Lighting Your Layout for Dummies

[Seamonster]

Since we're talking about house lighting, I'll bring up my number one pet peeve - lights in a building located on the floor.

How many people gather around a big 2' round light bulb in the middle of their living room floor?

Seriously, it looks so unrealistic as to be comical. I go to great lengths to locate  lights in a building so they look right. That means mounting ceiling lights from the room ABOVE the lighted room. Or to the side so they look like table lamps, etc.

Off my soap box...

Mike Tennent

After watching those home renovation and designer programs on TV I've come to the conclusion that anything goes in home decor.  That said, I position my lights on their little sticks high in the room so that the light comes from near the ceiling.  Since I don't detail the interiors, the windows aren't wide open to see through (curtains, blinds, frosting) so you can't see the stick anyway.  I do have some large industrial buildings which I made with removable roofs, and those have lights fastened to their ceilings or their beams.  If you're going to detail your interiors, then you have to get creative with placing and hiding the lights and hiding the wires, but I model in N scale and I can't be bothered making teeny weeny furniture.  However, I did make a round end table with a lamp on it once just for the heck of it.  It has a stick on the bottom of it and it went up through a hole in the layout.  Worked out not too bad.

 

[Anonymous]

Bob,

I'm in N scale, too. Thankfully all we have to do is suggest the furniture and the eye fills in the details.

I lighted a gas station and had to add a desk and stuff to the front office area. But it didn't need any real detail to work.

In the Hercules industrial buildings I posted pics of, I had to put something inside them, so I just got creative with various pieces of styrene, sprues, odd shapes, etc and painted them a variety of colors. They have absolutely no resemblance to anything that is actually in the buildings, but they are quite convincing in N scale.

Mike T.

[Seamonster]

Bob,

I'm in N scale, too. Thankfully all we have to do is suggest the furniture and the eye fills in the details.

I lighted a gas station and had to add a desk and stuff to the front office area. But it didn't need any real detail to work.

In the Hercules industrial buildings I posted pics of, I had to put something inside them, so I just got creative with various pieces of styrene, sprues, odd shapes, etc and painted them a variety of colors. They have absolutely no resemblance to anything that is actually in the buildings, but they are quite convincing in N scale.

Mike T.

Yeah, chalk up another advantage to N scale!

 

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

Tim

First off don't feel like your stupid for not understanding basic wiring 101. It's a lot more intimidating then it looks. First off you get yourself an old DC power supply as your power source for your lighting, Then invest in a couple of power strips or terminal blocks form Micro Engineering or even Radio Shack. You mentioned your railroad is modular so I would invest in 2 per module to keep it simple. One for positive and one for negative. You extend the leads on the grain of wheat bulbs or what ever lamps your using by simply soldering longer wires to the end of each lead the same way you wired your power drops for your track wiring. I advise you use heat shrink tubing on all your connections rather then electrical tape. It's cleaner and lasts forever. If you want to take simple a step farther two color wires. Red for positive, black for negative. Wire one lead from each buss to the respective terminals on the power supply, which are always clearly marked. Then you attach the leads from each building to each of the respective terminal strips and your done. If you want to get slick you can install a mini toggle switch in the facia to turn lights on and off in each individual building. Remember that the basic school of thought is that the interior of your building should be painted flat black or some non-opaque color to prevent light from bleeding through your structure walls.

Trust me when I say that if you can build a module and an entire railroad to NMRA standards you can wire the lighting no sweat. Don't worry about amperage, resistors, diodes etc. you are doing the absolute basic in electrical. The only thing simpler is plugging in your Christmas tree.

[tcf511]

Thanks. After all of the feedback, that is pretty much going to be my approach. Terminal strips and a power supply for either each module or sometimes a set of two when they are related to each other through scenery. I was letting all the talk of resistors, milli-amps and parallel versus serial throw me. I'll keep it simple as you suggest. I like the heat shrink suggestion too.

[Pruitt]

Just for the heck of it, here's a shot of my lit Coaling Tower:

I use 14 volt Miniatronics bulbs to light the track areas. What you can't see are the 1.5V bulbs (much dimmer) in the coal unloading bay and at the man door at the top of the stairs on the hoistway (out of the picture at the top).

The structure is powered at the moment by an old train set power pack.

This is the only structure lit at the moment - it's the only one even semi-permanently placed on the layout! My nearby station is also rigged for lighting, but is not connected as yet.

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

What I've seen done but not really sure if it's that great of an idea or not is this. I visited this guys home layout not too far form where I live and he used Christmas tree lights for lighting his HO layout. He separated the string and where he didn't require a lamp cut it out of the string and soldered the wires together. He drilled holes under his structures and pushed the lights up through the holes and used if memory serves me correctly a putty of some sort to fill in the hole and hold the wire in place.

 

I kind of scratched my head a little and didn't question his methods. It did simplify things a lot no wiring, no terminal strips, no power supply to contend with but I was wondering if the lights being 110volts might get too hot and start melting his structures or at best warping them.

I've used the KISS method I described to you for years and years and have never had a problem. I did how ever design, build and install a lighting system for another friends layout which was entirely run by his computer, using LED lamps. He wanted to go fiber optic but I told him that would have driven the cost way up. Even though I know the system I built works well and is reliable I still use the old method on my layout.

[BlueHillsCPR]

I kind of scratched my head a little and didn't question his methods. It did simplify things a lot no wiring, no terminal strips, no power supply to contend with but I was wondering if the lights being 110volts might get too hot and start melting his structures or at best warping them.

You were right to scratch your head.  120 volt AC lighting has no place on the layout.  Room lighting sure but the layout should be low voltage only, IMO.

Also removing lights from a typical string of Christmas tree lights can mean the remaining lights are getting more current than they should be, resulting in more heat and shorter bulb lifespan.

Just my 

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Hi Tim,

Give this site a try as well    http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/CircuitIndex.html

Hope this gives you a positive start on your projects.

Johnboy out................

[tcf511]

Most of that was over my head but they did have a pre-assembled grade crossing circuit that might help me out. Thanks, I bookmarked the page.

[cudaken]

 Tim, It is simple, not pretty but works. Transformer is a cheap Life Like. I used the variable power supply side that would normal run the engine. That way I can control the brightness of the lights. Switches in the center has, nothing to do with the lighting. Power strips are on the left. Total cost not counting the bulbs is around $30.00. I have 4 sections of lights done this way. 

  

 More than likely to late, did not feel like reading all 4 pages. My eyes started to glaze over after 2 of them.

 

                           Cuda Ken

[tcf511]

Thanks CudaKen. Actually, I think it was a very useful thread for me and several others. Lot of good ideas. As in the case of so many things. There is no one right way. I'll incorporate several of the ideas that people mentioned.