Model Railroader – September 2019

September 2019 41

around in a totally dark room is also a
safety concern.
The solution was installing a second
circuit behind the valance to power
25-watt blue light bulbs. Selectively
placed above the layout, the blue bulbs
simulate the illumination level of a full
moon at night. The lighting is also
enough for local operators to see their
control panels.

Lighting structure interiors

To get an idea for what an illuminated
building interior is supposed to look like,
I went outside my house one night and
observed the light coming through the
windows. All my structure models have
interiors divided into individual rooms,
so no view blocks are needed. Rather
than using one large bulb with light
escaping everywhere in a structure, I use
miniature light fixtures in selected
rooms of a structure.
When I first started building the lay-
out I used 12V and 1.5V miniature bulbs
to light my structure interiors. I used
separate power buses and power supplies
for each type of lighting. In addition to
an 8A, 12V power supply, I have a 13A,
5V power supply with resistors to step
down the power to 1.5V.
The lighting power buses are divided
into 5 power districts with on/off con-
trols at each local control panel. This
makes troubleshooting so many lights a
lot easier.
Over the past decade I’ve switched to
3 and 5mm LEDs for interior lighting.
They don’t require nearly as much power
as incandescent light bulbs and are rela-
tively cheap when purchased in large
quantities. I use warm white LEDs for
most buildings and cool white for indus-
trial buildings where I want to simulate
fluorescent lighting.
While there are less than 30 12V
bulbs left on the layout, there are now
hundreds of LEDs installed. The LEDs
are also driven by the 12V power supply.
Each LED has an appropriate resistor in
line to drop its voltage to around 2V.
When using LEDs for interior light-
ing, I bend the LED leads into a sharp
gooseneck, then I solder on wires from
the power bus, and install the building
over the LED. For multi-story buildings,
I first drill a hole in the floor above the
room I want to light and pass the LED
through it.
When there are multiple light sources
of the same voltage within a building,
I always wire them in parallel so that if
one fails, the entire building doesn’t go

dark. I selectively light rooms through-

out the structure, choosing rooms that

are easiest to access with wiring. My

large six-story hotel features 10 individ-

ual LEDs. An example of wiring a multi-

story building is shown in ❸ on page 39.

Because I use three different types of

lights, I keep the wiring well organized.

A single building may have 1.5V and

12V bulbs and LEDs. I use a different

color wire for each voltage and a

lighter color for the negative lead.

I also keep a written record for the

wiring colors and voltages for each

building. This is especially important

because I often wire lights in several

buildings at a time, then install them on

the layout all at once. I don’t want to be

under the layout, scrambling to remem-

ber if a set of wires went to a 1.5V bulb

or an LED.

Exterior lighting

I find that using 1.5V bulbs with

lampshades over exterior doorways adds

character to many buildings. I use com-

bination bulb/lampshades from Micro-

Scale Engineering. [Similar gooseneck-

style lamp fixtures are available with

LEDs from Evans Designs and

Woodland Scenics. – Ed.]

Two of my buildings, including the

hotel ❹, have neon signs from Light

Works by Miller Engineering. Each

includes its own driver module. I modi-

fied my signs by removing the included

battery holder, so I could wire each to its

nearest power district.

I selectively lit other rooftop and

roadside billboards with pairs of 1.5V

bulb/lampshades. Examples are shown

in the layout photos, including the track-

side billboard in ❺. For each lamp,

I first used CA to glue the two wire leads

together to form a single shaft. After that

hardened, I bent it into a sharp goose-

neck, then attached it to the top of the

billboard with CA. I concealed the wires

along one of the billboard’s back sup-

ports. I also use 1.5V lamps to add

streetlights to telephone poles.

As I described in the October 2016

issue of Model Railroader, I have several

long passenger sheds that I lit with LEDs

attached to fine copper wire.

Other sources of light on the railroad

are active regardless of the time of day.

These include color position train signals

and grade-crossing signals as well as

working traffic lights in Wakefield, the

largest city on the V&W.

Auto vehicle lighting

Automobile headlights and taillights

provided the last lighting challenge. Not

all vehicles needed their lights on,

because they were parked. Others

needed only their headlights or taillights

illuminated, depending on which end

faced the aisle. The vehicles feature a

variety of construction methods, includ-

ing hollow plastic bodies, metal parts,

and solid epoxy resin castings.

For some of the hollow body plastic

or metal cars, I drilled out the headlights

and taillights and ran lengths of fiber

optic cable from them to an appropriate

colored LED mounted under the layout.

I used warm white LEDs for the head-

lights and red LEDs for the taillights.

This approach didn’t work for all my

vehicles. My layout is set in the late

❻ Blacklight LEDs. This daylight shot shows one of Doug’s blacklight LED

installations on a structure roof. The LEDs are aimed at fluorescent-painted

headlights of the vehicles on the street below. When the room lights are off, the

UV LEDs will cause the headlights to glow.

Fluorescent painted

headlights

Blacklight LEDs