Ghost Train, Shorewood

15th April 2018

A prominent pedestrian and cycle bridge in Shorewood, Wisconsin has been transformed with a nightly light show reminiscent of the very first high speed luxury train that originally travelled along it.

The bridge is lit with Color Kinetics fixtures, with show control from a Pharos LPC X and audio processor
The Ghost Train show starts with the sounds of crossing bells and crossing “signals” blinking on top of the bridge towers. The top rail of the bridge glows with the approaching headlight, along with the mournful sounds of the approaching train
To suggest the movement of the train engine and cars crossing the bridge, a continuous row of very narrow-beam LED’s located along the bottom bridge arch wash up and graze the side of the bridge
There are 312 programmable 12″ segments, which are sequenced to move from side to side in blocks of the train’s original yellow and green colors, suggesting the passenger cars
“Rivets” of 3200 programmable pixels along the top rail move at the same speed to suggest the passage of the headlight, windows and taillight
Sound effects were edited to realistically move and echo with the visual passage, through eight speakers and four 8kw amplifiers
The main show lasts under a minute. At other times there are 26 different artistic-themed lighting routines that each last 3-4 minutes, randomly shuffled to offer a continuously-changing dynamic colorplay of light and kinetic movement on the bridge
Read more about the Ghost Train on our blog