Building Lights

[Royalhaw]

Good day everyone. Well my N scale layout is really moving along. I have all the track and turnouts down and I have been fixing many problems with the power issues. I am also working on the scenery and having some issues with getting it to look like what Woodland Scenic has but I am close. I have now started to work on lighting for the layout buildings including the Freight and Passenger depot platforms. I saw a suggestion to use LEDs for the lights (which I did for the control panel's turnouts) but they recommended working with a string of Chirstmas LEDs. The initial cost of an LED, resistor, hold etc. became very expensive. I have worked with a strand of Chirstmas LED lights and they have worked out fine. I did do some modifications to the string of lights which are the subject of another post but what my question is here is, what do you use to make roofs of buildings opique? As I put one of the lights next to the roof of a building the single point of light from the LED shows through the roof. I have used some cardboard, electrical tape, and paint but I do not find any of them very effective. I am reaching out for help from the forum to see what other people have done. Thanks, Harlan

 

[ianacole]

Have you tried tin foil?

 

[TrinityJayOne]

I just tried a single sheet of it and not a hint of my strong LED torch came through, so a few small LEDs won't be an issue. Keep in mind that the foil is going to reflect the light, which you may see as a good or a bad thing. If you have the dull side of the foil facing the LEDs the reflected light is a little softer.

 

[Royalhaw]

Great idea. I will try the foil......

 

[Royalhaw]

Well Ianacole, you are a genius! I just tried the tin foil on both a roof top I was having a problem with as well as the tops of the platforms. The foil does triple duty. It is easy to work with, it shuts out the light totally and you can adapt the reflective ability by using either side. IT WORKS GREAT! Thanks for the suggestion. This should be sent into the Model Railroad books and Woodland Scenics. It is a great tip. Again thanks, Harlan....

 

[ianacole]

Glad it helped! If you want even greater diffusion of the reflected light you can crumple the foil first then spread it back out. If you want no reflection you can always paint the foil flat black after gluing it to your roof.

 

[Royalhaw]

Great job. It has worked great. Thank you very much Ianacole....Harlan

 

[WCWBrassHat]

Paint the inside of the buildings walls and roof black. It will stop the light from bleeding thru the walls and roof.

Glenn

 

[Larry]

The past 2 weeks I've been reworking all of my skyscrapers & had to spray-paint all of the interior walls w/flat black to keep the lights from bleeding thru to the exterior. I also added Tinfoil to all of the backs of the buildings to reflect the lights to the front.

 

[dmacnicoll]

I would ask a follow-on question: I am just starting to place lights (LEDs) inisde buildings. I need the basic wiring sequence from power source to the LED. Can you help?

 

[dmacnicoll]

I am just starting to add building lights (LEDs). I need to know the basic wiring sequence from a power source (DC?) to the LEDs. Thx

 

[Royalhaw]

OK. There are multiple ways to go with LEDs. I read a post that stated that the single LEDs are very expensive when you include all the items. Well they suggested to use a string of Christmas LED lights. I got a string of 50 lights for $4.00. You can make the string into single lights by seperating them and using twisted bell wire to extend each light's length. You start at the strings start. The first light has three wires, which do you use? Well go along the string (2nd light and on only have two wires each) until you find the next light with three wires. This was the 25th light on the 50 light strand. Now cut the string just after the second three wire light. Now separate out the wires and you will find that the third wire can be cut from each of the first and last light, now cover the cut ends with electric tape (to protect from elecricution). Now you should have a series of LED lights on one side and a single wire on the other side. This is the electric loop. Now you can cut each light solder on the bell wire on each side of the LED and you have a single light that can be added to your building. I used wire screw blocks to attach the bell wires in a series. Remeber to keep the series flow from light to light. One attached to two, two attached to three, etc. You will get a group (25) lights that can be attached to the inside of the buildings. I use hot glue to attach the light to the foil lined roofs and I get great light for the building. I was able to also add lights to my passenger and freight depot platforms. I have not been able to figure out how to add photos to these posts so, my email is royalhaw1@verizon.net. if you send me yours I will be able to send you some photos and diagrams of the process. It was easy and gave me plenty of lights for my layout and by using the bell wire I could run out single lights easy.

 

[Larry]

I am just starting to add building lights (LEDs). I need to know the basic wiring sequence from a power source (DC?) to the LEDs. Thx

I bought 200 3mm LED's w/resistors attached for 12V. DC from China for $38.00 & the same amt. in 5mm for the same price. I use the 5mm bulbs in all my engines for head & tailites. I ran a Buss wire for the negative & one for the positive under my train tables. I then twisted all of the plus wires together & the same for all the negative & attached them to the buss wires. I then ran the buss wires to a small 12V transformer & then to a plug strip that I just turn on when visitors arrive. I have about 8 transformers for building lites & one transformer for streetlites. The streetlite transformer is a slotcar transformer of 9VAC & that one works for about 50 streetlites. The streetlites are not LED's. If you look on my Blog you will see how I did everything. My layout is pretty big & I run sections for building lites. I still have to install about 50 spotlites that I'm going to make using LED's & automotive lites. In the past I never soldered anything together, but a friend showed me the easy way & now everything I do in electrical is soldered.
I used the 3mm lites in strips of 6 to 8 for all the Skyscrapers & the 5mm lites in all of the other buildings.

 

[TrinityJayOne]

Larry, was this from a store or on ebay? At that price I wouldn't mind picking some up myself!

 

[Larry]

Larry, was this from a store or on ebay? At that price I wouldn't mind picking some up myself!

I've been buying all of my LED's & parts from; Cliffordjamesc2006 on Ebay.
In his store--Buy it Now--Be sure & go thru & check the cheapest price on the item you want. No shipping charges either.
There's a few others on Ebay that I buy from too in Auctions.