I’m working on several building kits at the moment for my first layout. I eventually want to have everything detailed to the kind of level I see in photos here, trash, weeds, people, clutter,etc. I also want to light the interiors so I am assuming that at some point I will need to remove the buildings to change bulbs, etc. How do you go about making the buildings removable yet secure enough that you don’t have them moving around a little on the layout from the vibrations of the trains?
I glue mine down with a clear silicon sealant such as one of the varieties of Goop. When I install interior lighting, I use 14 volt bulbs powered by a 12 Volt regulated computer power supply, which prolongs the bulb’s lifetime considerably. I haven’t had to replace any bulbs yet on a club layout that is over 6 years old.
I purchase 14 volt bulbs with 10 inch leads in bulk from All Electronics (http://www.allelectronics.com), catalog number LP-6.
I glue my structures in place too but for lighting I use the Minitronics 14V microbulbs with 16,000 hr rated life (which should last a long time). For buildings which sit flat, I drill a 1/4" hole in the bottom of the structure and in the layout plywood. I then take a 1/4" dowel pin and drill a 1/8" hole in the middle. I run the wires for the bulb through the 1/8" hole and then put a drop of glue on the end of the dowel pin to hold the bulb in place. Lastly I insert the dowel pin in to the 1/4" hole, which puts the bulb into the bottom of the structure. This makes future changes easy. If the dowel pins wants to slide out, just put a drop (not a lot) of glue on the side of the dowel pin and hold it in place until dry. Don’t insert the dowel pin completely in, because you want enough sticking out the bottom of the layout to be able to get ahold of, if you need to remove it. This won’t work for all structures but it does for a large number of the smaller ones.
My next challenge are lights on the outside of the buildings. I don’t think just gluing the bulbs to the sides of the structures will look right, except from a distance.
I use a 12 volt grain of wheet bulb with a regulated power suppl. Secure the building with rubber cement. Comes up easy if need be, leaves no residue so you can rerescure the building tn a clean suface and is inexpensive.
I use liquid nails caulking to glue down my buildings. 14 volt lights work the best for what I do. You can leave your roof loose so you have access to it if one done go out.
I use simple white glue to hold the buildings in place. It keeps them from moving around and the building can easily be popped loose for light replacement.
My structures are on portable HO scale modules, so they have to be secured well. When not in use, my modules are stored on end, making the securing vital or they will fall off.
On plastic structures I add gussets in the corners, made from heavy styrene. These gussets are well bonded and fastened to the walls. Then I drill holes in the gussets, and into the layout surface under them. Wood screws are driven up from the underside of the table into these gussets, securing them very well. If I have to remove them for any reason, I can just remove the screws. The same with wood structures, but I just drill into their wood “floors”.
For lighting on a few structures, I’ve inserted metal tubing into holes in the bottom of the structures. I then thread the lights up into this tubing until the bulbs (grain of wheat bulbs) are above the top of the tubimg. Then the wires underneatth are stapled to the bottom of the table. If I ever have to change a burned out bulb, it’s just a matter of removing the staples, the wire and the bulb. And I’ve done it a few times, because one pair of modules is over 20 years old!
Bob Boudreau
I am going to use the Pin and foundation trick I saw years ago.
They used #10 copper wire cut into short sections to make the PIN. Since no building sit on the ground they built foundations for all of the structures and set the pins in that. A matching whole is drilled in the base of the structure and you just set it in place.
The buildings that are GRADE level, roundhouse, car barns, shanty’s etc are Elmered in place OR the roofs come off.
I got HOOKED on Grain of Rice bulbs from Micro Mark when doing DCC to light cars and such so I am using them in my buildings.
I am going to try something off the wall and try and control some of the effects with a spare DS44 decoder. All I have to do is figure out how!!
Thanks to everyone for the replies. Actually, my layout is made of modules as well and some of them will travel to meets. That was part of my concern. It sounds like many of you use the 14v bulbs to minimize the need to replace them. I’m going to try that as well.