I love Woodland Scenics. Great customer service, mostly quality products (some duds), little or no "special runs" - you don't have to buy something in fear that they don't have another production run. I'm also proud of their export success. All this leaves me rather at a loss as to their recently announced lighting system. The entry cost for just four lights is $30 - $50 if you need to buy their power supply. Excluding the power supply, for eight lights its $75 - this includes the need to buy an Expansion Hub. For 12 lights its $105 and for the maximum - sixteen lights - its $135. No Auxiliary switches or their proprietary extension cables included either. This works out to a minimum of $7.50 per light and a maximum of $9.38. I realize that I'm talking list price here for a product that is routinely discounted by merchants, but even so ... nor is the physical space required insignificant either. I've got over 200 lights on a layout of about 150 square feet and need more - this system would run me over $1,600 versus the about $350 that I've actually spent. Wish them the best, and maybe I'm missing something ...
I realize that - just wondering how many people will pay SO MUCH more for the shortcut. And I don't it as much of a shortcut. Getting the wire to the location, and putting hte light(s) in the building, is most of the work in my experience.
There are so many modelers who don't know how to solder even a simple light hookup, that I'm sure Woodland Scenics will sell a lot of these.
steamnut I realize that - just wondering how many people will pay SO MUCH more for the shortcut. And I don't it as much of a shortcut. Getting the wire to the location, and putting hte light(s) in the building, is most of the work in my experience.
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
Really? I expect that the cost to equip my layout with block detectors and operating signals will easily top $2000. That's not counting the computer running JMRI. And I would never pay that much for the WS lighting system, I can get hundreds of LEDs and resistors and switches and power supplies for less than the cost of their system for 16 lights. I wouldn;t say these two things are even slightly comparable.
Now, if you want to say the people who buy the $40 RTR version instead of the $10 kit version of the same box car - there you have something.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
If you can wire / solder / connect track you have the skills to add a lighting buss.
Jim
I would submit that you don't even have to know how to solder, to hook up low-voltage DC lights (not LEDs, I know). If you can strip wire, then you can twist two wires together and wrap some electrician's tape around it. Most power supplies have screw terminals so you can wrap your stripped end around the screw and tighten it down. That's how I did it when I was 8 and my parents wouldn't let me use a soldering iron, and it worked very well. If you can't even strip wire, its hard for me to see how you can set up track.
I thought it was overpriced too untill I found out all the controls are dimmers. The problem seems to be they are all dimmers whether needed or not, I am sure they will fix this and the cost will go down.
Does seem to be extreme overkill to make each one a dimmer. But, that is simpler to hook up than to keep trying various resistors to get the brightness you want, even if it is a more expensive solution, and more complex inside the box - to dim LEDs effectively you ened a PWM driver, so I assume for the price the want for each of those boxes, that dimmer is a simple PWM circuit, not just a potentiometer.
For more realistic lighting, what you really need are multiple small LEDs, and light blocks inside the buildings. For example, as evening falls, the light in the kitchen area of the hosue goes on and the family eats dinner. Then the light moves to the living room for reading and watching TV. Then an upstairs light goes on as the kids go to bed, finally the downstairs lights all go off and a upstairs light goes on. And then that light goes out until morning. 4-5 LEDS just for one house. Definitely not, at $10 each. For a buck or so each - absolutely.
My Plan is to place a string of Christmas LEDs under the Layout and drill holes where I need the light to shine though under the buildings. Solves 2 issues Lighting Building and the need for under layout lighting.
Joe Staten Island West
Everybody knows that LIONS buy spools of Christmas LIghts, 150 of about $19.00 of warm white side reflecting T-1 LEDs. About 12c each. The 1K 1/4W resistor costs 01.2c so call it 15c per light including wire and time. And LIONS enjoy putting LED arrays together.
Win Win... and low price too.
Go LIONS!
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I see this as an easy way to set up a Christmas village around the tree.
No one else makes anything like this, so it fills a market niche. Whether people will buy them is another story.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I know I'm late to the party but I'm finding the Just Plug lighting components at a 40% discount at a local retailer. The limit is one item per visit but that's a significant discount over list.