Street lighting

[scahalane]

I'm trying to get an idea of what's the best lighting to use to light the inside of my engine shed and for doing some street lighting as well (LED or bulb what size and voltage).

Also can anyone recommend a good place to order them from. I've been looking at DCC supplies but they seem kind of expensive.

[Broithe]

I've used Viessmann street lights - they're rather nice, though still a bit 'pricey' - the LED ones are very efficient and give a realistic light - some of them also plug in to a socket mounted in the baseboard, handy for removing safely, if you ever need to do any work.

 

The colour of the emitted light can be a problem in some layouts, dependent on your time period, be careful not to get it looking too modern or olde worlde...

 

http://www.gaugemaster.com/viessmann.html

[Weshty]

Scahalane,

 

You could try http://www.studio-scale-models.com/lights.shtml

 

€19 for four metal or €16 for four wooden poles and lights. They come in sunny yellow to get that soft tungsten look.

[Broithe]

Scahalane,

 

You could try http://www.studio-scale-models.com/lights.shtml

 

€19 for four metal or €16 for four wooden poles and lights. They come in sunny yellow to get that soft tungsten look.

The beauty of tungsten lamps is that you can vary the 'look' by varying the voltage applied, and a small drop in voltage makes a huge difference to the lifetime, too. They do use a good bit more power than an LED lamp, though, but that won't be too much of an issue on most layouts.

[WT CLASS 2-6-4T No. 4]

You could always try Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/ for LED's for your engine shed. They have a couple of shops in Eire as well, good for switches, resistors and LED's.

[Broithe]

Also, it can be worth testing any structures that are to be lit for 'light-bleed' through the walls - card buildings are usually OK, but plastic and resin ones can often look a bit 'strange' in the dark, especially if the light source is right next to a wall or roof.

 

It's a fairly simple issue to slap some paint on the inside - silver is a good choice, both reflective, for efficiency, and fairly opaque to light transfer.

[scahalane]

Thanks Broithe: I'm looking at perhaps a tungsten bulb grain of rice (1.8mm) 12v in white or a tungsten bulb sub-mini 1.2mm 1.5v white both sold at DCC supplies but I'm not sure why there's such a large voltage change between the two types.

 

WT CLASS 2-6-4TNo.4: I looked at Maplin and they don't sell anything under 3mm which is too big for me.

 

Des: I'm looking to build a particular type of lamp so at the moment yours won't suit but maybe another time. I'll be looking for a bunch of 40'flats of you soon anyway so I hope you've some left!

[Broithe]

When I've used grain of wheat bulbs, I've found that they're very white at 12 volts and don't last too long. I've generally run them in series pairs from a 16 volt supply, so each bulb gets 8 volts, they 'look' much better, not a sharp white, and last for ever. The only down-side is that if one bulb fails the other will go out, too - a sort of mini-Christmas-tree-effect - but, I've never lost one at 8 volts..

 

With tungsten bulbs, you can run them off AC - I've used spare Hornby power supply transformers, so that they're separate from the track supplies.

[kevrail]

have a look at my post for lighting. May be of some use - I would always recommend LEDs much better and safer that Wheat Grain

 

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/1621-Layout-Lighting

[Weshty]

I'll be looking for a bunch of 40'flats of you soon anyway so I hope you've some left!

 

New etches arrived in today, just in time for Santa

[Broithe]

New etches arrived in today, just in time for Santa

 

Got an etch for a sleigh..?

 

[scahalane]

Thanks Kevrail: I just ordered some of those LED's from the ebay link from that post, good prices too!

[Dave]

LED bulbs are the way to go, they last so much longer than grain of wheat bulbs and run cooler. For buildings I use warm white as the light colour is close to a tungsten bulb. I have a number of made up LED's 5mm with resistor in warm white if you want to buy them off me. They will run on DC 9 to 12v.

 

Here's a pic of what they are like

 

[DiveController]

When I've used grain of wheat bulbs, I've found that they're very white at 12 volts and don't last too long. I've generally run them in series pairs from a 16 volt supply, so each bulb gets 8 volts, they 'look' much better, not a sharp white, and last for ever. The only down-side is that if one bulb fails the other will go out, too - a sort of mini-Christmas-tree-effect - but, I've never lost one at 8 volts..

 

With tungsten bulbs, you can run them off AC - I've used spare Hornby power supply transformers, so that they're separate from the track supplies.

It seems like there are different LEDS that run within different voltage ranges, 9-12V and 12-16V. DCC track voltage is nearer 16V usually, whereas DC more like 12V. So you'd need to decide if you were going with DCC in advance unless you run them from a separate supply?

[scahalane]

Thanks Dave for the offer but I've all ready ordered 50 Led's off ebay so I'll see how they pan out first.

DiveController: I'm running DCC but my points are on a separate analogue system so I'd imagine I'd run the lights of a third power supply of what ever voltage suits.

[Kinvara-Train]

Hi Folk's only for info,

you can see the biggest selection in Ireland on street lights from Viessmann,Belli-Beco,Schneider Brawa etc in Gauge 1 O OO HO N and Z gauge tomorrow on the Bray Xmas -Bash in the Bray Wheeler Clubhouse from 10 am-2pm (see unter What's -On )

Happy Xmas to all=D

Seasonal Greetings

Walter