So I've been thinking of making a set of these for a while.

If you go to Papa Ted's archive and look here.
Scroll down a bit.

https://cardboardchristmas.com/papateds/goldenage.html

You will see them.

From Ted's description. I don't think he was a fan.

A set was 8 houses that had a light bulb coming out of the top.
They would screw into a C6 light set.

This had 2 problems.

One, the light bulb inside each house got the house pretty hot. This would cause the cello window and doors to dry out and crack.

Two, the C6 light string was wired in series. So if one house's light bulb burnt out the whole set would go dark.

At this moment I'm drawing up patterns to repro the houses.
But also. I am using 12 V LED bulbs. The best part is no heat.
Plus they last a long time.

And also so I am masking my own C6 string. But it is wired in parallel.
So if for some reason if I lose 1 LED bulb the rest of the string will still light.

So here's my test house. Complete with an LED bulb inside.
More houses to come after Christmas. Once the busy part of Christmas calms down
Steve

I think you have captured the look precisely! And with the advances in electrical engineering since the originals were made (likely in the very cheapest way possible), your new set will be purely perfect. I am anxious to see them all aglow. Thanks for sharing pice of your project.

Steve...
I had a hunch you were working on a secret project...and now we all know...your repros are going to be hard to tell from the originals...I for one will be following your progress on this project for sure...I want to see them all when finished...and hope yoU will post some work in progress photos and details about the string of lights you are making...
Howard...

This project is so interesting - very nice work. I’ll be interested in seeing your finshed project.

Nice project to start the new year with!!

So here's a second house.
I had time between Christmas guests.
I'll have info on my low voltage C6'ish light string to power these.
Gotta put it together first.

Steve

I got 2 more houses patterned up and built and covered.
Still waiting on some supplies for my light string.

The LED's I'm using looks pretty nice. And with no heat.
Still need to make patterns for a few more. eight in total.

More to come.

Steve

where are you buying your LEDs?

Maria:

To answer your question.

It is a bit convoluted.

I needed long shank bulbs as the old houses had.

and then convert them to LED.

So here's the long shank bulb.
And Below is the LED bulb.
So my job is in electrical engineering.
The next step was not a big hurdle.

I removed the glass bulb form the incandescent long shank bulb.

then also removed the LED part of the LED bulb.
It was then installed into the long shank base.

A bit of work but I needed the long shank.

If you are just looking for the LED bulbs.
Do a search on eBay for " E10 LED Screw Base Indicator Bulb"

People seem to use E10 and C6 interchangeably.
Where C6 is referring to the bulb and E10 is the socket base.

I am using the 12V warm white version.

I'll have more info how I'm powering them soon.

I hope my explanation was not too confusing.

Steve

Incredible. I can't wait to see the finished result.

The short shank wouldn't work even if it was different from the vintage versions. And do you have a light string you are going to screw them into? Really impressive.

Lucy