Model Railroading > Aaron Heine Electronics RB1 Stratolite

By far, one of the coolest things to ever hit the hobby!  

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Just very hard to get a hold of.  I really want to get a couple of his beacons but it is hard to do.  I believe I am on his list.

Rick

I'm on the fence with these.  The effect of this prototype beacon looked like a few lights were going on on certain sides.   They never really appeared to be rotating, as they are here.    The BN/Metra E9's had more of the rotating look with their older style rotating beacons.

It's a dead-on match for a prototype Prime 8911 Stratolite I have in my collection. That unit has 4 incandescent lamps that sequence in a clockwise pattern to simulate a rotating beacon. Very nice.

By the way, Ngineering sells a small lighting effects module to do this. However, it is up to the buyer to solder 4 micro LEDs into a ring pattern, then mount them into a 3rd party Stratolite model (not provided). Many may find the assembly process rather challenging.

All the best.
Bob

That is very nice. Is the prototype a single bulb with a rotating mirror behind it??...like some of the older
police cars with a "gumball machine" on the roof?
Frank 30

Frank30 Wrote:
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> That is very nice. Is the prototype a single bulb
> with a rotating mirror behind it??...like some of
> the older
> police cars with a "gumball machine" on the roof?
> Frank 30

No. What you are describing sounds like the Western Cullen style of warning beacon. The Stratolites used multiple fixed lamps, that turned on and off in a sequence.

Posted from Android

Thanks for sharing. I have bought a few of these.So far I installed 1 on a GATX SD40-2 lease unit. Its a great effect.

                                             Regards, Dave Dane

                                          

Fizzboy7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm on the fence with these.  The effect of this
> prototype beacon looked like a few lights were
> going on on certain sides.   They never really
> appeared to be rotating, as they are here.  
>  The BN/Metra E9's had more of the rotating look
> with their older style rotating beacons.

The Stratolite has no moving parts. The lamps light up in sequence to mimic a rotating beacon.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fizzboy7 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'm on the fence with these.  The effect of
> this
> > prototype beacon looked like a few lights were
> > going on on certain sides.   They never really
> > appeared to be rotating, as they are here.  
> >  The BN/Metra E9's had more of the rotating
> look
> > with their older style rotating beacons.
>
> The Stratolite has no moving parts. The lamps
> light up in sequence to mimic a rotating beacon.

But the effect in real life never really gave it a rotating look.   They always looked like one side was lighting up at a time, the rotation was disconnected, or lights were burned out on some sides.   That would be the wanted effect here, but it looks more like the beacon is indeed rotating.   Possibly one way to achieve the "disjointed" look would be by toning down the brightness of each side bulb so there is less rotational flow.