Rework That Was Worth the Effort
Having thought that I was almost done installing lights, I was not looking forward to removing them and starting over. That being said, the lighting is a priority for me and I wanted to be happy with it. This work needed to happen so I decided to not dwell on the issue and just get it done.
It ended up only taking a few weekends and a couple evenings to get through it. On the calendar it took longer because I had to wait on some of the Amazon orders to arrive. The covid situation was making delivery schedules a bit random. Most of the time things arrived roughly on time but every once in a while, things would get delayed upwards of a week or more.
LEDs Version 2.0
The first thing I needed was a new light source. I really liked the flexibility and ease of use for the 12 volt LED strips but the sparkling rail issue voided them as a solution. At this point in the project I was coming on 2 years since I had done my original research on the LED strips. This technology is moving fast so in the two years that had passed, it was likely something new had come along or the price had come down on something else that I had originally deemed too expensive to consider. So, I jumped back into researching LED solutions.
I ended up finding three things that were game changers for my lighting solution:
- LED tube shop lights
- LED panels for replacing fluorescent fixtures in suspended ceilings
- Diffuser kits for LED strips
I ended up using all three of these in various locations as each form factor had pros and cons based on the requirements of the area where used.
LED Tubes
While I liked the LED strips, I did have one other problem with the 12 volt strips that I haven’t really talked about – the amount of light produced. On the upper deck, the distance from the deck surface up to the lights was considerably higher than the lower deck. On the lower deck there is just over 10” of height from deck to lights. On the upper deck this is almost 19”. Also, the upper deck is 19” deep. The greater height and depth meant I needed more strips to end up with the same amount of light in the larger space. On the lower deck I used 4 strips, spaced 4” apart from front to back. On the upper deck I tried using 6 strips spaced 3” apart front to back. This did provide more light but the lower deck was still brighter.
When I started researching new ideas, I found these LED tubes that were meant to act as or replace 4’ fluorescent T-5 tube shop lights. They are a self-contained fixture and power supply 1” wide, 48” long and about 2” tall, compact, easy to handle, and very light.
They come with a variety of hardware, clips for mounting and premade wiring and fittings that allow you to connect tubes to one another either butted directly together in a continuous row or spaced out with a couple feet between tubes. They also have simple power chords with switches built in. Some are dimmable, the units I chose are not.
When ordering, the tubes tend to come in packs of 6, 8, or 10 and have plenty of cords, fittings, and mounting clips for a variety of installation options.
Installation is easy. They have simple steel spring clips that attach to the ceiling with a single screw and then the tube fixture just snaps into the clip. I found that two clips per fixture provides plenty of support. The clips are fairly light and bend easily. I found that you don’t really want to be clipping and unclipping the lights too many times as the clips quickly lose their spring and eventually loosen up too much to hold the fixture well. They do provide a few extra clips and each fixture is very light so it does not take much to hold them in place. For chord management I drilled holes in the Masonite ceiling panels and dropped the chords down from the top then used the small connectors that allow you to connect each fixture directly into each other as they butt together.
The tubes are bright and produce a nice even light. In fact, they are bright enough that I would recommend you put them behind a valance or shade of some type. When viewed directly, they are bright enough that they start to get irritating to the naked eye (at least they did for me).
You can choose among three color temperatures. I went with 5000K. They plug directly into the wall and run at 110V. According to the installation instructions, you can chain up to 10 fixtures in a row for each wall connection.
I really liked the ease of installation and they put out a lot of light. I ended up using these tubes to light the upper deck around the walls of the room. I ran three rows of tubes spaced about 6” apart with the first row as close as I could get it to the back of the valance to ensure as much light as possible on the front edge of the benchwork below. I hung Masonite panels on the underside of the plywood arms supporting the upper lighting valance and then attached the steel spring clips. Once that was done it took 5 minutes to snap all the tubes in place along one wall. Plugged them in and threw the switch – upper deck lighting problem solved.
