Anyway the challenge with many LEDs is that they tend to be too bright and the wrong colour for either early electric lights or oil lamps.  The Ben Ain is fitted with 12V grain of wheat bulbs but with 7.2V applied.  I don’t even know if you can still get grain of wheat bulbs.  If using LEDs you really want a warm white colour and, as Colin suggests, adjust the brightness with the appropriate resistor.  I wired my lighting in three individually switched circuits.  One for navigation lights, one for internal lights and one for a desk lamp on the bridge chart table.

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

Many thanks Richard and Colin. Yes, I think that the lights would all have been paraffin or oil, but from what you say, I will avoid flickeing bulbs and go for warm white! The puffers would sometimes have been out in the dark, at least in the winter when sailing longer trips such as to islands such as Tiree or Barra, though I suspect the skippers would have avoided night sailing where possible.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I have found that if you use a 12v LED you can run it on a much lower voltage without a resistor. Yes, you can still buy grain of wheat and the smaller grain of rice bulbs and I have used them. By running them at much lower than their rated voltage they will last a lot longer which is important if they are ‘built in’ to the model. LEDs are best for longevity but the light output is directional whereas a grain of wheat/rice bulb is all round incandescent and gives a better effect. As always, these things are a trade off, but realistically model boats don’t run with their lights on much of the time.

It is discussions like these on forums that I value as we all learn something along the way.

Colin

 

[Len Morris 2Participant @lenmorris2]

The small LEDs I used on my Puffer came from “www.brightcomponents.co.uk” part number LED-0402-PW and are warm white.  They are only the size of a pin head and easily pass through a 1mm hole.  I found them to be slightly directional.  Under an eyeglass  they turned out to be surface mount LEDs with one wire folded back to run parallel with the other.  How the wires were soldered to the LED is an amazing example of micro skills.

Colin is right about diming 12 volt LEDs.  I have a couple of domestic jobs where the brightness is controlled through a simple variable resistance.  I’ve also found that where the rated voltage of the LED falls it becomes much more difficult to achieve a controllable effect.

Ashley advised that bright on the workbench dims quite a bit on the water.

Len. 🙂

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Absolutely Len, this is an example of where that type of LED is sometimes about the only chance you have of retro fitting lighting to a model but you must be aware of exactly where the diode is.  In this case the LED had to be pointing in the right direction as well as being at precisely the right height to put it bang in the middle of the lamp lens.

Then of course the lamp has to be positioned perfectly as the edge of the opening should be 20 degrees aft of the beam.

Interestingly this installation was an experiment to test out the possibilities of using a railway lighting product in a model boat and while, in this instance way more space was required than we would normally want to use, but it is a completely plug and play system that uses variable resistors to control the brightness of all the lights.  The last picture is everything turned up full, which is not how I normally set the lights.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I dug out the book I mentioned above:

Old Time Steam Coasting by O.G. Spargo (Author) and Thomas H. Thomason (Author)

For anyone having any sort of interest in steam coasters during the first half of the 20th Century it is a fantastic read and you get to learn so much more from these first hand experiences than you would do from any other technical or factual book.  Highly recommended.

[Stephen GarradParticipant @stephengarrad28964]

I’ll second that book recommendation, an extremely good read. There’s a copy on ABE Books at £15 at the moment.

Stephen

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

[Alasdair AllanParticipant @alasdairallan37423]

My Caldercraft puffer kit comes with the pictured mast foot.  However, someone who knows about puffers assures me that they all had folding masts which folded on a tabernacle with the aid of a locking pin.  The kit advises to use the pictured mast foot with a piece of dowel in it.  I don’t really need the mast to fold, but would be good to get it looking realistic.  Not convinced the part in the kit does that, but happy to be reassured/ corrected!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I am sure ihave said it before, but…

Dim lights are invisible on the boat if it’s a nice day.

I think you either want the correct “scale” glow, or want them to be able to be switched on and seen during the day. Perhaps ideally a switch to swap resistors over before sailing would allow the lights to be either correctly dim, or extra bright for daytime sailing?

I put quite bright led on a couple of the bumper tops(headlights) but found that the stick-on diamanté type plastic jewels are actually more effective on a nice day in providing that sparkle up front.

I like the anchor question. Every larger vessel had one, along with the winch that was appropriate. But of course nobody bothered to make notes as to the execution, as it was always” as we normally do it” and therefore invisible…if you know what I mean. Taken for granted. Perhaps…like rigging on a man of war..” rigged as current practice” I believe was the phrase. Shipyard would rig as was the custom, and likely not to a strict diagram?

Ashley

 

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