I’m in the process of building my first layout. I want to place lights in and on my buildings, so I can simulate night operations. I have NO IDEA how to do this…I’m afraid I’ll burn down the layout! I’ve seen various grain of wheat/rice bulbs with various volts/amps…what to use? do I hook all the lights together and attach them to a powerpack? Run them through a bus line? AAAHHH!! It is all very confusing and intimidating for a wiring moron like me. At least DCC wiring is easy!! Does anyone know where I can find info on how to do building lights? I have lots of Model Railroader mags, including the current issue, but I can’t find any info in print or on the net on how to wire up building light effects. I did find an out of print book by Kalmbach on how to wire accessories, but people are asking $50 and up for it. I’m not sure if that would be of any help anyway. Any help from you pros out there will be greatly appreciated!!
Depends on how many lights you have, I bet you’d be fine using a DC Powerpack for about 10-20 lights… maybe more.
NO. The small lights (Grain o’ Wheat/Rice) are designed to be used with 12v AC (i think) LEDs are designed for use with 1 or 2 vDC.
While this isn’t specifically for interior lighting, it’ll give you a basic framework to work from
Hi There;
I use an old train set power pack. I ran a pair of bus wires off the D. C. terminals. I use 12V-16 VAC GOW bulbs. By using the DC terminals you can dim the lights for different effects.By turning down the voltage you also increase the life of your lights. Just drop a feeder from each building to the bus- same as DCC. Works for me- hope it helps you.
Tom
i saw that site.
Hoopdog,
I just started installing lights on my layout a few months ago and really enjoy the effect it gives. Now, I could feebly try and explain the two ways of wiring lights, or I can just tell you what I’ve done and leave it up to the experts to do the explaining. (I think I do the latter.)
Hoopdog, I have both exterior and interior lights on my layout. For the interior lighting: Since the lights won’t really be seen much, I use 12V Grain-'o-wheat (GOW) bulbs wired “in parallel” and power them at only ~55-60% with my 16VDC MRC power pack. (That’s equivalent to pushing only 8.8-9.6 volts through the bulb.) Running my lights like that means:
- The intensity of the light will be less (and more realistic)
- The bulbs will last much longer
- If a bulb burns out, it’s easy to identify which one is the culprit
Now I could use 14 (or even 16V) bulbs to light my interior spacing. But, I had a pack of 12V bulbs sitting around and just dial down the voltage with the power pack.
For the exterior lighting: I’m more concerned about appearance because I want my layout to look realistic. So I use 1.2mm, 1.5V-15 amp (A) and 30A Grain-o’-rice (GOR) bulbs (also wired “in parallel”) to accomplish that and power them with a 1.5V-1.6A regulated power supply that I bought from Miniatronics. This means that:
- The light bulbs are small and look prototypical
- As with the 12V bulbs wired “in parallel”, when a bulb burns out, I know which one to change.
- The 1.5V has a shorter life span than the 12V bulbs
For both the interior and exterior lights, I have each bulb (or sets of bulbs) wired to a separate slide connector so that I can turn lights on or off individually to create different effects.
Another very important aspect to consider in interior ligh
Thanks everyone for shedding some light on the subject.[;)].
If you haven’t already, read “Add lights to your structures” in the November 2006 issure of Model Railroader. Theres a lot of good tips and info there.