Lighting Your Layout for Dummies

[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.

[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]

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.

[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................

[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 

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

 

[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]

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.

 

[kenmar1]

Being a newbie to posting to the forums I am not sure if this is the right place for this, so I apologize in advance if it isn't.  Terminal strips were brought up for lighting, so here goes. 

Using terminal strips is a very good way to keep things neat and orderly, make changes and troubleshoot.  Terminal strips and terminal boards can be made very easily and cheaply in any size using a few simple materials.  We use a two terminal strip at track connections, lighting connections directly under a building, etc.  Switch machines use larger strips or small panels depending on number of connections needed, and so on.  These would be placed right next to the track feeders or switch machine or whatever on the underside of the layout.  We also use large panels in central spots around the layout to gather all these connections for connections to other central panels, power supplies, control stations, etc.

Cut 1/8" perforated  hard tempered Masonite (pegboard) into strips or panels to the desired size.  Insert a #8-32 x 1" flathead machine screw through a #8 flat washer, then through the hole from the back side of the masonite, another washer, then a nut.  A second nut would then be used for securing  wires.  Each wire  is terminated using a ring terminal which are available in various sizes from 22AWG up.  Using ring terminals eliminates the possibility of wires coming loose.  I purchase them  in boxes of 50 or 100 depending on size for around $7 a box at Home Depot, etc.   Spools of wire are cheap there  too, ranging from 18AWG to 12 AWG.  For wires smaller than 22 AWG simply strip twice the length of the terminal barrel and fold the wire over before inserting into the ring terminal.  For a two terminal strip cut your strip with 4 holes, two for the terminal and two to mount to the layout, a three terminal strip would have 5 holes, etc..  Always add two holes to any strip for mounting in addition to the number of terminals needed. A panel would use four mounting holes in the corners.   A large panel may need more mounting holes.  Be sure to label each terminal.

What really works well is to run your wires from the terminal strip at the track feeder,switch machine, light etc. to area panels.  To keep things neat, work your wires into bundles from the various strips to the panels.  In making the area panels, we use any number of rows and columns of terminals as needed leaving a blank row between each row of screw terminals to provide space for wire.  Allocate sections of the panel for track, signaling, lighting etc. Allocate a row or two as needed at the bottom of each section for the common connections where a row of terminals is tied together.  Always label each wire at each end.  Use a computer database such as microsoft works to keep track what wire goes where.

There is a little more work involved with this method but the results are worth it

 

[Anonymous]

LOL.

Like they say, there's a prototype for everything.

Mike T.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

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

You've never seen my mother's coffee table, have you? Round, glass top three feet across, lit from beneath. It's truly a sight to behold.

[Anonymous]

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

[jbinkley60]

I've been involved in industrial electronics and wiring and hobby wiring for years. A close friend of mine is an electronics engineer, and I still am weak in my understanding of electrical basics, until now. Seamonster, you should write the Electricals for Dummy Hobbiest Book. You are a genuis.

Thank you for the compliment.  Now, how am I going to get this swelled head of mine through the door to get out of the room?

I've been working on getting my foot high enough to kick myself in the back of the head.  Until I can get that limber my wife does it for me.

 

[Seamonster]

I've been involved in industrial electronics and wiring and hobby wiring for years. A close friend of mine is an electronics engineer, and I still am weak in my understanding of electrical basics, until now. Seamonster, you should write the Electricals for Dummy Hobbiest Book. You are a genuis.

Thank you for the compliment.  Now, how am I going to get this swelled head of mine through the door to get out of the room?

 

[Johnnny_reb]

Here's a great little item to power layout lighting with. An AT type computer power supply. I got this one new for $10. Used ones can be had for next to nothing.

 

Jeff you got me to thinking so I did some number crunching.

http://cs.trains.com/forums/1406348/ShowPost.aspx

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Here's a great little item to power layout lighting with. An AT type computer power supply. I got this one new for $10. Used ones can be had for next to nothing.

 

[Flashwave]

I know ot the ways of the crossing, but It seems to me that one can use the old DC controllers that pile up from trainsets, and use the AC side (the side not used to hook up to the track) You can dim houses with this, providing you're not trying to powwer a small town with 1

[Seamonster]

You're right, the resistance of the jumpers isn't much of a concern, but if you want to be extra sure, then use the same size wire as the ones coming from the power supply, but not smaller than #20.  I didn't mention the commercial metal jumpers as they are not that easy to find, but if you can get them, use them.  Easier and neater.  Just make sure they're the right size for your terminal strip.

I use dowels to hold my structure lighting as jbinkley60 does.  I use a thin wood dowel, tape the bulb to the top of it by the wires with the bulb above the dowel, tape the wires down the dowel, insert it up through a hole just big enough to let the bulb and dowel pass through and when I have it positioned right, secure it with a little wooden wedge jammed in between the dowel and the hole.  Just make sure to leave enough slack in the wires so that you can fully extract the dowel without having to detach the wires.  I've even used this method with longer dowels for second floor lighting.

One thing I've done with my structure lighting is to divide it up into a number of branch circuits and I built an electronic sequencer to turn each branch on and off at different rates.  One branch is always on and one is manually controlled.  Street lighting, once I find some street lights which I like, is on a separate manually-controlled branch.

Nice night shots jbinkley60 and CofGaMike.  I haven't tried to get any night shots of my town yet.  Should do that.  I'll add it to the list of things to do if I can ever find the bottom end of that list!

 

[tcf511]

Thanks, I was trying to describe those earlier but couldn't remember the term. I've bookmarked that URL.

[tcf511]

Thanks Ralph. I belong to the Potomac Module Crew but most of them don't light their modules, at least at shows. I like the flex track idea. It sounds easy enough to do and I have tons of flex track. I use the Anderson Power Poles as many of the N trakers are starting to do. I may experiment with several ideas but this is that I will probably give a shot.

[searp63]

Perfect, that's what we electrically challenged need more of. Great PIctures!!!

[searp63]

I've been involved in industrial electronics and wiring and hobby wiring for years. A close friend of mine is an electronics engineer, and I still am weak in my understanding of electrical basics, until now. Seamonster, you should write the Electricals for Dummy Hobbiest Book. You are a genuis.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That's an idea, using a piece of flex-track as a terminal strip. If you're on a tight budget it would be quite pratical. I may just use that idea myself.

[THE.RR]

http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=B_3

Try one of the top 2 for the lights.  2 heavier guage supply wires into the posts on the bottom.  Individual lights or buildings go to the pairs of terminals.  No jumpers needed, they are built in. 

 

[Phoebe Vet]

Ralph:

Flex track is easier and cheaper than wire?

Did you mean to post this two days ago?