My layout is in a spare bedroom. The layout is a ‘U’ shape that is 9 X 8 feet. The layout is able to be moved about two feet away from walls to reach the back side (it’s mounted on casters).
Because it’s a bedroom, I’m not going to change the room’s permanent lighting. Right now there is just a single light in the middle of the room’s ceiling.
I would like to have some system of lighting that could attach to the back of the layout and extend up and over the layout. At the same time, I don’t want the light to shine into the eyes of me or other observers.
I’d appreciate any suggestions, and I’d really like those of you with some system of lighting like that to let me see some photos of what you’ve done.
I have a 3-head LED flood light fixture that I use for overhead lighting at one end of my layout. Each of the three lights swivel to focus lighting. The fixture is mounted on a joist in my unfinished basement. It gets power from a plug in cord. If that is of interest to you, I can take a photo or two.
I’m reluctant to mount something to the finished ceiling since this is a bedroom on the main floor. I guess it’s possible to mount that with some small holes that could be patched when we move (or when I die )
i added lighting in my layout room but it’s still hard to see couplers without light directly overhead or at least perpendicular to the track. This suggests multiple lights such as a strip lighting
but i learned that taking layout photographs requires lighting from above to simulate sunlight and produce proper shadows instead of from the side. So lighting from above the layout might properly light the sides of objects at the rear of the layout, but not those near the front edge.
so it seems that lighting should be over the front edge of the layout, if not slightly in front ot the edge but not too far that heads get in the way and cast shadows
Tony Koester has a chapter on lighting in his book on multi-deck layouts having a line of florescent bulbs along the front edge of the deck above each deck. The book is from 2008, strip lighting seems more appropriate today.
Could you mount some verticals (like 2x2’s) and then mount some large shelf brackets to those, then hang some small lighting fixtures to them? Or, if fixtures look like they would shine in your eyes, hang aluminum channel from the brackets and install strip lights into the channel? Seems like there was a recent MR article where someone something similar to light a lower deck of a multideck layout that way, and they even had diffusers that snapped in the channel.
I can’t speak to your specific room or limits, but I found the best lighting comes from a source to at is between your body and the layout. I want the light to shine from the front of the layout as to shine on the facing side of the trains. This keeps the shadows to the unseen backside. But if you place the lighting overhead, there is a good chance your noggin puts a shadow on the trains
This may be basic stuff about placement, but this is why valances are so popular. I prefer a valance that is 3 ft above the layout for a standing height layout.
You can hang a valance form the ceiling. It should not be that heavy. You could build it out of aluminum instead of wood. I would think clusters of small screws would hold the weight while making only smallish holes that could be patched pretty easily .
To take this a bit further: how about using the verticals to hold a backdrop (1/8" hardboard or alternative), and a 90 degree bracket holding a valence. Either mounted on the bracket, or on the valence (cover with silver tape) use the LED lighting “strips”. These can be cut to length, multiple sections joined together etc.
I recently reached the second level of the layout and installed a single light strip on the underside (since the first level was now in shadow of the track lighting). I was amazed at how easy to install, and effective, this was.
One of the advantages of the LED strips is that you can get with adjustable “temperature” settings. This is the “warm” setting (my preference) on lighting:
I put this light up which added a lot of light to the layout as I could point the lights where ever I wanted to. It attached to the box in the ceiling and they came/come in various lengths. There are small brackets held up with tiny screws out towards the ends, if you took them out, I doubt you would see the screw holes.
A couple of years ago, I started a switching layout, having the notorious light in the centre of the ceiling I designed supports for the LED-lights.
The layout is 9 x2 feet in dimension
I used 3x5 mm hard wood, glued and nailed the strips to form a U.
The lights are good to have. What is still missing is the screen / fascia (what do you calle it? sorry) so you do not have to see into the lights directly.
Thanks, everyone, for the ideas and photos. I’m going to look at things tonight, and maybe take a trip into the city tomorrow to Menards or Home Depot to see what things look like. I also hadn’t considered lights that are dimmable, but that looks like a great idea. Thanks again!
I saw this somewhere, its a back drop with a valence (light box) attached to the top. Its not my idea but looked good with options for what lights you use.
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