There is one thing to be aware of when considering LED tubes. You will find quite a selection on Amazon (I have also heard from several folks that they can be purchased off-the-shelf at Costco). There are typically four main decisions to make about your options:
- Length – 2’ and 4’ are most common
- Dimmable – The units I purchased are not dimmable
- Color Temperature – Typically 4000K (Warm), 5000K (Daylight), or 6000K (Cool). I used 5,000K
- Diffuser type
This last one is important because it effects the quality and distribution of the light produced. Most of these units come with a white diffuser (like in the photos above) or a clear diffuser. While my tubes are 4’, I bought a few 2’ units that I intended to use in some corners where 4’ would not fit. The problem was I could not find 2’ units in 5000k with white diffusers. So, figuring they could not be all that different, I decided to try the clear diffusers because I could get these in 2’ lengths and 5000K color temp.
This turned out to be a bad idea for two reasons. First, if you think about it, “clear diffuser” is an oxymoron. The whole idea of a diffuser is to remove focus from the lighting element and distribute the light more evenly across a broader area. A clear surface will not diffuse anything, it just lets the light pass straight through. In this case, I might as well have been using the original LED strips because each of the LEDs inside the clear tube was clearly visible – same sparkling rail problem.
The second issue was that the curved clear surface of the diffuser acted as a lens that projected very obvious irregular light patterns on the backdrop. LEDs are very directional. When you view them straight on they produce a bright light of a specific color. However, if you shift your point of view to look at the side of the LED, often times you will see a completely different color. In the case of the white LEDs I am using, if you view the bare LEDs from the side, they look yellow instead of white. The clear diffusers resulted in white light on the benchwork directly below them, and obvious bands of yellow light along the backdrops on the walls where the light from the edges of the LEDs was showing more yellow than white, further enhanced by the lens effect of the clear tube. When you use white diffusers you get none of this. The light is a nice even white all the way around the tube. All of the tubes I used have white diffusers.
In the end there is only one thing I wish I could change about these fixtures – they do produce a noticeable amount of heat. Since the original LED strips I tested produced no noticeable heat at all, I was a little surprised at how much these tubes produced. For clarity, it’s the power supplies that produce the heat, not the LEDs themselves. These tubes are self-contained and each unit has its own built-in transformer. That’s where the heat comes from. They are not as bad as incandescent bulbs. If I had to compare, I would say each unit produces about the same amount of heat as a 2-tube fluorescent fixture.
I have since confirmed that with different voltages, you get different levels of heat. As you would expect, 24-volt LEDs produce more heat than 12V and 42V produce more than 24V. The trade-off is that more voltage also means more light. These tubes are much brighter than the strips. I took one fixture apart to see how it was built. I did not put a meter on it but based on the type and spacing of the LEDs inside and amount of light, I suspect that the built-in transformer runs these at 42 volts – hence the heat. By the time I had all of the tubes in place, I used about 38. Even though the amount of heat produced is minimal, with that many it is notable – my cats really like laying under them. That’s a topic for another post…
So, the bottom line for these tubes is that of everything I tested, these were the easiest to install and produced a lot of light. The price was not too bad. A pack of 8 with all cords and hardware was $60, around $7.50 a piece. The most common sizes are 24” and 48”. They do produce some heat but not nearly as much as traditional light bulbs. Also, the amount of heat is related to the voltage and brightness. As with most things in model railroading, what is best for you is up to you. In this case balancing the amount of light, color choices, power requirements, and heat management for the solution that makes you happy.
LED Panels
Another LED light source I found was LED panels. While they come in a variety of sizes, by far the most common are 1’ x 4’ and 2’ x 4’. That is because the primary use for these is replacing old fluorescent fixtures in suspended ceilings. They do come in other sizes but those tend to have very limited options for things like desired color temperatures and tend to be significantly more expensive. The units I chose are from Amazon.
