Let there Be Light!

I’ve spent a good portion of my evenings & weekends the past couple of weeks finalizing the installation of lighting on my layout as well as sorting out some really frustrating wiring issues (but more on the latter in another post).  I recently upgraded the lighting in my basement as even though I have two outside exposed walls my basement is….well, a basement!  The previous owner had some overhead lights installed that provided decent light for a playroom or workout area but better lighting was needed if I was going to use this space for my layout. 

I had rigged up some old track lighting that was sitting around unused during the initial construction of my benchwork and thought about potentially using this once my layout was completed.  I knew the color temperature of the bulbs was off (everything on the layout looked like it had been yellowed from sitting out in the sun for long time) but that was easily replaceable.  My main problem was with the cords.  The lights I had on hand were all designed to be plugged into a regular outlet, and given my (limited) skills as an electrician I wasn’t comfortable cutting and rigging wiring to put these lights onto a single source of power so I nailed extension cords along the joists and down the wall to the outlets.  As such, I have power cords all over the place (you can see in the images below) and it looked just plain sloppy.  I’m leaving the lighting up during construction and initial testing of my layout design and wiring, but once I’m ready to start putting down scenery they will be coming down.

Here is a good picture of the original lighting I rigged up when I first started building the layout.  You can see the cords I've secured against the ceiling with nails, but it's still a MESS!  

The bright lights along the top of the image are part of the new track lighting I've installed (more later).

I knew some additional lighting was needed but was very leery about installing fluorescent lighting.  Let me say right up front I am NOT a fan of fluorescent lighting.  I find I get headaches if I’m around them for too long and feel like it has a flickering effect when you're under it.  Plus, I work all day under fluorescent light in my office and well…who wants to be reminded of work when they are doing the thing that is supposed to be the farthest thing from it!?!

I finally settled on halogen track lighting, and have to say I’ve been pretty happy with the results.  The idea to use them came from a set installed in our kitchen which creates a strong, concentrated white light that’s great for prepping dinner.  The more I looked at it the better it looked for using on the layout.  I went to “Le Grande l’Orange” home improvement store and looked at my options.  I was able to pick up 12 feet of track (allowing me to splice off an existing junction box that I removed a light fixture from)  as well as a 10  lights for roughly $130.00.    My biggest concern in choosing halogen was with cost, and pricing out a similar installation with fluorescent lighting it was not that much more expensive in raw dollars given the size of my layout (the fluorescent would have cost a little less than $100 so this was 30% more, but as I said we’re dealing with small enough amounts that I was willing to take on the added cost). 

I’ve been pretty happy with my results so far.  The installation was quick (I installed the lighting pictured above in a couple hours one evening) and the light is very “clean” and doesn’t seem to alter the color of things in an odd way (understand, this is a completely subjective observation on my part) and does create a lot of light in a small package, which is nice in a basement with ceilings that are around 7’ high.  The larger light fixtures with traditional incandescent lighting is barely above my head and makes the space feel very closed in.  These are only a few inches from the ceiling so the room feels a lot more open. 

You can see the basic layout of the installation in this view (the image is taken from under the original overhead light that I took out to tie in the track lighting).  The track crosses over the layout in the middle of the floatbridge yard (you can see a trackplan in my first post here) and then makes a 90 degree turn to follow the contours of the layout.  I've angled the lights so that they are generally illuminating a section of the layout as far from the location of the light as possible, limiting the amount of bright spots on the layout.

I only have two complaints so far.  The lights produce a very bright, but very concentrated light.  As a result, the light diffuses (disperses?  It’s been a long time since Physics 101!) pretty quickly so you need a fairly large number of lights to cover a given area.  You can see in my pictures that I needed a pretty significant number of lights around the layout to avoid and dark patches, so on a larger layout in a different configuration the cost could definitely add up. 

The other issue I have is with the lighting itself.  You can only buy the track for it in 4 foot sections (according the “helpful” person at everyone’s favorite hardware store they’ve discontinued the 2 foot sections) so fitting the lighting around a layout more precisely than I did (as this is a “learning layout” I’m not going to finish it with a valance or anything like that) isn’t possible unless you make some cuts to the track with a hack saw.  I’m sure someone more handy than I am could do it, but it wasn’t something I was going to try.  If I were really particular about lighting this layout, I know I’d need to get more involved in layout out the lights properly.

Now I understand why those who have experience in the hobby build a valence!  You can just make out my shadow in this image (it's hard to make out, but I'm blocking light over the Maine Central and half of the ICG boxcar in the middle of hte picture, the BAR car at the end of the yard siding is directly exposed to the light) which might be off putting to some. 

All in all, I’m happy with my results and wanted to share my experiences with others out there who might be looking at lighting alternatives for a small to mid sized layout.  There is definitely a higher cost factor involved, but as it’s more or less ready to go out of the box (all you need is a spot to tap off your household wiring) and has a finished look that keeps the room looking good if you have a mixed use space.

As a general update, I’ve almost completed my wiring (I’ll share my experiences in my next post) and I can push cars around my layout.  This thing really works!  I can’t stress enough if you take 90 min or so a night to work on your layout 3 nights a week, you really make progress!  I can actually see myself finishing this one day!