hi

I want to get ceiling lights in the room where my layout will be going, lights that provide excellent lighting ('daylight' type if possible)...

I don't like these 'spot light' ones that create shadows, and just one light bulb roughly in the centre of the room at current is a bit dull...  I'm thinking a bright strip light of some type would be better???

can anyone suggest anything?   what lighting do you use in the room where your layout is?

cheers for the help in advance


tim 

Quote from: bluedepot on January 24, 2015, 06:45:27 PM
hi

I want to get ceiling lights in the room where my layout will be going, lights that provide excellent lighting ('daylight' type if possible)...

I don't like these 'spot light' ones that create shadows, and just one light bulb roughly in the centre of the room at current is a bit dull...  I'm thinking a bright strip light of some type would be better???

can anyone suggest anything?   what lighting do you use in the room where your layout is?

cheers for the help in advance


tim

I've got the same problem Tim. Currently I've got one of these low energy, efficient but completely useless bulbs which is not in the middle of the room. So the lighting is terrible on one side of the room and non existent on the other side.
I was thinking of putting small diffused strip lights round the walls - the sort you put under kitchen units. I'll be interested to hear the experiences of others on this Forum.

yeh those low energy ones are the worst as so dim!!!

I was just looking at those strip lights that you use on top of bathroom mirrors and so on... 

I don't want to be blinded but a consistent day light feel would be good if that's achievable even!

cheers


tim

Quote from: bluedepot on January 24, 2015, 07:01:39 PM
yeh those low energy ones are the worst as so dim!!!

I was just looking at those strip lights that you use on top of bathroom mirrors and so on... 

I don't want to be blinded but a consistent day light feel would be good if that's achievable even!

cheers


tim

I think you would have to put some form of angled pelmet over the strip lights angled so that they cast light over the baseboards but not in your eyes. My baseboards are 2 foot deep from the walls - around 3 walls so that shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

I'm lucky, I did my shed from scratch so I fitted a double 5 foot fluorescent tube fitting.  Never got round to fitting daylight tubes to it yet (I really must), and it doesn't have a diffuser cover on it, just bare tubes, but I do get good light levels all round the shed.
I don't get any flicker and I find the light not too bad at the moment.  Having said that, for close up work, I use an illuminated magnifier with a daylight fitting.

Quote from: Lawrence on January 24, 2015, 07:10:48 PM
I'm lucky, I did my shed from scratch so I fitted a double 5 foot fluorescent tube fitting.  Never got round to fitting daylight tubes to it yet (I really must), and it doesn't have a diffuser cover on it, just bare tubes, but I do get good light levels all round the shed.
I don't get any flicker and I find the light not too bad at the moment.  Having said that, for close up work, I use an illuminated magnifier with a daylight fitting.

Yes that's another option Lawrence.
I've got a double four foot fluorescent in a diffused fitting in my kitchen and they are very bright but give a very even light. Two x 40 watt strip lights fitted. Trouble is - that means making holes in the ceiling of my railway room and I'm getting on a bit and try and avoid working at heights if possible.
I could use low voltage strip lights around the walls and that would be well within my capability - and safe as well.

An interesting topic, and one that is often overlooked. There have been many things written about layout lighting in the model railway press over the years - indeed, I recall entire essays on the subject in some mags.

Unfortunately,  I can't remember the mag or the year (but in all likelyhood I'd put me money on MRJ),  but I seem to remember some guy going to great lengths to get the lighting just right to look like "real summer daylight" suitable for colour photography!

I think if I were starting out on a new permanent layout, I'd most certainly give a lot of thought to how the layout would be lit. If it were a round the walls type of layout,  I think that strip lighting with soome sort of pelmet would be the way to go. I could probably install that on my own existing layout, but it's a case of one of those "round tuit" thingies!

The Americans are very good at this sort of thing (with their huge layouts snaking around huge basements) and mags such as Model Railroader often have photos showing how a featured layout is located and lighted. These articles and photos can be inspirational and give ideas that can be adopted to your personal situation.

Seems like the current trend over here is to consider LED strips.  Lots of discussion on Model Railroad Hobbyist e-zine.  For example http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/9736 .  If you use the "search" function at the top right side of that page, you'll get lots more.  MRH has some interesting discussions on general subjects such as this, even though most of the e-zine caters to the Horribly Oversized gauge.

Personally, I've always used fluorescent tubes for low-shadow lighting, but I wonder if that's still the best option as lighting technology is advancing/changing pretty rapidly these days.

Hi Tim

two ideas...

1) as per the lighting on my layout - warm white LED self adhesive strips x2 on the underside of venetian blind strips (any flat self supporting strip/channel) suspended ~18" above the layout. lovely subtle light for running trains.

2) over my workbench - twin 5' shaded (not a diffuser) fluorescent fitting 3' above the bench. Tubes have a colour temperature of 4000K (also shown as "840" written on the tube) for really nice colour rendering. I find the daylight type tube (6000K and above) too blue & cold looking. if you can find a high frequency ballast - even better as no flicker. The fittings hung on two hooks in the ceiling (easy to fill the holes if required) and plugged in on a long lead so no messing with house wiring. nice bright light for working.

Regards
Russ

Russ,

Your layout lighting seems like a simple and effectve solution - inexpensive, too. I like simple!

Must look into this myself!

Cheers! 

George

I was looking for ways to light my conservatory and found various types of led strips in ikea, they also sell led spotlights which provide a nice amount of light. Cheap to run and easy to install I certain saw their potential to light up a layout.

I used the linkable fluorescents that are intended for use underneath kitchen units (but when I get round to doing the other baseboards I'll certainly look into LEDs, which weren't available at the time).  Because they are linkable each one can be plugged into the next one, or joined by a short jumper cable, so very little mains wiring to do.  There is a limit on how many can be linked together though. 

I made a special shelf about 18" above the baseboard with the lights behind a pelmet just in front of the layout's front edge.  This means nothing you can see on the baseboard is in shadow, and you don't cast your own shadow onto the layout when standing in front of it. 

LED strips are definitely the way to go, methinks.
Many supermarkets and other businesses are changing over to LED's for better light, longer life and cheapness to run.

you can see what the layout LEDs look like in this post...

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=20363.msg246005#msg246005

Something else, which work are starting to adopt, is fluorescent shaped LED strip lights - lots of light and fits a standard flourescent fitting (but you do need to rewire it which is simple enough).

Just keep an eye on what colour temperature your buying.

Russ

My layout room is roughly 10x10 and has a twin 4' flourescent light fitted before the layout. It's bright enough, with no shadows, but I was a liitle concerned over its possible colour distortion, so I added a pendant fitting low energy daylight bulb over the of the layout. I was going to fit two, but one provided more than enough light, which is much whiter than the fourescent's, and the overall effect, to my eye, is bright and 'sunny'.

Cheers