I want to point out that for me, hands down, LED panels are my first choice for lighting a layout. If I only used one type of light, this would be it. Pricewise they are considerably more expensive – closer to $50 per panel. But for me, the quality of light and the form factor are ideal and worth the extra cost. The main reason I did not use these on the upper deck along the walls was due to the fact that the panels only come in 12” or 24” widths and the upper deck is 19” deep. I was afraid a single 12” wide panel would not provide adequate coverage front to back and 24” would not fit so was out of the question.
So, what are LED panels? From the outside, they are a simple metal frame either 1’ or 2’ wide and 4’ long. Inside the frame is a sandwich of acrylic panels. When you turn the unit on the panels produce a nice even white light across the entire surface of the panel. You measure your light in square footage rather than in liner inches.
I sacrificed one unit and took it apart. I really wanted to understand how they worked. They are remarkably simple devices. A simple metal frame that has a channel running around the outside edge that screws can be driven into. Along the two long edges of the frame, LED strips are glued to the back face of the channel so that the LEDs point in towards the center of the panel. Along the face of the frame there is a flange that hides the LED strips and supports the sandwich of (2 or 3 depending on manufacturer) acrylic diffuser panels. A sheet metal back with screws around the border holds the acrylic panel sandwich in the frame.
The first thing that got my attention when I turned a panel on for the first time was how the entire surface of the panel lit up and was evenly lit everywhere. No bright spots, no indication of an actual light source, just one big panel of light. When I disassembled one, I was even more surprised to find out that all that light was produced by two simple strips of LEDs – one strip down each side of the long edge of the panel.
For us tech geeks, the diffuser panels are the secret sauce. It turns out these panel work along the same lines as a laser. I won’t go into the physics of refraction and reflection but the gist is this:
- The LEDs output their light directly into the edge of the thickest of the acrylic panels. Because the LEDs point directly into the flat edge of the thick panel, virtually all the light they produce goes into the panel and due to the physics of reflection, the light starts bouncing around inside.
- The front and back surface of the main panel are finely textured with etched lines (you can feel the texture but need a magnifier to see the lines). The net effect being that each line acts as a prism that will capture some of the light bouncing around inside the panel and refract out the front or back surface of the panel.
- A second sheet of acrylic, solid white, acts as a reflector and is used as a backing to the main sheet. This way, any light that tries to go out the back is immediately reflected back into the panel. Between the frame around the edge and the white reflective back, the only way any light gets out is through the front of the main panel.
- A third, thinner, textured acrylic panel covers the front of the main panel to further diffuse any light coming out the face.
This efficient design results in all the light produced by the LED strips being captured and concentrated inside the panel with only one way out – through the front. And, on the way out it goes through two layers of diffusers. Thus you end up with one big, evenly lit panel of light being produced by two small strips of LEDs.
And you get all of this in a panel that is 1/4" thick.
Not a typo. These panels are 1/4" thick. For lighting my lower deck where clearance is very tight and I need the absolute thinnest possible light source, this is ideal.
In the interest of full disclosure, the panels do come with a power supply attached (you can see the silver box in the first photo of the panels above). It is a square metal box roughly 3” x 6” that is about an inch thick. This power supply attaches to the back of the panel making the entire unit 1-1/4” thick at the power supply.
With the tubes, my main complaint is they produce a noticeable amount of heat. The LED panels themselves produce no heat. The power supplies get noticeably warm. Since these panels are designed to be in suspended ceilings, there would usually be a lot of empty air space above them for ventilation. To light the lower deck, I need to mount the panels to the underside of the upper deck. The space is very tight, 1” – 2” of space at most. I was not wild about enclosing the power supplies in such a tight space, especially knowing they would be producing some heat.
Disassembly showed me that this wasn’t really a problem.
