Great layout diagram but what scale is it.

Hi Guys!

Congratulations on your new magazine, it looks great.  I was closely examining the layout diagram and I would like to recommend you add a little more pertinent data.  Mainly what scale is each square on the plan 12" or 24"?  Who drew the map?  Who converted it into the digital format?

I like the fact that we can zoom into the plan, that is very handy.  I am finding the layering a litte confusing with the staging a different color under the center peninsula but I think I get it.  If a reader is color blind (likely) they will not necessarily be able to discern the staging color from the main peninsula color. 

I am also glad you resoved your server issue with all of your popularity.  Nice work to all of you.

Mark N. Goedert
http://www.MrTrains.com

HO scale

The Bear Creek and South Jackson is an HO railroad. The squares are 12" on a side (and the heavier lines are on 5' boundaries). 40" minimum radius (mainline) and 36" (branchline). This is from the 3rd Planit working drawings for the layout - it's a screen capture from my 1920x1200 monitor!

There's a lot more info on the BC&SJ on my website at http://www.bcsjrr.com

Cheers,

Charlie Comstock

Lighting Question

You switched from the low watt to the FL's, do you use the standard bulbs, full spectrum bulbs or another special type of bulb in the F:'s?

Thanks

Steve

BCSJ lighting

Hi Steve,

I fluorescent tubes from Sylvania - iirc they are 32F841XP/ECO.  The 32 is 32 watts (T8 x 48"). I don't remember what the F stands for. The 8 is 85 CRI (moderately high color rendering index, one step below the might chroma50 and TL950 tubes which cost twice as much and produce much less light). The 41 means 4100K color temperature - I picked this temperature through trial and error. It was easier on my eyes than the 5000K or 6500K bulbs while the 2700K and 3500K bulbs were just to reddish for me. The XP is a Sylvania trademark meaning extra brightness - these tubes start at a bit over 3000 lumens each. And the ECO is "Ecologic" meaning the have little enough mercury in them that I can legally dispose of them in my garbage can (at least for now). I liked their combination of color and their relatively smooth color spectrum.

I mount them in Crescent (the mfg) NLT232 fixtures (dual 48", T8 wrap fixtures). These come with a electronic ballast from Triad that has proven to be reliable and SILENT. With 23 fixtures running I can hear NO buzzing or hum from these fixtures. The lens/diffuser on them does a good job of evening out the light generated from them. And I got them from a local lighting wholesaler for less than the price of the junky fixtures carried by Lowes and Home Depot (both of which turned out to buzz/hum for me).

The train room is bright enough with these on so I can take hand held candid pictures with my Canon DSLR (set at ISO 1600) at around 1/30th to 1/60th of a second at F8 (exposure varies depending on subject). Not nearly as bright as outdoors, but pretty well illuminated for indoors.

I'd thought about using Phillips TL950 (with an ultra high CRI 95 rating) but they are double the cost and slightly more than 1/2 the light.

I hope this answers your question,

Charlie

Swing Gate Construction and Upper Deck Support

Charlie:

Great article.

I would like more detail on how you built the swing gate. Do you have photos and construction plans you could share with us?

Also, how do you support the upper deck shown in the Figure 4 photo on page 78? I can't tell how it is attached to the wall.

Thanks,

Jack Cutler

Swing Gate

The next 'Up the Creek' will feature the swing gate and lift hatch, why I needed them, how I built 'em, and how they're used.

Cheers,

Charlie

Oh good....

...of course, with my woodworking abilities, I'd be more inclined to hire you to build one for me.

I've got dreams for my swing gate.... right now that's all they are.

To valence or not to valence, that is the question.

Great article, Charlie, I'm way behind in my internet reading, but now that I am retiring in a few weeks, I hope to have more time for our passion.

I started out using track lighting with CFLs (soft light) and did not like the 'cans in the photos and thought it gave the layout a surreal look.  So I decided to build valences and am glad I did.  The shadow box effect is, I think the optimum way to see the railroad.  Whether you have a valence above your upper deck or not, your lower will be automatically shadowboxed.

Back to the CFLs.  I finally realized there were choices in CFLs and began to switch over to the daylight versions.  Then, like you, I started switching to T8 daylight floorecents and am more happy with that kind of lighting than the CFLs. 

