I would like to add interior lights to about a dozen Plasticville buildings. From your experience, what type of light would you suggest? As always, many thanks.
PS I realize that some modification will have to be made to the windows (like shades or curtains) so the interiors will look somewhat realistic but I am mainly interested in the lights themselves. My Lionel Stations have lights but the bulbs seem to be a little larger than what I would like to place inside the buildings. My streets and roads are lined with Lionel Highway lights. Also, I will have to take into consideration that a couple of the buildings have multiple levels (like the Hospital) that I will have to modify. Again, thanks.
I taped a 5mm cool white LED bulb from Evan Designs to the ceiling of my Frosty Bar. Now it looks like it has fluorescent lighting. These bulbs are nice because they are pre-wired and don’t give off any heat. Need to order some for my other Plasticville buildings.
I went to Radio Shack and bought a bag of the lamp bases, put in 18V bulbs and mounted the bases on the foam core poaster bord scraps, about a 2 X 2 square holds it. The then cover the windows and doors with a translucent pices of plastic from sheet paper holders. To keep the light from coming through the end wall seams a piece of electrical tape over the seam, and if the building “glows” too bad I’ll paint the inside flat black
Jim: Sounds good. Not being an electrical guy, I was just wondering if 18v bulbs might be too big. I’m working with @ a dozen buildings. (Then, again, I do want the light!) Thanks.
I am using the peel and stick #510 grain of wheat lights from Model Power. They are really convenient to use because the bulb is mounted to a base that has double sided tape on the other side so you can stick it to the inside roof of the building to keep it out of view when installed and there are only two wires to hook up. Oh and did I mention they are cheap too, a package of 4 bulb assemblies is only $5.00. [:)]
Paul, George, Matt and all: Appreciate the information. Going on the road for a few days and won’t be able to offer thanks for future posts on the subject. I’ll catch up as soon as I return. Thanks, again.
I did the same as Phish did but I hooked them to a seperate transformer ( a small American Flyer one) then I just adjust the power on how bright I want them
There areall kinds of bulbs that work well for lighting. One of my pet peeves though is lights that shine through the building walls. Paint the inside flat black. I buy used bldgs. so painting them is no big deal and no “treasure” lost.
LEDs do give off roughly the same amount of heat as incandescent lamps; but they do it at a lower temperature. All practical light sources convert only a fraction of the power put into them into useful visible light, about 2 percent for both incandescent lamps and white LEDs, although some newer high-powered LEDs get up to about ten times that. In many LED applications, the ballast resistor used dissipates even more heat than the LED.
How about Christmas tree lights, the ones with 50 in a string. Each year I loose a couple of sets due to 1 or 2 bulbs burning out. Cut the wires to make indivicual bulbs, drill a hole throught the plywood table and inset. Wires say 5 or 6 in series, put them across 14 volts and adjust your extra transformer for brightness. Cheap and good use of otherwise non function string of Christmas lighs. Also with 5 or 6 in a string, if one blows, you don’t have to go thru as many lights to find the bad one.
