Lighting off the buss wires

[tomikawaTT]

Powering fixed structure lamps (or LEDs) off the locomotive power busses is like washing your stoop with bottled designer water - it will work, but there are less expensive alternatives.

Thanks to a yard sale addicted sister I have a hatful of Bachmann and Life-Like toy train power packs, which will be used, one per town, to light structures and street lamps.  For my biggest town, I have a 3 amp 12.6V filament transformer that cost me less than a RIX switch machine (connected on the AC side with the remains of a cheap extension cord, and housed in a used freezer container for safety.)  All of the 120VAC cords will plug into a circuit breaker equipped power bar (or, more likely, two) which in turn plug into the master layout AC circuit (which is switched off when not in use.)

IMHO, the only lights that should receive DCC power are those installed in locomotives and other rolling stock.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[cacole]

 You COULD run lights off of the DCC bus wiring, buy why would you want to?  Depending on your DCC system, you may overload it with too much lighting and cause operational problems with your locomotives.

A much better alternative is to use a separate power supply for lights.  Using a DC power pack would even give you to option of controlling the brightness.

[tstage]

Allegheny,

I would agree with TZ and Jeffrey.  Use an old power pack and a separate bus to power the lights around your layout.

I actually prefer operating my lighting from the DC terminals of a power pack rather than the AC terminals.  With DC, I can "dial down" the voltage and operate the lighting at 60-70% power.  This looks more realistic - PLUS the bulbs last much longer this way.  You also don't have to deal with resistors.  The key is to use higher voltage bulbs (e.g. 12V, 14V, 16V) rather than lower voltage (1.5V or 3V).

I also like to run separate bus lines for my indoor and outdoor lighting.  Although the outdoor lighting can usually be connected to just one switch, I like to have separate switches for my indoor lighting so that I can turn individual room, building, or structure lighting off or on separately and in different combinations.  This can especially help create different "moods" for you layout.

Hope that helps...

Tom

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Why would you want to run structure lights off your DCC power? It's far easier to power them with an old computer power supply. I use one from an old 486 AT computer I got back in 1995. It can pull far more lights and accessories than my Zephyr could ever dream of pulling.

[Texas Zepher]

Allegheny2-6-6-6

Can I connect structure, yard lights etc.to the main buss wires, if so do I need to run resistors

1.  Yes you can run structure lighting off a DCC bus.
2.  Whether resistors are needed depends on the voltage on the DCC bus and the voltage needed by the lighting.   If they match voltage then no resistors are needed.  If they don't match then they do. 
3.  Why would you want to do this?!?  DCC power is very expensive compared to simple AC or DC power that can be obtained from simple wall warts, old toy train power packs, etc. There is only a limited number of amps of DCC power available to locomotives before one has to add boosters. Why waste it on accessories?

[Allegheny2-6-6-6]

 Can I connect structure, yard lights etc.to the main buss wires, if so do I need to run resistors