Our story
From 160 Glow to Thraxel: the same crew under a bigger name
Thraxel did not appear out of nowhere. It grew out of 160 Glow, a Christmas light hanging outfit that worked driveways and rooflines across Western Pennsylvania every November. The crew never changed. The name and the calendar did.
Where it started
160 Glow put up Christmas lights across Western Pennsylvania one season at a time. Ladders came out in November, houses went dark again in January, and the work was seasonal by definition. That was the whole business for a while, and it was a good one.
The name referenced the region we worked, and the glow part was self-explanatory. Homeowners in Armstrong County and the towns around it came to know the crew by that name before Thraxel ever existed on a sign or a shirt.
Word of mouth built that business more than advertising did. A neighbor saw a roofline lit clean and even, asked who did it, and called the same crew the following November. That pattern repeated street by street across the towns on the daily route long before the company had a second service to offer.
Why the name changed
Christmas lighting is still part of what we do, but it stopped being the only part once permanent lighting entered the picture. A system that stays on a house year-round and runs Halloween, July 4th and game day scenes does not fit under a name built around one holiday.
Thraxel is the name for the wider company: permanent lighting, the traditional Christmas program that started it all, and landscape lighting for patios, docks, trees and firepits. One name that covers what the crew actually does now.
There was also a practical reason. Commercial clients booking restaurant, hotel and office park lighting were not looking for a seasonal Christmas hanger, and a name built around one holiday made that conversation harder than it needed to be. Thraxel reads as a lighting company first, which is what the business had already become.
What stayed exactly the same
The people did not change. The brothers who ran 160 Glow, AJ, Tyson and Camden, run Thraxel. The install crews who hung lights across Western PA every winter are the same crews on the ladder today, whichever service is on the schedule.
So did the base. Thraxel is still based in Kittanning, on the Allegheny River in Armstrong County, about 45 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Every 16xxx ZIP code is still on the daily route, the way it always was under the old name.
The seasonal Christmas program itself did not get diluted by the rebrand either. It kept the same design-then-render process, the same costumed install crew, and the same in-season repair promise that built the original reputation. Growing the company did not mean shrinking the part that started it.
- Same brothers, same install crews
- Same Kittanning home base
- Same commitment to the Christmas program that started it
What is new under Thraxel
Permanent lighting is the biggest addition. RGBWW pixels behind color-matched track put 16 million colors and a true 2700K warm white on a roofline year-round, controlled from an app instead of a ladder, and it has passed every HOA review Thraxel has been through.
Landscape lighting is the other piece: trees, path lighting, pool decks, docks, fence lines and building facades, run on astronomical timers that adjust with the seasons on their own. Commercial clients now book the same system at a larger scale, from restaurants to office parks.
Railbike and rail-tourism lighting is a newer addition on top of that, running since the 2025 season with rail operators who need track and trestle lighting, operator training, and marketing photography and video alongside the install itself. None of that existed under the old name.
Why the name still matters to us
A rebrand can feel like a company distancing itself from where it came from. This one is the opposite. Thraxel exists because 160 Glow customers kept asking for more than a December service, and the answer was to build it rather than turn the question down.
We still tell the 160 Glow story on purpose. It explains why the Christmas program at thraxel.com/christmas/ is as buttoned-up as it is: it is the oldest part of the business, refined over years of actual Western PA winters, not a service bolted on afterward.
It also keeps the company honest about its own limits. Thraxel does not claim decades of history it does not have, and does not pretend permanent lighting was the founding idea when it clearly grew out of a Christmas light hanging business built one roofline at a time.
See both eras in one visit
A homeowner can still book the exact seasonal Christmas service that made 160 Glow's name, or start with permanent lighting and add the seasonal scenes into an app instead of a storage bin. Most people ask about both once they are on the phone with Tyson.
Either path starts the same way it always has: a free on-site consultation. Reach the crew at hq@thraxel.com, or read how the two options actually compare at thraxel.com/blog/permanent-vs-seasonal-christmas-lights/ before you call.
There is no wrong door into the company. Someone who grew up seeing 160 Glow trucks on their street can call Thraxel today and get the same crew, working under a name that finally matches everything they do.
It is worth asking, since the answer decides more than which service to book. A homeowner deciding between a one-month display and a system that runs all year is really deciding how much of the year they want their house to look finished after dark, and that is a question worth talking through before either render gets built.
