Best Way to Light the Inside of a Building

[CP Railfan]

I am in the process of builiding a new layout. Several of my buildings will be lit. Can someone suggest a good way to light the interior of a building? I have thought about using LEDs, but I am not sure which LEDs would work best and how to wire them. I model in N scale, so the lights need to be small.

[richg1998]

Actually there is no best way. Whatever works for you. I would recommend you put light blocks (walls) or you will be able to see completely through the building. Lamp placement should be where the light source is not seen.

Some people frost the windows so you see the building is lit but you cannot see inside. 

Miniatronics has very small light bulbs that would work for N gauge.  

Do a search using Google or Yahoo, say for "lighting model railroad buildings". 

 

Rich 

[MisterBeasley]

LEDs are nice for small buildings, because they don't give off much heat and won't melt or burn anything.  They also draw very little current.  (Yeah, the low current draw and low heat are related.)

But, cheap LEDs aren't the color you want for buildings.  They are a bluish-white, and you really want more of a yellow color.  Yes, you can get Golden Whites like many of us use for engine headlights, but they will cost more.

Also, LEDs are very directional, light headlights.  The light mostly comes out in a beam, rather than an nice uniform sphere.  For a building, you might want to mount them on the floor and use a white ceiling to "bounce" the light around.

[richg1998]

Another LED idea I just found. Go to eBay and search for 260088189446. This guy is selling "inverted cone" LEDs for model railroad buildings. They are the white type that give off a 360 degree light. The light has a bluish tint though.  Maybe you can search for a "warm white or yellowish" of this type. I like the 360 and I am going search the 'Net and see if I can find any. I would prefer using LEDs. This is the first time I have heard of inverted cone LEDs. Possibly there is a different term used.

 

Rich 

[cacole]

Two good sources of LEDs that can be used to illuminate the insides of buildings are SuperBright LEDs and More LEDs.  More LEDs also has the inverted cone type.

http://www.superbrightleds.com

http://www.moreleds.com

 

[richg1998]

It is amazing what you can find with a little searching. I found those also.

 

Rich 

[engineerjoey]

CP,

I was able to brightly light a 3 story building, from the top all the way down with a single grain of wheat bulb. This was accomplished by cutting large holes in the floors and placing sections of a light panel over each hole. I cut the sections to size with shears.

I got the flouresent light fixture panel free from Lowes. It was cracked and one corner was smashed, but I'll never use it all anyway.

The little prisms moulded into the clear plastic panel refract light a thousand ways, making the all 11 windows and other openings sparkle quite nicely.

Another thing I've learned to use is alligator clips. The "grain of wheat" bulbs I use come in two packs from Radio Shack for about $1.75. They have two bare wires coming out of the glass. I mount them on the inside of the roof of a structure. To power them I use the smallest alligator clips, also from Radio Shack. I make up a length of 22 gauge bell wire and put the clips on each end. One pair clips onto the bulb anodes and the other pair to the power source.

This works for me, but I'm sure others will chime in with equally good methods. 

 

 

 

[tstage]

Nice pictures, Kyle!

CP,

Although I understand that LEDs have the advantage of little heat loss and rarely needing changing (if ever), I actually prefer incandescent bulbs to illuminate my layout interior and exteriors because I can use a power pack to instantly adjust the lighting intensity - which also has the advantage of increasing bulb life.  Incandescent bulbs also give off a much warmer and more diffuse light.  I make the roofs of my building detachable so that lighting changes are less of an ordeal.

Tom 

[loathar]

Thanks for that More LEDs link! WOW!

Kyle-That grandfather clock looks cool! Where'd you get it?

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I use The small clear Xmas lights. Now, after you've picked yourself up off the floor where you've been rolling in laughter, I'll tell you how I do it. I get the cheap 35 light strings that can be found at places like Dollar Tree. One string is a dollar. I break the string up into pairs of two lights each, with the lights connected in series in each pair. Six volts is enough to light them quite well. I put a pair of bulbs in each structure (the windows are frosted btw, for a better look). Each structure is connected to a parallel circuit beneath the layout wihch goes back to an old AT computer power supply. I've run as many as 90 bulbs at one time in this fashion without the power supply even turning a hair. With each bulb getting only 2.5 to 3 volts they last an incredibly long time. I have lights on my layout that have been burning 24/7/365 for almost 10 years now. The power supply can also be used to power other things. Since it has two main output voltages (12v and 5.5v) the possibilities are endless.

[Mark R.]

You can easily diffuse the light emitted from an LED buy roughing up the surface with some sandpaper. When purchasing LEDs for interior lights, get the highest mcd. rating you can find - 1000 to 2000 are really bright, and when sanded, act very similar to a bulb. My city scene alone has over 125 LEDs .... If I used that many bulbs, I'd need more than one supply to handle them !!!

Mark. 

 

[engineerjoey]

Thanks for that More LEDs link! WOW!

Kyle-That grandfather clock looks cool! Where'd you get it?

I was railfanning in Durrand MI. There is an old fashioned BEN FRANKLIN store there, with worn wood floors and everything. It was run by mom and pop, who kept it spotless. The grandfather clocks were discounted 2 for a dollar. Don't ask me what they are for... dollhouses? I'm sure they are not HO, but I found a use for them anyway.

 

Thanks for the kind words, all...