Talk to me about Layout lighting

[7j43k]

Fading is caused by UV, not IR.  That, and maybe cheap dyes.

 

Ed

[RR_Mel]

I will start out with my experience with layout lighting.  I learned everything the hard way.

 

When I started construction for my layout in our two car garage.  The garage interior was totally finished with textured walls, popcorn ceiling and carpeted floor.  The house was the show house for the development and sales office.

 

I removed the carpet as the house was ten years old and the previous owners had been parking their cars on the carpet for ten years.

 

I wanted plenty of light and went with five dual tube eight foot fluorescent fixtures.  Plenty of light but fluorescent lighting fades the scenery very fast, I had to re-flock my scenery three times over twenty years.  The green flocking would be almost colorless in twelve years.  I had learned on earlier layouts that incandescent light was bad at fading so I went with fluorescent.

 

Earlier this year I cutover to LED lighting, they say that LEDs do not fade colors, no UV from LEDs.  I still have plenty of light without any fading as well as reducing the Ready Kilowatt costs.  This summer I spent a lot of time re-flocking my layout for the last time . . . . I hope.

 

I redid the entire house with LED lighting and cut our electric bill by some major bucks, I figure the LED lighting will pay for its self in less then three years.  As for the garage the fluorescent bulbs didn’t last very long before they were dim or flickering and the cost of the bulbs was going up quickly.  I figure the garage LEDs have already paid for themselves in less than a year, I rarely got more than two years from a eight foot fluorescent bulb and at our big box store they are $7 each and 10 eight foot LED bulbs from Amazon was $130 free S&H.

 

As far as I’m concerned LEDs are the only way to go, more light for less money and no fading.

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

    I would not recommend fluorescent lights. They are old fashion. The tubes and the ballasts both are hazardous waste and it is against the law now to throw them in the trash. Lately I have been replacing them in my house and other people’s houses with LED fixtures.
    If you are building a valance to hide the lights then LED is a good way to go. If you are leaving it open then you might consider track lights hung over the aisles. You can aim them at scenes you want to highlight and adjust them as you wish since they are directional.

[BNSF UP and others modeler]

Why not buy RGB ones while you are at it? They can double for night time/sunset themes as well as layout lighting and only cost around $10 on ebay for 16 feet lengths, power supply and remote included. And they ship from the US too...

[Onewolf]

I am using (double) 2835 cool white LED strips to light the lower two levels of my layout.  At the time (2015) the 2835 LEDs had the best lumen/watt efficiency compard to the 5630/5050/3528 LED strips. I'm not sure if that's still the case.  See this link for more info/photos:  http://onewolf.org/Album/LayoutConstruction/2015/index.html#IMG_3110.JPG

 

[gary233]

Getting ready to start installing backround and lighting.  What do you recommend and why? Fluorescent, Hallogen, LED’s, Strips, tubes, receptacles?

All perspectives welcome.