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Now that the waters of the Shopping Tsunami have receded a bit, it’s time to consider picking up some good deals on “seasonal” model railroading supplies. Among the best bang-for-a-buck deals that’s really useful are those strings of LEDs that some people use for decorating trees and houses…
For the model railroader on a modest budget, those LED Xmas lites are raw material for all sorts of lighting needs. Here I’m talking strictly about the various white LED lighting available. These sets also come in color versions, but these may or may not be colored LEDs. You on you’re own with those.
White LEDs typically come in cool white/blueish-tinged or warm white/yellow-tinged.The cool white LEDs work well to represent fluorescent lighting. The warm white LEDs work well to represent standard incandescent lighting. Cool white LED sets are easy to find. You may have to look around to find the warm white LEDs. After trying 3 stores without luck, it turned out Target also carries warm white. Bingo!
To a certain degree the choice between cool white and warm white depends on your era and location. Fluorescent lighting became a lot more common after WWII and cities tend to have much more of it than rural areas, so pick cool white for that.
A couple of additional things to look for…try to find sets that say “includes replacement lamp” but also physically check the string in order to find ones where the LEDs simply plugs in – and is thus equally easy to extract. I have had LED strings where the LED is encased in a plastic housing that have been glued or welded together, where each one has to be physically broken to extract the LED.
The best thing I’ve found to represent an incandescent bulb is what’s called a “cone reflector” LED. Suitably stepped down in brightness with resistors, these look very similar to an incandescent bulb when see from the side. The conreflector LED looks like it has a little mirror in it that