| Station lighting hours Posted by Zoe at 14:57, 19th May 2025 |     |
About 20 years or so ago, when travelling on the Night Riviera most stations had their lights switched off when passing through in the early hours of the morning but recently I noticed that all stations now seen to be lit (although many towns now switch off street lights overnight). Is everywhere now lit through the night or is lighting triggered by the approach of trains?
| Re: Station lighting hours Posted by Mark A at 16:28, 19th May 2025 | |
Some are certainly motion activated. St Erth is one such. It's not a favourite feature of mine, though a couple of tweaks in the implementation would improve it i.e. a five second ramp when they switch on and a 30 second ramp when they go down.
Mark
| Re: Station lighting hours Posted by broadgage at 22:02, 19th May 2025 | |
Some are certainly motion activated. St Erth is one such. It's not a favourite feature of mine, though a couple of tweaks in the implementation would improve it i.e. a five second ramp when they switch on and a 30 second ramp when they go down.
Mark
Mark
This would only work with LED lighting, and then only if the lights are specified as being dimmable.
Sodium or metal halide lamps cant realistically be dimmed, fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps can only be dimmed at considerable cost and complication. Incandescent lamps are readily dimmable but little used on account of energy wasted.
| Re: Station lighting hours Posted by Electric train at 06:52, 20th May 2025 | |
About 20 years or so ago, when travelling on the Night Riviera most stations had their lights switched off when passing through in the early hours of the morning but recently I noticed that all stations now seen to be lit (although many towns now switch off street lights overnight). Is everywhere now lit through the night or is lighting triggered by the approach of trains?
For a TOC to switch all the platform lights off they need to close the station with locked gates, the TOC has a legal responsibility regarding safety and security of station users (fare paying or not).
The issue with dimmed platform lights which are motion activated is a passing train triggers the full power mode
| Re: Station lighting hours Posted by Zoe at 12:50, 20th May 2025 | |
For a TOC to switch all the platform lights off they need to close the station with locked gates, the TOC has a legal responsibility regarding safety and security of station users (fare paying or not).
Has this always been a requirement? When I did an overnight trip in 2002, the FGW (only intercity back then) stations were lit, Wessex were dark and Thames were lit. This was before councils started switching off street lights overnight though so although I could not see the Wessex stations we passed through, I was still able to work out where we were.| Re: Station lighting hours Posted by Mark A at 08:45, 21st May 2025 | |
This thread reminded me of this photo of Avoncliff from 2022. Well lit, well directed light, could still perhaps have specified 3000 or 2500K, it'd be interesting to know if warmer light makes LED lighting less of a magnet for the insects we increasingly do not have. Perhaps a ramped dimming on a motion sensor for the many hours of darkness when no one is present on the platforms - or perhaps just rather less intensity overall as that light level is... generous.
Mark
https://i.postimg.cc/K8hH7Js7/avoncliff-august-22-1600.jpg
