Proper lighting for layout room

[Anonymous]

My layout is in the bonus room of our house, which is located above the garage, and the 'walls' are made up mostly of the ceiling, which follows the slant of the roof (aka the room is shaped like this....
__
/ \
/ |______|

I have only one light fixture in the room, which is a single bulb 100 watt fixture. The room was prewired with a light switch and a separate fan switch, so I thought what I could do would be replace the single bulb fixture with two 4 foot, 2 tube flourescent fixtures (thus a total of 8 feet) along the horizontal top of the ceiling (which is only about 3 feet wide, but runs the length of the room) and then use the 'fan' switch to control separate lighting over the layout. I'll probably have to snake alot of wires through the ceiling to make it work, but I have an electrician friend who can help with that.

My question is.... should I go with track lighting or recessed "eyeball" lighting (eyeball type recessed lights have a 30 degree tilt that you can aim the light)? Which would be easier to install, and which would give me better layout lighting? When I'm working on the layout, I'll probably just use the overhead flourescents, but when I have company over, or when I'm actually running trains, I want the more natural 'sunlit' look of incandescent bulbs over the layout. And also, is it worth the trouble to do both flourescent and the overhead layout lighting? Who else has done something like this?

[hminky]

I use the screw-in flourescents and have a web article on my directional lighting:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/4x8/lighting/

Thank you if you visit
Harold

[MisterBeasley]

Track lighting will probably be easier to install. You can run a single track the length of the room, if you want, and power it from a single line at one end. You then have the ability to add lights up to the rating of the track. Eyeball or cannister lighting is a lot more work, and requires a power run to each unit. You can control them all from the same switch, of course, if you want to.

Track lighting is also easier to aim, if that's a concern.

I like incandescent lights over flourescent because I can put a dimmer on them and adjust the light level to whatever I want. Flourescents, though, are far more efficient and give off more light and less heat for an equivalent wattage bulb.

[tcf511]

I just signed the guest book at the pacific coast website. What a great place! I certainly bookmarked it. I think it is really neat that there are so many people willing to share their knowledge on websites like that. I'm working on my first layout so I'm hardly in a position to teach others but I will post photos of my progress on a website along with any lessons learned the hard way. Thanks for going to the effort.

[hminky]

Thanks tcf511 for visiting my website. That is what makes the internet so wonderful. Ideas can be exchanged easily. I can write articles and put them on the internet for people to see. Getting published is very difficult, your article has to sell Walther's crap. There are several forums that have construction threads and good information, one is:

http://www.2guyzandsumtrains.com/index.php

If you are a beginner seek out forums with construction threads two other good forums are:

http://www.railroad-line.com/
http://www.all-model-railroading.co.uk/forums/

Harold

P.S. I have been published in the March 2005 RMC:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/fur_grass/