If I'm seeing this correctly, I ran across several of these type of fixtures working in the old movie theaters out here in California a few years ago. The hanging portions are plastic tubes prewired with either 12VAC or 24VAC (have seen both) mini lamps at three, six, or twelve inch intervals. If I recall correctly, they were made by a company called Tivoli who made much of the accent and isle lighting back in the day (most of the new stuff is made by Tiempo, located out here in Irvine, CA).
Most of my experience with these has been removing them, as service is difficult and costly for the customer, and they tend to pick up alot of dust and filth over time. This service would require nightmare-ish tracing of each tubes lead wires that would terminate into a horrifying cluster of black and white pasta above the ceiling line, and then reinstalling a new tube with equal joy. The customer would usually opt for simply removing the entire cluster when it finally and inevetably started looking tacky...very dirty job.
If I'm not seeing this correctly, then nevermind =)
-S
[This message has been edited by Zapped (edited 02-15-2003).]