Plasticville Lighting Help Needed

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I will try the Christmas lights... great idea!!

[wrmcclellan]

I also use old Christmas lights. I take the 100 light strings (actually two 50 light strings each on 110 volts) which use 110/50 = 2.2 volts per bulb.

5 bulbs in series require 11-12 volts AC - which is the level I run one of my layout accessory feeds.

Bulbs are small and relatively low heat.

Regards,
Roy

[brianel027]

Yep, Spanky's got the idea. Though you should note that the differing lengths of CHRISTmas lights use bulbs with different volages. The longer sets with 50 or more bulbs tend to use bulbs that have a 2.5-3.5 volt range. I've seen shorter lengths at dollar stores around the holidays that are 10-12 bulbs long and use 5-7volt bulbs.

It all depends on what kind of source you use to power the lights. Some of the newer transformers, like the little cheapie K-Line one (that are often seen cheap on eBay) start at a zero setting and are easy to adjust for lower voltage bulbs. It you use the accessory posts on a Lionel (or others) transformer, the fixed settings vary and are often a little higher, therefore you would need to use a higher voltage bulb, or wire the bulbs in series to bring down the current going to each bulb. Though when lighting buildings and accessories, it is usually a little easier to wire them normally in parallel as it takes less planning and altering of wiring as you go along.

Bear in mind also that the Plastiville buildings are in molded plastic color and not painted, therefore you will have some "pumpkin glow" though the plastic of the buildings. On a "toy" train style layout, this effect is usually not minded. If you are going for a more real look, you'll either have to prime the insides of the buildings with black or gray paint or use other brands of buildings that are painted or are made with thicker plastic, like some of the Lionel buildings, the Buildings Unlimited kits or some of the newer K-Lineville building kits which have the outsides painted... you may still get some glow on those, but not as much.

If your buildings are the very original Plasticville stuff made in the 1940's-1950's you probably won't want to mess with them too much. But if they are beaters, used, already glued together (and common) or the newer issued ones, I wouldn't worry about painting them as it's not likely they will soon be worth that much more money to make not doing it worthwhile. I repaint all my buildings starting with a primer inside and out and then do the outsides, so the glow through is not an issue. And I love kitbashing them too... I in the past have found plenty of beaters that suit that purpose just fine.

Also bear in mind with the computer age now, you can get pretty clever making your own window inserts to show shadows or silhouettes of curtains, blinds, furniture or people. And with buildings like factories or industrial types, using colored bulbs can enhance the effect of a hot furnace or welding (using several blinking bulbs - I find they hardly ever flash at the same exact pace which helps create the effect) or neon lights (using blue or green bulbs).

[spankybird]

There are several ways of adding lights to your houses. I went the economical way.

I bought Christmas tree lights (25 per string) and cut them, wired them in parallel to each other and have them to a 6 volt output on my accessory output on my transformer.







hope this helps
tom

[Anonymous]

Looking for ways to use lighting in old Plasticville houses and structures without damaging the buildings.

Any success stories out there?