How do you light buildings and scenes?

[gdelmoro]

I’m almost ready to start building the benchwork. I need to plan for the electrical components and wiring runs.

With respect to lighting buildings, streets, yards etc. do you wire them the traditional way (a bus with feeders) or do you use “MRC Light Genie”, “Woodland Scenics Just plug” or another system?

[nealknows]

The two companies you mention have limitations. I use (depending on what I am lighting up) wall warts to light up signals, vehicles and buildings. Usually everything I have uses 9-12V DC so those wall warts work just fine. I use them for my lighted LED vehicles, signals (both LED and bulb) as well as buildings that have LED's, circuits of other 12V DC bulbs. Then I run a line to a terminal strip and then to other areas where I need power. Since I have many LED's I get a 9V 5AMP wall wart (On Amazon or EBay) to light them up. I also use the 12V DC 5AMP wall wart to power my LED light strips in my staging yard.

Good luck!

Neal

[tstage]

For interior & exterior wiring I've used a power bus with feeders operated at 8-9V.  However, I've been comtemplating other options so that I can have control over individual lighting - e.g. rooms in homes, porch lights, etc.  Street lighting is also powered by a bus but I "roll my own" street lamps.

Tom

[peahrens]

I have interior building and yard lights, all LED.  The LEDs are 3mm, 5mm or the strip SMD LEDs that can be cut into threes.  I have three 1A regulated 12v DC (Miniatronics) walwarts powering them.  Of course each LED has its necessary resistor.  Each circuit has a 3/4A fuse and a panel mounted SPST switch.  I run the juice to barrier strips mounted under the layout so connect each item to a barrier strip, so no under table soldering and makes disconnecting and reconnecting easy.  I keep a listing of what I add to each circuit to ensure that the load stays within the 3/4A limit of the fuse. 

Some folks use a single, larger power supply, perhaps both more economic and more reliable.  

[RR_Mel]

I do my own thing on my layout.  I use home run wiring from each structure back to my control panel.  I connect each structure in my control panel for how I want it to power up.  That way I can easily change the lighting of each structure later.

 

It’s a lot of wiring but I’m one that is constantly changing things around and it works great for me.  I do use buss type wiring for street lighting.  For the last couple of years I’ve been cutting over to Arduino Random Lighting Controllers for my residential lighting and I use flat ribbon cable for that lighting.

 

I buy telephone frame wire in 1000’ spools, it comes in several gauges.  I normally go with #24 gauge wire because in general the lighting current is normally pretty low (500ma).  The wire comes in single pair, two pair and three pair.  I use three conductor #20 bell wire for my Atlas turnout machines (1.5 amp rating).

 

I buy most of my wire off eBay, the three conductor bell wire is available at big box hardware stores.

 

I also use individual two conductor #19 bell wire for track power also home runs from each block back to my control panel.  #19 solid is rated at 1.8 amps and good enough for two locomotives, I never have more than two locomotives in a block at a time so #19 works great for me.  The max voltage drop I’ve measured to the track is less than .6 volts.

 

To parallel the wiring in my control panel I use Buss bars.  I parallel all of my 1½ volt vehicle headlights in my control panel.

 

 

 

 

 

I use individule switches to control my lighting.

 

  

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[UNCLEBUTCH]

 I run a sepreate bus, from a MRC transfromer,and drop feeders from each building as needed

[MisterBeasley]

I have two bus runs, one for buildings and one for streetlights.  I drive both from a 12 vdc supply through a pair of switches on the control panel.  I use 16 volt incandescent bulbs, giving me more of a glow than LEDs, more appropriate for my era.

The power supply has a fuse in case I either overload it or short the wires.  These are simple supplies with no breakers.

Be aware when lighting structures from the inside that they will glow like the Chernobyl Valley Railroad.  I usually make simple interiors and line the walls with computer texture printouts to prevent light leakage through the walls and out the corners.  It looks much better than lighting up a hollow building, too.

[gdelmoro]

Thats how I did my previnous layout (with bus wire and feeders). For this layout I’m interested in better control (on-off-dim-flash) of individual buildings or scenes And wig-wag flashing for crossings, flashing for fire trucks only when active etc.

Maybe I need to only use Adrino or other system in specific places and stay with the standard for the bulk of the layout.

Thanks for the posts.