I just finished working on my diesel shop and wanted to share some things that I added to the facility. I have attached a few photos. I have checked this forum but I didn’t see many pictures referring to lighting. I added two Faller LED spotlight bars and two external light fixtures by Walthers. The spotlight bars worked out really well. They aren’t too bright and give me a florescent type of light inside of the structure. Just thought someone might benefit from my two cents worth.
Diesel shop with Walthers external light fixtures
Another shot of the light fixtures
Here you can see the LED light bar that I used, which contains 5 lights on each bar. They come in sets of two and you can split the bar to create 4 small bars. If you look closely, you can see the dots under the cross beams in the middle and in the back. They slide right in nicely and are pretty much hidden. I ran the wires down the beams on the side walls and through the floor.
I hope you guys enjoy the pictures and get some inspiration from them.
That is excellent work! Diesel locomotive shops are another facet of model railroading that I enjoy. Years back as a teen, I visited the SCL Uceta Shop in Tampa. White florescent lights lit up the shop well.
Looking forward to seeing photos of your shop in a dusk or night scene. Based on the work seen here, it’s going to look very nice, especially after some weathering!
Thanks for the comments. I am taking this one slow. This is the first diesel shop that I have done and I got a lot of inspiration from a lot of modelers in the forums. The LEDs will look really nice, I tested them before I put them in. I will definitely post night shots when done. I have a photo of a Norfolk Southern diesel shop that has a brick base around the bottom. I plan to do the same with mine.
I like the brick base on this NS shop. (picture courtesy of railpictures.net)
What are those yellow rail guides you’re using, & where do I get them? The Scale Scenes free download of an inspection pit calls for single rails on either side of the opening but I’ve been having a devil of a time figuring out how to do this; this looks like my solution…
LION gets his LEDs from Walmart and or Menards. They are sold as Christmas Lights. I save the LED’s and throw away everything else.
There are many different kinds of LEDs available this way. The sets with little plastic do-dads on them have the smaller T-1 LED in them. I am finding that I like these much better than the larger ones.
Some LEDs have a rounded top that focuses the beam forward, others are flat on top with a shallow cone that projects the light to the sides. These are the ones I like best, but it is a crap shoot, since you do not know what is inside the plastic do-dad until you get the set home and open them up. Buy those with clear do-dads, as the ones with colored do-dads may have colored LEDs on the inside.
LION uses a large number of LEDs on each circuit which yields plenty of light. Here is a photo with several of the larger LEDs poked through the ceiling, it happens that, while all are white, some are warm white and others are cool white, looking at them is not optimal but then NYCT installs lamps of different colors depending on when they were installed.
The yellow rail guides come with the Kit (Walther’s Cornerstone Series). I painted them yellow based on other photos and safety protocols. You can probably find Etched Brass railings to use. You may have to trim to fit but are a good option.
The ceiling that you are looking at is 1/4" artists’ foam board with paper on each side.
Here is the same station a few steps back. The wiring gets covered with another layer of material to represent the street above the station, there will be a mini-fascia on the cutaway mostly so that the LEDs will not be visible to the causal viewer of the station.
Awesome idea. How do you like the effect of the LED lights? Something you will stick with? I have read where a lot of modelers do not like LED lots because they don’t cover a wide area like incandescent bulbs. I like the look of the LEDs, their brightness.
That’s hot Lee. What a scene. I like your lighting effects. Are your pole lights LED or incandescent? I plan to install the Walthers Cornerstone double Teardrop lights into my yard in the area of the diesel shop, similar to your set up. I have the Miniatronics Spotlight that I plan to install as well.
They’re actually 12v incandescents. I bought them in one of those ebay direct from China deals planning to use them for street lights. They were too tall for that application, but are perfect for yard duty. I think I have 9v applied to them… the full jolt of 12 was generating a little heat in the head.
LION will indeed stick with the LEDs. There is no way I can afford enough incandescent lamps for this railroad. I buy colored LEDs from All Electronics for my signals, but all of my clear LEDs come from the big box stores at Christmas time. As I work I have become more fond of the smaller (more expensive) T-1 LEDs as are found in the light sets with the plastic shapes on them. Some are a blue-white, others are a warm white. Some have the round top which focus light forward, but more and more I am looking for the ones with the flat tops with the inverted cone shape to it which focuses light to the sides. I wish I had more of them, but they will have to wait now until next year, although I have plenty of the larger T-1 3/4 size.
Below are the flat type T-1 3/4s and below that an experiment with the rounded T-1 3/4s inserted into drinking straws to simulate florescent lights. Way too huge to be used where they will be seen clearly, but perfect inside of passenger cars where only glimpses of the lighted cars are ever seen.
I plan on going with LED lights for my 3-stall HO brick shop. From what i consistently hear, they don’t get hot and, barring power surges, last a very long time. The light color availability is also interesting since a number of prototype railroad shop photos that I’ve seen from the WWII era thru the 80s showed the use of both, florescent and incandescent lights. LEDs make this easy to imitate.
Hi guys, I just thought I would post an updated picture of my diesel shop with the lighting installed and working. You can also see the two outside lights that I have on the outside of the shop attached to the building. The inside lights are (2) Faller 5 LED spotlight bars that I have mounted to the inside of the shop and the outside lights are Walthers cornerstone lights.
No issues what so ever. Just follow the directions. You can use different techniques with placing the track in the facility, otherwise, the sky is the limit with this kit.
