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Okay I'm finally getting around to lighting some buildings.
The question: how do you light yours?
I have a couple I can simply run two wires thru the floor and mount a bulb in but the majority will have interiors visible in the windows. Some windows will be blocked out and others will be frosted, but I'm stuck on the lower ones.
I'm also lighting the locomotive shop which will call for multiple lights hung from the ceiling. I'm aiming towards running a few brass rods above the beams and soldering bulbs or LED's from above.
I put 12-16v bulbs in most of my buildings and run them off the variable terminals on a old DC throttle. this way I can dim the lights for photos or run them at full brightness.
The way I route most of the bulbs is to bring the wires up through the floor and let them "hang" from the under side of the roof. I just put a dab of CA on wires about 1-2" from the bulb and bend the wires downward a little so the bulb wont rest on the plastic roof. If I have a out side light such as over a garage I will just drill a hole a hair over the bulb size insert the bulb through the plastic wall and put a dab of ca on the wires right where they end and the bulb starts. most of my buildings have 2-3 bulbs. I attach all the bulb wires to one lead and put a plug on them. this plug is in case I need to pull the building off the layout. I use those $1.50 plugs that the RC plane/car guys use. Some like to use LEDs but I think the bulbs still look beter. if you use the LEDs by those odd ball convex ??? leds that spreads the light around they look a little better than standard LEDs the we use for head lights,
any street lights I just run wires right to them as I pull them up and lay on the side if need be.
I run my DC throttle voltage at about 80% to save bulb life and make them have a "scale brightness".
I do mine pretty much the way Trent describes. For lighting windows that have interiors, I paint the top of the bulb silver and then glue the bulb to the bottom of the second floor. This directs most of the light down into store windows.
The brass rods used as conduits will work fine for your roundhouse. I'm not a big fan of LED's for building lighting since the color is usually not right and the beam is too focused. The G-R-S micro light with the shade already attached would be perfect for roundhouse lighting. There's an example at http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/296-105.
Thanx guys, I think that's the way I'm going to go.
I'll still have to hang lights in the loco shop, it'll be a variation of hanging from the cieling to clear the crane.
Trent love those truck lights! I have a ton of fiber optics I'm just waiting to try out, looks like a new project coming up!
Jim, I have a couple of those lights to try as well. I have to laugh at the description on Walthers website:
"A scale, $4.95, not currently in stock at Walthers, Expected: Unknown
This product is on-sale today for $3.98"
They don't have them but they're on sale?
Something I accidentally ran across was "peel and stick", Part#511 lights, by Model Power. They have a mounted bulb in a dime size mount with stick tape on the bottom. The leads are 12" long and the bulbs are 12-16volts. They are the easiest method I've found for lights that can be hidden. I paid $16.99 for a pack of 15 at Hobby Lobby, but you probably could find them cheaper online.
Otherwise, I pretty much follow the same method as Trent.
