Hey there;
I’ve been scouting around for some ideas on how best to add interior lighting to my structures. I have been messing around a little with ‘grain-of-wheat’ bulbs and they seem okay but wide open to ideas. Maybe some thoughts on how to improve the effects? I’m working in HO, if that makes a difference.
Also interested in exterior lighting “fixtures” for structures, preferably scratch built ones.
Not having much luck with searches…anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks 
While I haven’t done it myself, a procedure that I have seen and liked was to make interior light stands for your GOW bulbs out of brass tube. The tube is inserted into the building from beneath the layout and is held in place by friction. It can easily be removed to replace a burned out bulb. If the tube isn’t big enough to contain both wires from the bulb, the tube itself can be used in place of one wire.
Since the light is on the top of the tube, you can varythe effects of the lighting by raising or lowering the tube to change the location of the bulb. Higher up gives a better lighting effect, as if the lights are on the “ceiling” of the structure. Internal baffles can be used to direct or block the light as suits your needs and desires.
I don’t have any suggestions for exterior “fixtures” except to be a smart-a$$ and suggest you scratchbuild using parts that resemble an exterior fixture! Some help I am, eh? On second thought, maybe I do have a suggestion. Try using LED’s for exterior lighting. They are very directional in light output, which may be exactly what you want in exterior structure lighting. GOW bulbs can be used if you are looking more for a floodlight effect.
Hope this helps.
Darrell, shining brightly, and quiet…for now
I posted a topic about two weeks ago on this very subject The topic title was “suggestions on interior lighting of structures” you may find this of interest.
Bob…
Someone referenced this Walthers wall-mounted lamp:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-1094
IHC makes an incandescent lamp, somewhat larger than a GOW, that comes with a mounting bracket and pigtails:
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=9S7BIU595979496A80735790949G25&id=4397
EDIT: I don’t know if it’s my network or the IHC link. If it doesn’t work for you, go to www.ihc-hobby.com and look for item # 4397
White Leds are the new solution, low power, long long life, and no heat. Look on ebay for bulk purchases direct from Hong Kong. Most offer free shipping. The average price for 100 is 25 cents each this way. The place I buy from even includes resistors to run them off of 12VDC. Fred
LEDs are preferable to incandescents like GOWs because of their long life and no heat. However, the usual white LEDs are far too intense and bluish for my tastes, plus they have a very narrow viewing angle.
Drive around at night and you’ll see that most house lights aren’t white - they’re shades of yellow and orange. Businesses have some whites, and some industries, but house lights are far more subtle.
I use surface mount LEDs in yellows and oranges for house lights. Their top hat shape give a wide dispersal of light, they’re small and can be easily mounted and hidden in ceilings, and if you buy a from different manufacturers, you get subtle variations in color.
The only real drawback is soldering wires to the small rectangle on the back. It takes a little practice (and a magnifying lens helps) but once mastered, the technique is easy.
SMDs are available on line from digikey.com. mouser.com. and jameco.com as well as others. Don’t go smaller than the 1205 size, though.
Two that I like from Mouser are:
Yellow: 638-152UYCS530-A2
Orange: 606-7010X3
Mike Tennent
On white Leds you just file the lens flat to unconcentrate them and color them with an amber nail poli***o color them if you find them too blue. Blue is, a lot of times, caused by a voltage source on the low side. If you want shades Campbells make some in HO from brass that work well in HO, or you can use small grommets from a hobby store like crafters use for jeans and scrapbooking.
You can file an Led to lots of shapes as long as you don’t get into the metal area that makes the light.
Fred
here are some works I have done with Leds;
www.ngineering.com has some LEDs in different sizes and colors, as well as some detail items for making exterior lamps and such.
Here is another website with LED’s for various lighting projects. It was posted a little while ago in another topic and I saved it. Unfortunately I don’t remember who posted it it to give them credit.
http://www.moreleds.com/railroad.htm
–
Brad
I use a method that I stumbled upon quite by accident. I got a couple of 50 light miniture xmas lights and cut them into groups of two bulbs each. I then mount a set of bulbs in my structure. The bulbs require 2.5 volts each and are already connected in series to each other. I have all my structures connected to each other in a parallel circuit. I use an old computer power supply to power the lights. After 9 years, most are still burning. They put out almost no heat and won’t damage the structures, unlike some bulbs from some MR manufacturer’s who will remain nameless.
Jeffrey Wimberly, Leesville, La.
I’m out of my mind, but leave a message anyway.
[soapbox]
For street lights, I have found that a grain of wheat bulb, a small stiff wire, and some heat scrink tubing works well. You run the wires through the heat scrink, then insert the small wire bend the wire to whatever position you want, then heat the tubing, making the pole, paint the pole a colof of your taste, paint the top and a small way down each side of the bulb, depending on how far you wan’t the light to go. I have about 25 of them on my layout , and have had no problems. Mike
Hey Fred - Beautiful photos! Where do you run the wires – especially in the bottom photo with the slender light pole?
I needed eight banks of flouresent lights for a long lube house I’m building. The CCF lamps were too large for HO scale, and I tried everything else. The best solution I could find was glowire.
THANKS, The pole is a K&S tube and is the negative. A wire is ran inside it for the positive. Here’s a step by step how -to http://www.2guyzandsumtrains.com/2g/howto/led/led1.html
The miniture Christmas tree light method is very cheap especially if you catch an after Christmas sale. I haven’t installed mine yet, but have the lights.
I want to paint the inside of my buildings black before I begin. You also might want to have some interior walls or block out some windows so every light in the “house” isn’t on.
I’ve been using those cheap Christmas string bulbs for all kinds of lighting, and have discovered that they give adequate, somewhat yellow light (perfect for structures) on 1.6 volts. For structures, I wire 4 in series and power them from a 6.3 volt filament transformer. Bought the transformer from Radio Shack, rated 3 amps 12.6V center tap, which means I can support 6 amps worth of lights on two circuits with center tap common.
Next up - an experiment (or several) to see if I can adapt them to rolling stock lighting in cars with plenty of space above the windows.
Chuck
Hey Chuck, I did a caboose one time with those little xmas lights. The voltage from the track is way too high. I set it up with a switch on the bottom to turn a battery box inside on and off.
Tremendous ideas! My thanks to you all.
Have you looked at the GRAIN OF RICE bulbs from Micro Mark? (40) for $39.95. Run cool and take full DCC voltage. They come in Amber, White, Red Green. Have then in engines, buildings and control panels (when I fini***hem).
Take Care
George P.
One thing I forgot to mention when lighting structurers is that light can make the walls glow on the outside. To prevent that from happening, first give the interior walls a primer coating of flat black. Then the wall color you want.
Also, example of exterior lamps I’ve made.
