Structure / layout lighting options ... ?

[Anonymous]

before i start my layout, im trying to figure out how i want to light it. i want a lot of lighting (e.g. several lights in most stuctures, street lamps, neons, chase lights, etc.) to increase realism.

im trying to plan for long-term efficiency and usage. As far as structure lights go, seems to me that the miniature bulbs (e.g. grain of wheat, tiny bulbs w/ bases, etc.) would tend to burn out after a while, especially if you do a lot of night and day sequences. I was thinking fiber optics might be best b/c i would think changing bulbs affixed inside structure would be really difficuly and tedious (and expensive)after the structure was attached to the layout. same goes for street lamps.

but with fiber optics, I could permenately set up lights like i wanted, run the optics underneath the layout, and then just use normal house bulbs to power the optics. this way frequent replacements would be cheap and easy to perform.

i know that with some applications (e.g. neons, chase lights, animations, etc.) I might have no choice but to use mini-bulbs, but it seems that it would be better to avoid them whereever possible--would be better in the long run I would think.

any thoughts? have any of you used fiber optics on your layout?

Thanks in advance
Chad

[Anonymous]

also, another benefit would be that if i used normal house bulbs i could use a totally separate power source, and separate lighting from track/DCC power. Seems like this would actually simplify things a bit...

[Anonymous]

Chad,

If you're really into fiber optics then I guess your plan is pretty good. I'm not sure how expensive fibers are when compared to wire. Also, you don't get quite the same effect with fiber optics because they are somewhat directional I believe.

Two observations: you can increase the life of bulbs by adding a dropping resistor or wiring two bulbs in series. This also dims the output which actually helps things appear scale, although unless you dim the room lighting you may have trouble noticing the lights at all. Second, you should have an independent power source for lighting whenever you consider using the numbers of lights you are implying in your post. I believe most accessory lighting is connected to the AC (accessory) terminals on your power supply which also drives the switch machines on most layouts. It would seem easy to overload a power pack under these conditions. BTW. I recommend using a Capacitor Discharge unit whenever you have more than a few twin coil switch machines.

Just my two cents. Good Luck - Ed

[ronsmith]

Chad,
Ed is right about using a separate power source for lighting. I have two for my refinery and I also run the 12V lights at about 10Vs to extend there life. I also us a light with a plug in blub so I can replace them without havine todestroy a structure to replace a burnt out light as I had to do using the 12V lights with leads attached. Build your own power supply with a control for the voltage.
Ron, Garland, TX

[Anonymous]

Chad, here is a thaught. If you use DC you can
dim the lights down. This will extend the life
of your bulbs and might give better lighting than
fiber optics. This is just a suggestion. Ross

[Anonymous]

Hi Ed
Could you be more specific on the capasitor? Size etc.
Thanks
James H.

[Anonymous]

James,

The CD circuit is fairly simple. I recommend the one in 'Easy to Build Electronic Projects for Model Railroaders' by Peter Thorne. His circuit requires only five components. On p. 42 a picture of the circuit shows a 3300 micro Farad capacitor rated at 25 v.

Good Luck. Ed