That Walther's Glow.......

[howmus]

This might have been fun a month ago when everyone was doing Halloween stuff on the layouts. I have a small office building made from the Walther's Three-in-one kit that I am retrofitting for lights. I have a 14v grain of wheat bulb wired through a 150ohm resister to drop the current draw from the 16v transformer. Last night I turned it on and it looked pretty good. Of course I had all the other lights on too so I was really just checking to see if the light indeed worked. Tonight I added a ConCor Train Crew (old boxcar) building with a couple of working 12v lights (one inside, one outside) wired in series to the layout. After checking to see that thye lights worked, I turned out all the loights to see what the effect was. The ConCor building looked great, But..... The Walther's building had this weird glow..... I have seen a thread at one of the forums here on this problem and some solutions to it, But I can't find it. The building in question is glued in place on the layout with a great deal of scenery preventing me from removing it to "cure" the problem. Any and all sugesstions would be welcome!

BTW, I also would like to add lights to the Walthers Roundhouse I am constructing also. Will this be a problem?

[dgwinup]

The sure cure is to remove the building and paint the interior black.

You can cut an access into the interior of the building from below the layout. Make it almost the size of the building. Then you can make some baffles to deflect the light inside the building.

You can reduce the power supplied to the light, or you could add more lights to the circuit, wiring them in series to cut the voltage further.

The real problem is that the light is probably too bright for the building. Cutting the voltage down would probably be the easiest solution.

Darrell, enlightened and quiet...for now

[Medina1128]

I use that cheap, er, inexpensive, power pack that came with the train set that got all this started. I use the variable DC to control the voltage. I also make sure that ALL of my lights are the same voltage and wire them ALL in parallel. If you wire them in parallel, it ensures that they all receive the same voltage, AND it makes troubleshooting a burned out bulb a lot easier. If you want to use fixed DC to power your lights, wire a resistor in series BEFORE the distribution block to drop the voltage down. This will make sure that the entire lighting circuit is the same voltage, as well. Make sure the resistor is of a high enough wattage for the circuit though. AND BE CAREFUL; IT WILL GET WARM WHEN IN USE. To calculate the wattage of your lighting circuit, multiply the source voltage times the current draw for each light bulb times the number of bulbs, i.e. 12 volts x 12 bulbs x 5 ma= .72 watts. A 1 watt resistor should be sufficient. Remember: the the key to realistic lighting in any scale is SUBTLE. Don't overpower your layout with lighting. There is an excellent DVD available from Model Railroader if you're a subscriber (you DO subscribe, don't you?) For more information, check out http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/006/183fcnmc.asp

[MisterBeasley]

If the roof isn't glued on, you could cut some black card stock to fit, and make inserts for the walls.

I've been systematically painting the inside of all building kits black before I assemble them. I had a Plasticville switch tower that was originally safety-yellow (now weathered gray) and it really had that Halloween glow to it.

Is this the thread you were looking for?

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40264

[rmbarry]

All plastic buildings that you intend to light up will act as a lamp shade and give off a slight glow unless you paint the interior black or use black card stock. If using card stock, make sure that the light fixture(s) are not near the card stock for safety purposes.

[howmus]

Thanks everyone! I will try reducing the current to the light first and see if that will bring the "glow" down to an acceptable level. Worst case scenario, I won't light that building. It is a Rural business in 1925 they didn't have Electricity back then anyway, so the light is from kerosine lamps. I will paint the walls of all new plastic buildings black or primer gray to prevent the problem..... The Roundhouse will be fun to paint as the base and walls are already glued in place and can't be taken out due to the hand laid tracks going in the building from the turntable. I also have started to decorate the inside with workbenches, tools, water barrels, oil barrels, etc. (glued down also....).

MisterBeasley, that was indeed the thread I had in mind. Thanks!

[howmus]

Just to let you know, I fixed the problem quite acceptably by changing out the 150 ohm resistor with a 470 ohm one. Now it is down to a faint glow within the building that looks much better. No more glowing walls...... I will be painting the walls of the Roundhouse to prevent glowing as the lighting in there will have to be brighter.

Thanks for your input

[wjstix]

Well pretty much any plastic building will 'glow' with a light in it. of it's left in the original unpainted plastic. You can paint the interior walls black...of course painting the interior walls black isn't a good idea if you're adding an interior!! Just as a matter of course I paint all my plastic buildings (before constructing the kits if possible), since I want my layout to be operable at night.

I often just use spray cans, start with primer gray inside and out then a decent brick color on the outside, then paint some bricks different shades of red and brown with a small brush, then weather it and seal it all in with flat finish. Finally add window glazing.

A lotta work compared to just building a kit "as is" but I think it's worth the extra work.

[Medina1128]

I use the same method that wjstix uses. If you're going to add an interior, you could prime the inside, then paint the walls off-white. Seems that most buildings use a light color on the interior walls, unless they're into that GOTH thing. [:o)]