LED lighting power/distance?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I want to provide good lighting on my future layout. It looks like LED lighting is a good bet with respect to low heat, instant startup, dimmable, good color, etc.

Are there any rules of thumb regarding the distance the lights should be from the surface of the layout? Assume I have a layout 50" high. If I put track lighting in the ceiling with LEDs (Let’s assume a 9 foot ceiling), how many bulbs and what power would make sense? Is it trial and error or any reasonable assumptions to make?

Thanks!

2

I started out with dual bulb fluorescent 8’ ceiling fixtures and switched over to LED equivalent 8’ lighting. My garage ceiling is at 9’ and the lighting works very good.

The 8’ LEDs are slightly directional which works out very nice, you can aim the light where it is needed.

The LEDs are much brighter than the fluorescent bulbs and the LEDs won’t fade my scenery like the fluorescent lamps did.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

3

LED strips come in all sorts of sizes and light output (basically how many LEDs there are per unit distance of the LED strip). Usually you can find a specification for lumens per meter or per foot. Perhaps the more I look, the more I will find out before I buy, but it seems a lot of this is still a bit of trial and error because there’s no really guranteed standard of measure of just how much light a given strip produces.

My multi deck layout will have 16" of clearnace from the bottom of the deck above to the rails of the deck below. I also want to do night and other effects, so I am firuging that a typical 18-24" wide section will use 4 strips of LEDs - 2 in white, one RGB so I can do the sunrise/sunset and also contribute to daytime and nighttime, and a strip of blue for night illumination. My gut says this will probably be plenty bright, but if I end up needing more, I can still do it. I plan to control them with relatively cheap DMX controllers which can be found on eBay. Each one typically drives one reel per output, so a 7 channel unit will drive a reel of RGB (3 channels), 2 channels of white, and a channel of blue, with a spare leftove for an extra white if needed. That’s quite a few controllers around the perimeter of my basement, twice (once for each deck), but will within the limits of DMX.

–Randy

4

I recently replaced a number of fluorescent fixtures in my layout room with LEDs, and the package states that the spread of light from them is 120º.

Since my layout varies in height from 36" to just under 60", the spacing of the light fixtures will vary, depending on their height above the layout.

The closer the layout is to the lights, the closer the spacing will need to be between lights if you want relatively uniform illumination over the layout.

In the photo below, the four lights between the pole, at left, and the fluorescent light in the foreground are about 36" above the layout, and are spaced roughly 36" apart, as they follow the curves of the layout

In the photo below, the four lights along the wall in the right background are about 38" above the layout, and are spaced roughly 38" apart. So far, it seems that height above the layout is roughly equal to the required spacing between the fixtures…

I will likely not replace the majority of fluorescent fixtures above the partial upper level, as it’s only 22" below the ceiling, and would require at least 18 fixtures, even if I spaced them 3’ apart…2’ spacing would be preferable, but that would require 27 fixtures. Both amounts are well beyond my budget.

I may remove the fluorescent lights for the layout under the partial upper level, but rather than use the fixtures shown in the photos above, simply use LED bulbs in ceramic bases…lots of light at a reasonable cost, and, since they’re not normally visible, no need to make them l

5

Mel,

Are those 8’ LED lights spotlights, tubes, or strip lights?
Thanks!

6

I have five two tube 96” fluorescent fixtures in my garage. I bought ten LED replacement tubes. It required me to remove the ballast and rewire the sockets in each fixture. The LED tubes are slightly smaller in diameter than the fluorescent tubes and have an aluminum strip on one side, the side that faces into the fixture. Like I said they are slightly directional which is actually neat, I can focus the light where I want it.

I found them on Amazon at a very good price, $130 delivered for 10 tubes. Two of the tubes were damaged and the seller sent two replacements quickly.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.