Shelf layout lighting for a summer layout

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I am trying to find ways to efficiently illuminate a long shelf layout.

The layout itself is generally 1’ deep, and currently runs along 12’ of an 18’x8’ room–eventually it will run around three sides of the room.

The shelf itself is 48" high, and there is a shelf above it at 66" high. This shelf will have a 3" fascia board of 1/8" hardboard. The moveable layout modules are about 2" thick, so the distance from layout surface to top of shelf is about 16". This may seem narrow, but the ceiling in my garage is only 7’ high and I need a certain amount of storage space above the layout.

Currently, my lighting system consists of a rope light that runs the entire length of the layout, clipped to the underside of the shelf. This is suitable for a soft evening glow sort of illumination, but I want to simulate a bright summer day.

Towards this end, I have purchased a set of five 20-watt halogen lamps, intended for surface or recessed use in shelving systems or entertainment centers. I plugged four of them in at 3’ intervals along my 12-foot section.

They do provide plenty of light, but since the illumination is kind of directional, it creates four separate parabolas of brightness on my backdrop, with big pits of relative darkness in between.

Question #1:

If I remove the little plastic/glass protective covers from the halogen lamps, the illumination becomes much more broad in coverage–but am I risking fire or other hazards by leaving these covers off the lamps?

Question #2:

I am considering adding a row of low-profile fluorescent fixtures under the upper shelf to provide additional lighting and fill those dark areas. I take my cue for this from Tony Koester’s “Multi-deck layout lighting” article in the June 2004 MR, but am looking for a brighter look–rather than a cool, overcast sort of day, I am hoping to represent a 100+ degree cloudless day in California’s central valley, so the use of fluorescents alon

2

Okay then, I’d settle for any advice on lighting a shelf layout…

3

I’ll admit I have not done this as related to MR but have used it for other creative lighting solutions. I don’t think you need to worry so much about the quantity of light but the quality. By this I mean: I like the idea of the rope light for an alternate evening setting and would try a warm lamp in the flourescent setup. You might even be able to find some narrow flourescent tubes that would work under the shelf. When looking for the lamps they should have “degrees kelvin” marked on the package and if I remember correctly they will be lower (6500) is warmer (yelow, red) and higher (7500) is cooler (blue, green). Hope this provides at least a little help for you.

Chris

4

Florescent lighting Is pretty good for filling in and providing bright light. They also use less electricity and produce less heat. The problem is they don’t provide a transition from bright to dark, which in your case may not be needed.

The other option is a line of lower wattage, as cheap as you can get, light bulbs. This option is wastefull electricity wise so you will be turning off lights all the time after you get the electricity bill for heating the layout area. The advantage is great transition lighting especially if used in conjunction with rope lighting or gelled lights. This give vivid sunrise and sunset if controlled properly. I personally have a thing for night dimly lit by blue lights, white grain light throughout buildings and street lights.

5

In response to Question #1 - don’t, don’t remove the protective covers over the lamps - they make no difference to the coverage of the lights (that’s controlled by the shape of the reflector behind the lamps) but they do protect you and your models from both the heat of the little halogen bulbs (because they’re small, they run HOT!), the UV that halogen bulbs produce, and the tendency of halogen bulbs to shatter if they are struck or hit or vibrated too hard or handled too much. As halogen bulbs are made of quartz, not glass, and quartz is easily dissolved by the oils on human skin, the covers also protect the little bulbs from errant human fingers.

The low-profile fluorescent fixtures could work - but also consider the long, low profile halogen fixtures made for use under kitchen cabinets. Those throw their light over a wide area, and have a nice ‘sunny day’ brightness to them.

Jim

6

Thanks for confirming the need for safety, jkeaton: I added fluorescents between the halogens which eliminated much of the shadows cast by the halogens. The covers did block some of the lights’ coverage (they are opaque) and direct the light a bit more, but it’s liveable and it actually prevents the “dual shadows” effect by concentrating light from each halogen to one area.

7

This is what I have tried for lighting. I have a web article at:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/4x8/lighting/

The layout is a 4x8 but is two 2x8 scenes.
Hope that helps
Harold

8

Sounds very similar to the sort of intense bright California sun I’m trying to simulate. I used a similar high-power fluorescent bulb with reflector as a ceiling-mounted light, and will use almost exactly the same arrangement for an “island” that pokes into the center of the room, but since my shelf layout has only 18" clearance between layout and upper valence I needed a lower-profile solution.

Actually in winter I trade out the compact fluorescent bulb for a 120v halogen–my garage is unheated, and the halogen adds a little warmth while I’m working on the layout!

9

This is tricky, because of the height and your requirement to have bright sunlight as the effect.

The key is to remember that you want bright, even light. This doesn’t mean that the light sources have to be mounted on the shelf above.

You will have to use some sort of incandescent source. Fluorescent will always be omnidirectional and relatively bulky. if you want to simulate sunlight, go with incandescent.

This is a long shot, but there are products like light pipes and reflective sheeting. I work at 3M, and they sell something in the commercial market where you can have a halogen lamp in something easy to access, like a utility closet, that feeds through a light pipe (some proprietary reflective interior) to the items you want to illuminate, which could be something like a temperature and humidity controlled museum display case.

The advantage to the light pipe is that your light sources could be grouped on one or either end of the shelf layout, and the pipe itself is relatively small, and just runs along the near edge of the shelf above.

Here’s the product info on the 3M product. I doubt they have a consumer version, but you never know.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?U2781217A

Your original idea of using the small halogen lamps is good, but you’d need to use more. Switching light technologies for the gaps would result in different light color.

A more low-tech version of the light pipe would be something like plexiglass mirror, angled to bounce light from the sides…imagine the cross section of a sea-gull seen from head-on. The mirror would have a gentle curve that gets more to 45 degrees as you get to the center of your layout.

10

Wow, that’s getting kind of fancy…I will probably go for a warmer bulb than the stock fluorescent one I got, but the fluorescent/halogen combo seems to work pretty well. The white rope lights provide a warmer “continuity” of light along the back of the layout that seems to help blend them together. I tried turning off the rope light and found that the contrast between the fluorescent and halogen was immediately more noticeable, as you mentioned, but when I hit the rope lights again it became less noticeable. Of course, there are little “high noon” spots every 3 feet where I have the halogens, but they’re spaced far enough apart where generally no more than one will be in one’s immediate field of view.