Interior lighting for ho scale styrene models


W

Watchword

New Member
Anyone have experience installing interior lighting in HO model buildings? I am building a small business district for my train layout using kits by Cornerstone, DPM and Small Town USA (so far) but have been unable to find any information on lighting.
 
Depends on how elaborate you want to get. You can just put in one light bulb and call the building lighted. Or you can put in many small light bulbs, floors, walls and paint the interior black so that light doesn't leak and fake an interior.

In other words, it's up to you as to low deep you want to get. yes, I have down both ways getting interiors with floors and ceilings and just general lighting.
 
One thing I just learned just last night though. If you decide to use LED's paint the inside of the building roof white to give the beam something to bounce off and it will spread the light a lot more evenly.
 
Thanks. White ceilings are a good idea. Specifically what type of LED bulbs do you recommend? I assume I can run all the lighting on the 16 volt transformer that powers my Peco switch machines. On the Smalltown USA I just finished I divided the floors and the rooms so they could be lighted individually but maybe this is not really necessary. I’m building this in northern Thailand and order everything from the US--including a book on model building that unfortunately doesn’t mention lighting.
 
Why not go all the way and put an interior to the building?

Bulbs will get too hot and can warp the building (this is why the Walthers street lamps are made of metal)
 
I plan to go with white LED's. They require very low amps and do not get hot. You can get ones with 'frosted' lenses so that the light spreads and is not focused.

I also plan to use black construction paper inside the buildings to contain the light.

Shop eBay for LEDs. You can usually find packs of 5, 10, 20, 100, for a fraction of what you would pay at Radio Shack. All of that retail packaging is expensive.

Doug
 
Thanks, Doug. I'm still not sure exactly what LED's to look for. Do they run on 16 volts? I purchased a couple of LEDs here in Chiang Mai to indicate a reverse loop but they immediately burned out. I divided up the interior of this model with sheet acrylic painted black so that I could light up only the business area and to keep from seeing in one window and out another, but I will use black construction paper on models where it is OK to light up both stories. Yes, I may eventually add some interior objects later.
 
The reason they burnt out is that most - not all - LEDs run at approximately 3.5 Volts, you'll need a resistor in one the the feed lines to the LED to drop the voltage. Usually a 470OHM resistor will work - just keep the resistor away from the plastic as they do get warm.

Jim
 
Thanks Jim; I appreciate your help. Can one resister work multiple LEDs? Can the resister be installed under the table away from the plastic?

Or should I get a third transformer to go from 16 volts to 3 volts and forget about resisters? I already have one 220 to 110 volt transformer and one 110 to 16 volts.

Your message also indicates "LED's from 2MM - 5MM - super bright white, wired with resistors now in stock". Do you sell these things? Do you have a Website?
 
LEDs are a current-operated device and should NOT be operated without a resistor but you CAN wire multiple LEDs in series and use one resistor to run that lighting string - that's what I have done in model boats - and the resistor can be at the power feed point rather than close to the LEDs.

I have used flat black paint on styrene walls and ceilings to stop the light from shining through the plastic and then applied the colour over the flat black.

If you want to do LED strings, the resistor calculation isn't too hard:

Take the supply voltage, subtract 2.5 volts per LED, divide by .1 and that will give you the value of the resistor in Ohms - use the closest standard value available and you will want at least a 1/4 Watt resistor so it doesn't get too hot.
 
I like to paint the walls black. like the white ceiling, though. will have to try that. I use LED and incandescent bulbs. The bulbs at 10-12 volts, LED at 1.5v. Phil
 
Thanks to everyone for your help. I think it will be easiest to purchase the resister along with each LED and run them off my 16 volt transformer, keeping the resister well-away from the plastic. And the rest of my models will have black interior walls and white ceilings. My only experience with electricity has been house wiring--full scale.
 
LEDs are the way to go. If you are using regular LEDs, you need a resistor.

But here's what I did.

I used these LED strip lights. They have the required resistor built in. I soldered 22 gauge copper wire to the strip.
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These run directly on 12 volts, but they are dimmable, which I take advantage of on my layout.
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I hot glued them in my buildings (All DPM and Atlas kits) and hot glued the wires where they wouldn't be seen from the windows. Some of them were too bright, so I covered one or two of the LEDs with electrical tape.
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Then just drill a hole through your layout and hook them up to a 12 volt power supply.
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In most of my buildings, I also used paper to divide the building into rooms and used black construction paper to black out some windows.

The strip LED lighting can be purchased from Electronics websites.
 
Thank you Lionel fan for taking time to give me a tip and even to show me some pictures. Three of the images are not coming through for some reason, but I will check out the idea of using the LED strips. I think my transformer is 16 volts, not 12 volts, though.

So far for my little village I have ordered Smalltown USA, DPM and Cornerstone. I like DPM best of the three. For one thing, the architectural style of the buildings is more esthetically pleasing. One of the walls on the Smalltown model lacked distinct detailing for the brick, as if the mold had gone bad.

Dave S, thanks for the calculating links. I’ll have to figure out how to use them, but they will be very helpful. It’s amazing to me what a beginner has to learn to build a model railroad but I’m sure having a lot of fun! Truly this is the world’s greatest hobby.
 
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/top-emitting/filter/Color,Warm_White,3,2:

http://www.ecolightled.com/category/led_strip_light_tape/?r=b_ribbon

These are like the lights I used. They are also handy for other uses, I used some to light up my Lionel display cases. They have all different colors of light and I see there are some that run on 24 volts and 5 volts. I highly recommend using this type of lighting, it is very easy to use for someone who is not the most electrically gifted.

These would be good for passenger cars, but I recommend the less bright styles so they are not too bright for the confines of a passenger car.

And Watchword, I love the DPM kits too, I have a handful.
 
Lionel fan said:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/top-emitting/filter/Color,Warm_White,3,2:

http://www.ecolightled.com/category/led_strip_light_tape/?r=b_ribbon

These are like the lights I used. They are also handy for other uses, I used some to light up my Lionel display cases. They have all different colors of light and I see there are some that run on 24 volts and 5 volts. I highly recommend using this type of lighting, it is very easy to use for someone who is not the most electrically gifted.

These would be good for passenger cars, but I recommend the less bright styles so they are not too bright for the confines of a passenger car.

And Watchword, I love the DPM kits too, I have a handful.
Click to expand...

Yikes, they'r a bit pricey. I guess I'll see if I can build my own light strips on some sort of metal bars.
 
I just put LED lighting in a Model Power 'farm house' that I will be using for the sawmill manager's office, one LED in one room, another in a different room. Of course the interior of the house had to be divided into rooms with cardboard painted black first. I feel that having different light levels in different rooms is more prototypical and gives a pleasing effect.
 
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