Hi Guys, well the day might be getting close when I can actually build a room just for the trains. I would like to poll everybody, especially the veteran builders, on their thoughts about lighting. If you could start from scratch, what kind of lighting would you use. Phil.
Hi Phil,
Funny this has gone a day without an answer. I am interested too because I am about to add another storey on the house to accommodate a train layout and a couple of bedrooms. Need an excuse to build a train room level on the house. Looks better if two bedrooms for the girls are in the plan.
I would have put neon tubes overhead without putting thought into it, but come to think of it there must be something more appropriate. Something that simulates the sun and causes buildings and trees to cast shadows.
A lamp that moves across the ceiling? Maybe that is going too far.
I wait with interest to hear from the experts.
Actually, it only took 2 hours 40 minutes for an answer.
There is a topic in the General Discussions forum that can provide you with answers to your lighting questions… http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=68937
Timothy,
You are right. Sorry it seemed like 30th June in the afternoon (like it is here) and I did not do the time conversion to work out how long the topic had been there.
But hang about. The one in General Discussion was posted by the same Phil. You just trying to make sure you get plenty of hits Phil??[;)][tup]
Install dimmers, and make sure the lights you use are dimmer-compatable. With dimmers, you can simulate varieties of lighting conditions.
I personally like track lighting, with long tracks, because it’s easy to re-position the lights when you need to.
A combination of very flexible track lighting with dimmers and flourescents would be best.
I went with track lighting with a dimmer.
Oh man,…at first I thought you were going to send him here: http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19526 .
That would just be cruel! [:D]
That link you gave is a good one though.
Phil,
I’ve built three layouts, my last one a double decker. For a single decked layout the suggestions already made are good ones. For a milti-decker, you have some real design problems built in when it comes to lighting. I tried a bunch of stuff, from strings of Christmas lights, to those rope lights, to fluorescents, incandescents, you name it. Then it hit me,…why am I reinventing the wheel here? They make lighting that goes under the kitchen cabinets! I tried it, and it works like a charm!
Now for my top deck I went with track lighting in the ceiling, with lots of fixtures. For fixtures that were further back from the layout I used regular white bulbs. They give a nice genaric wash of light. For fixtures up closer to the layout I used colored bulbs to give the light a little more natural light. I used lots of yellow bulbs, some red, and some blue as well. The white bulbs were put on one dimmer, and the colored on another dimmer. Then sunrise came to the layout the colored bulbs were brought up first, then the white. Vice-versa for sunset.
I will be starting a new layout in the near future and have been following this subject of layout lighting for some time. Over the last few months the subject has been discussed several times in this forum. You might want to do a search of the forum under this subject.
You also might want to check an article by Dave Barrow in the 2005 Issue of Model Railroad Planning on page 78 in which he describes a layout lighting system using fluorescent lighting. Note that you can get fluorescent tubes with color characteristics of sunlight to get a more realistic color rendition. The disadvantage of incandescent bulbs is that they put out a lot of heat which may be a consideration if you’re using a large number of them and/or your layout room is not air conditioned. From what I’ve read, they also tend to produce multiple shadows depending on how they’re placed, whereas the light from a fluorescent tube is more evenly distributed.
Since I do not plan to try to operate my new layout under night conditions, I plan to use the Dave Barrow lighting method with fluorescent lighting.
Bob
Bob,
That’s all very true. That’s one of the reasons that I wasn’t going to use incandesent lighting. One of the problems with fluorescents is that they aren’t dimmable generally. There is one ballest that you can dim thats on the market now, but it’s not at all cost effective. Another problem that they have is that over time the UV rays that are given off tend to change the colors of things on the layout. You can buy bulb covers to counteract this, but it is something to be aware of.
You can get full spectrum incandecent lights. I have them in all my floods (including the track lights.)
I am using some “daylight” florescent bulbs that screw into a normal fixture. I bought them at Walmart and they run about 5 bucks a bulb. However, they are low wattage (25 watts) but have the appearance of 100 watts. They supposedly will last forever.
I second Spacemouse, track lighting and dimmers. The ability to redirect tracks lighting is very useful for me.
To: pcarrell
Thanks for the info. I realize that it’s expensive to dim fluorescent lights, but since I intend to run my layout only in “daylight” this is not an issue for me. Also when I built the train room, I put in additional lighting curcuits so if at a later time I decide to use dimable lighting, I’ll be able to tap into one of these extra curcuits.
I’ve heard of the problem with UV radiation from fluorescent lights fading colors on train layouts. A few months ago, there was a discussion of this problem in this forum. One of the contributors to the forum gave a website reference for UV shields that can be put around the fluorescent tubes to prevent this probelm. The problem with this source was that the shields were very expensive, e.g., $15-20 each. I’ve seen plastic shields at Home Depot that I believe are designed to prevent the tubes from shattering and they’re only about $1-2 each. Will these also screen out the UV radiation? Do you know of an inexpensive source of the UV shields? Those of us using flourescent lighting on our layouts would appreciate hearing about it. How fast does this fading occur? At 65 years old, maybe I don’t need to worry about it.
Bob
Hi Bob,
I think I can do a little better on price for you, but understand that the type of material used in the shield has an effect on how fast the fading happens. In addition, the UV exposure is also harmful to your eyes, although I’m not sure how relevant this would be. The problem is subtle, as everything bleaches out at the same time. The effect actually mimics what happens in the real world with paint and other colorings, as anyone who has ever had a red car and had parts of it repainted can testify to![:(!] Bottom line is, as with everything else, you get what you pay for. The worst effect is if you use various moss type “turf” ground coverings. They tend to bleach out quickly under flourescent lights, and
To: Jeff Simon
Jeff, thanks for the info. I went back to the website http://www.ergomart.com/FLUORESCENT_LIGHT_FILTERS/filters.htm that I mentioned above to refresh my memory on price. One sleeve for a 48" T8 or T12 tube is $25, however they get cheaper in quantity. For example, if you order between 7 and 23 of the sleeves, the price goes down to $8.33/sleeve, order between 24 and 239 sleeves the price is $6.25/sleeve and all are shipped free. This may be the place to go if you need large quanities of these UV filter sleeves, which I do.
I think you’re correct that using the UV filter sleeves beats having to replace the ground cover every few years because of bleaching.
Thanks again,
Bob
Seems everyone beat me to the punch!
Don’t cha just hate being the last one to the party?[8D]
my layout is in a garage with a 10 ft ceiling. Do you think track lighting will light up my table
Those are some good ideas. I assume, I know I should not do that, you would want the track lights mounted just above the edge of the layout so the light does not shine in your eyes? I like the idea of dimming. when you have a track lighting system how do you only dim some of the lights on the track? Doesnt the dimmer operate the whole track section?
I put in both – fluorescents for plenty of light everywhere for construction, cleaning, etc., plus a separate circuit for can lights on a dimmer. (I have 10-foot ceilings).
I probably should have had multiple circuits with multiple dimmers, though. Maybe next time!