Advice on room lighting

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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I started a thread on the Layouts and layout building forum, but I figured I’d post here too for additional comments.

I’m preparing a corner of my basement for a permanent layout. The area I have is 9x17 (walls on 3 sides), layout will be island type, around 8x15. The ceiling is broken up by a 4’ wide soffit, so I basically have 3 ceiling sections - 9’x9.5’, 9’x4’, and 9’x3.5’. I’m having trouble deciding what type of lighting to use. The ceiling height is 7.5’, with only 6.5’ under the soffit area. I’m cocnerned about the area under the soffit - if I don’t put any lighting there that area will be dark. If I put lights under the soffit, it may be brighter since it will be 1’ closer to the layout.

Any suggestions on how to light this? I’d like to stay away from cans and could go flourescent or track lighting. With track lighting I could mount a track on the side of the soffit with lights aimed under the soffit to light that area. However being so low I’m concerned about a ending up with a spotty effect and shadows. Here’s a few crude images showing possible track location or flourescent location (2x 40W).

Here are a few more thoughts:
Installing tracks on the side of the soffit will not work - the only fixtures that I could angle backwards to aim under the soffit are too big.
I think track lighting is not a good idea for my situation. With the ceiling at 7.5’, I think the fixtures will hang down too low. I’m 6’ and don’t want to have bright light in my eyes when running, unless of course the idea is to aim them from front to back in several rows.
Would fluorescent be too bright to see the effects of lighted buildings, etc?
At HD I saw some relatively inexpensive cans suitable for installing in drop ceiling panels. This may be a better option since I could control the amount of light with a dimmer.

thanks, Don

[IMG]http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/

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I have a higher room to work with and have really been satisfied with my track lighting on a dimmer switch. Some of the new track lights are really small and may work for you. Remember, the track lights can be placed where you don’t’ walk and aimed at the locations on the layout you want to highlight.

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If I took the trouble to retrofit what I already have, I would definatly go with dimmable track lighting. Bright enough to work under but dimmable to achieve great lighting effects. Maybe even a combination of flood and spot lamps for specific areas, where you will have an accesory, or scene

Jim

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OK, so if I go with track lighting, what is the best placement? My layout will be an island about the same size as the are in the diagram. Is my idea of aiming from front to back correct? What about shadows?

Buckeye, what kind of bulbs do you use? Any issues with color when dimming?

thx, Don

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Don…Some scenes on my layout are lighted from two directions, some are in the shadows and some have very little light. It depends on what you would like to emphasis. It is somewhat like lighting a stage. I use incandescent floods, but when they burn out (they seem to have a great life) there are new more natural incandescents on the market. I have been using these in our kitchen lights. However, for photos it doesn’t really matter with the digital cameras that can adjust for the “orange” incandescent glow.

This photo might help you understand my setup. The lights in the photo are not dimmed.