I have several big issues with CFLs, first they HUM, second they have the life of a housefly, averaging about 12 months.  With 30 of them in the layout room, that is a huge issue, almost always one or more are burned out. Replaced 3 yesterday.  T8 is the future.  BTW, I have not had humming with the el heapo HD/Lowes shop light fixtures. (So far) and third and most important, aged concrete should not look green.

Anyway, I really like your layout and got taken in by your Fithers link. . .

Merry Christmas!

Joe Daddy

CFL's hum?

I've got almost my entire house decked out in daylight CFL's from Sylvania and I have never heard a hum from them.  We love the lighting from them in the house, especially the basement.  I do have T8's in my layout room now, but still a few CFL's to augment the lighting.  And you only get 12 months out of them?  I have only changed one CFL in the five years since we started switching over.  Is there a cheap knock-off brand you are buying, or have I just had immense luck with mine? 

CFL's

My CFL source has always been Homes Depot.  23W, someting like ~9 - 10 bucks for four these days, when I started they wre ~3-4 bucks a piece.  (or so I recollect)

Joe Daddy

cheap brands

If stay with name brands you're much better off, even though they cost more.  The cheap ones don't have the quality control, so don't perform as well. 

They can even be dangerous:  We had gotten some "Feit Electric" brand CFL's.    One night while sitting in the living room, I heard a pop in one of the table lamps, looked over and saw the ballast compartment at the base of the lamp flaming.  If I hadn't been in the room, our house could have been toast.  Needless to say, I will never, ever buy anything by "Feit Electric" again. 

CFL brands

I have tried a few brands of CFLs with varying price ranges.  I got my first set of CFLs from IKEA of all places about 9 years ago.  I have disposed of I think 2 of them so far for the 11W or 13W variety but they lasted easily 6 years or so.  I still have a few around the house even a couple 23W variety.  One thing that I have noticed over the last few years is that they have figured out a better way to "start" the CFLs than before in that many of them are "instant-on" variety now and have a much shorter time to when they reach their "full capacity" (the IKEA ones were 5-8 minutes vs new ones 1-2 minutes).

As for price ranges, the IKEA ones were I believe $2-$3 each.  I have found a much cheaper alternative that so far appears to have a decent light output.  Wal-Mart sells a "Lights of America" branded CFL for $0.92 each for a 20W (75W equiv) "warm" light (2700K).  If you are interested in the "warm" tones these so far have been very decent.  I also picked up a few of their 100W equiv bulbs but have not tested them as much yet.

My plans for the layout lighting will be try these out on an approx 2 ft spacing using something like this to mount the lights:

This is a right angle mounted socket.  Somewhere I read someone used a bunch of sockets on extension cords from IKEA and a large pipe clamp to hold them to the upper benchwork.  Of course using these sort of sockets will depend on the price per socket compared to a normal florescent setup ( I have a few double tube 4ft light sets in the garage that can be used as well if needed).

Mike

Just teach your CFL's the

Just teach your CFL's the words and they can stop Humming

Dan

CFL

I had 4 Sylvania CFLs in 5000K from Lowes (or was it Home Depot). Within a couple of weeks 2 of them were buzzing (not humming).

It's very difficult to find CFLs that will admit what their CRI rating is (as opposed to T8s). I suspect this is because most of them have sucky CRIs (under 80) and also because the mfgs are trying to avoid confusing consumers who probably are already skittish about moving to new technology.

I'll eventually move to CFLs for the lower deck (Redland) lighting as the incandescents down there just don't match the color of the 4100K T8s in the ceiling.

Charlie

Pardon my memory

The Sylvania bulbs are the ones that we didn't really like.  The house is full of CFL's from Phillips.  They are more expensive, but I have not replaced any of the Phillips bulbs in the time we've had them and they get to full light quite quickly with never a hum.  After Charlie made the comment about Sylvania, I had to go check and its the Phillips brand that we really like.  We buy them at Home Depot as well. 

Sylvania T8s

Oops... forgot to mention that the T8 tubes I'm using are Sylvania T8, 4100K, XP ECO CRI85 bulbs. They're mounted in Crescent NLT-232W (twin tube wrap fixtures - diffuser panel over the tubes) with Triad ballasts.

There's 23 of 'em in the ceiling now and I can't hear them at all. Absolutely silent, even when I'm standing still in the room below any of the fixtures with the family gone off somewhere. (or maybe my ears are going bad, but I hear stuff my wife never hears)

Charlie