I was getting ready to install lights in my new carriage shop and thought I’d share my approach.
I feel that the location and brightness of lights are important factors for creating a realistic look, so I like to use multiple lights, mounted at ceiling level. I control the brightness by wiring them in series, reducing the voltage at each bulb (this only works with non-LED bulbs). I took some pictures, so follow along:
This is the structure I’m working on. It’s a carriage house and there is a partition between the office on the side and the shop area:
I start by making a “ceiling” panel to fit the space, drill holes for bulbs and epoxy them in place:
I solder the bulbs in series (so the power is connected to each end of a chain of bulbs):
The wire I use is this stuff; I buy it at a dollhouse supply store. It’s very fine, like the wire that comes on GOW bulbs:
I test the lights to be sure it’s all working:
Then glue it into the structure. You can see the separate ceiling/circuit I made for the office (sorry about the picture quality):
With a separate circuit for the office and shop I can light up the whole building:
Phil:
Very effective lighting.
Personally I have gotten away from incandescent bulbs in just about everything, but I still use them for engine and caboose marker lights because they do give better light distribution, and I also like the 1.2mm 1.5 volt bulbs for small lights where the bulb can be seen.
Dave
Your ideas are very much in line with mine, except that I intend to use the clear white icicle lamps that come 50 - 150 to a set of Christmas lights (or did until the Federales outlawed incandescent bulbs [|(]) Wired four in series, the 2.5 volt lamps have a nice yellow glow on 6.3vac. For brighter commercial buildings, three in series give a harsher, whiter light. Some of mine are in separate buildings (three in one, one in another) and I control the strings with a row of cheap slide switches. Semi- or full automation might come later, with something like a music box drum opening and closing circuits in a choreographed pattern. retaining the SPDT slide switches so I can override the drum.
Operating TTTO with a 24 hour clock, having buildings appropriately illuminated at the right times will be a big part of my mood-setting scheme - lots of lights just after sunset, stygian blackness at 0-dark hundred, then lights coming on here and there as dawn approaches and Joe Salaryman and his fellow wage slaves get ready for the commute to Minamijima. Only railroad structures and police boxes will be, “Lights on at dusk, lights off at dawn,” and even they can be overridden.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Phil,
Nice work. I really like the rotary swicth idea to randomize the lighting.
I do quibble a bit about the bulb thing though.[^o)] I’ve had pretty good results with LEDs after some experimenting. One thing that works well with LEDs, too, is placing them in series and varying the resistance in large buildings.
Speaking of resistance, once you start using lots of it, LEDs can end up looking very much like a bulb, Anyway, here’s a few of my tricks at this link: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx
Nice work on the carriage house, in the light or in the dark. Yes, LEDs can be used to good effect, but you gotta do yer homework. Incandescents are easier to work with. To each his own[:)] I can say I have some hard earned experience with LEDs, but will probably go with incandescent on my RR buildings. (don’t know why my letters went all slanty) Thanks for sharing your work. Dan
People do believe that about LEDs, but once you get in the ballpark with resistance at the supply voltages typically used in model railroading, it’s actually pretty straightforward.
You do need some minimum resistance, which differs between having one LED and several in series. But anything above 470 ohms per LED at 12 volts is usually safe. For LEDs in series, just add up how many LEDs and multiply by that if you’re looking for bright. For large buildings, I usually want lots more dim than bright so I use lots more resistance. For large installations with multiple LEDs, this can rise into the tens of thousands of ohms. Oftentimes, I’ll try several values to get them dialed into the look I like.
I still use bulbs, but only for certain special situations with structures. That’s because LEDs offer two big advantages over bulbs in lighting structures – little heat and longevity. Phil’s done a good job here as the bulbs are carefully placed with good ventilation and look like they’ll be easy to get to in case one or more fails. Those are important factors in using bulbs you must keep in mind when installing them.
On the other hand, LEDs are forever – or close enough for our purposes. I’m not sure how motivated I’d be if installing 50 bulbs in a building meant I’d be changing them over the next few years. Some are in installs in buildings I didn’t think would be lit – what was I thinking?[%-)] – when I built them. Like my Durango station, where I did manage to get a LED into the dispatchers office in the center of the building by coming in from below. It’s all sealed up except that, which could create a heat issue with a bulb.
In the end, sometimes bulbs work best and sometimes LEDs. But I actually rarely plan or calculate anything. I just know the ballpark I need to be in the succ
I would pass on wiring them in series. If one goes out, you don’t don’t which one, without breaking the circuit between each bulb. If you wire them in parallel, the other two will remain lit if one goes out. If they are too bright, insert a resistor in series with the lighting circuit. In a parallel circuit, the voltage across each bulb will be the same.
Actually, this is easy to test if it’s an issue. Just take a LED tester – 2 AA batteries in a battery holder with a 1k ohm resistor in the positive lead – and move along the series group, touching the leads on each until you find one that doesn’t light.
And you’ll likely never encounter this…the long life of LEDs, especially if you throttle 'enm down with LOTS of resistance, makes this issue with series cricuits far less of a concern.
What I often do is fab up multiple groups of LEDs in series, then feed them through the same resistance at the main feed to the building. I vary the number of LEDs in each group and this also gives increased randomness in the overall building. So using them in series is actually part of my technique.