The power supplies are designed to be easy to setup. There are slight differences from brand to brand. The units I chose were configured to make wiring very easy. All connections (except ground) were made via quick connectors where you just depress a tab, insert the stripped wire, and release the tab – fast and easy. The ground wire connection requires a standard wire nut. A wiring diagram is printed on the back of the power supply so you have all the info you want right where you need it.
There are two blocks for wiring. In the photo above, the left side is the low voltage block, 42 volts out to the light panel. The right side is household 110V into the power supply. Two wires come out of the back of the panel, into the power supply and connect to two low voltage tabs. There are additional low voltage connections to connect a dimmer (if you want to use one).
Two small screws attach the power supply to the panel. Remove those, disconnect the low voltage wires going to the panel, and the power supply lifts right off. This was perfect for my intended use under the upper deck to light the lower. First, with the power supply removed, each panel was a uniform 1/4" thick. Second, I could remove each power supply and relocate them to a more open and ventilated area. This would facilitate ventilation and ease of access for maintenance. I found premade wiring components used for connecting security cameras that made remotely connecting the power supplies to the panels very clean and easy.
For each panel, I removed the power supply and for the low voltage connection to the panel, I wired in a two-wire connector with a male 5.5 mm x 2.5mm barrel connector (this is a standard connector for wiring up security cameras. Easy to find on Amazon). I then attached a standard three-wire 8’ power cord for the 110V power in. The power supplies come with 2 standard punch outs that will accept a standard cable clamp. Make sure you use clamps to secure the wires and protect against the wires getting yanked out in case of an accident.
A cautionary note here: There are a lot of premade wiring and connection components made for the 12V low voltage LED strips out there. These include premade connectors like the barrel connectors I am discussing here. When you are looking at the broad selection available they look like they are all the same. They are not. Pay close attention to the specs when you look them up. One key difference is that the 12V systems seem to all use 5.5mm x 2.1mm barrel connectors while the security camera connectors use 5.5mm x 2.5mm. That 2.1mm vs 2.5mm difference, while tiny, is significant and makes the connectors not compatible with each other. Also, the 12V connectors use incredibly light wire. While the cables feel solid while you handle them, if you actually strip the insulation, I am not certain if they are even 24 AWG – very light wire. For 12V this is probably ok. The security camera cables are noticeably heavier and better suited for higher 24v and 42V loads. I don’t know for sure but just looking at them they seem to be closer to 18 or 20 AWG. I found it a bit curious that most of these connectors did not list the AWG in their specs.
For the low voltage connection to the panel I attach a 5.5mm x 2.5mm female barrel connector to the two wires on the panel that had previously been directly attached to the power supply. When doing this make sure you keep the polarity consistent with the connection you made in the power supply. The low-voltage side of this is DC current for the LEDs so polarity is significant. To connect the power to the panel, I then run a 6’ extension cord that has the same barrel connectors on each end between the panel and the power supply.
The plan is to hang the power supplies underneath the layout where I can just pull back the curtain and get to them if needed. The extension cords run up behind the skyboxes and under the upper deck.
With the power ready to go, the next step was mounting the panels themselves. Due to how I wanted to attach the panels to the benchwork, I had to do some additional benchwork prep before I could proceed with mounting the light panels.
Attaching the Panels for the Lower Deck
Along the front edge of each deck of the benchwork is a 3-1/2" facia. You may be asking yourself, what does the facia have to do with lighting? In the case of my double deck layout, the fascia on the upper deck plays a part in securing the light panels used to illuminate the lower level. Because of this, the upper deck fascia needs to be in place before the lower deck lighting can be installed. I will spend more time on the overall fascia design in a later post, but for now will cover how it supports the lighting.
I discussed attaching the homemade LED lighting panels to the lower deck in the previous post The Fidalgo Island RR #10 – Installing the Lights – The False Start. The plan for the new LED panels is the same. Pine stiffeners along the back of the panel will be used as support for the panel and as a means of bolting each panel to the layout.
Each panel was prepped by running a 3/4" x 3/4" pine stiffener along the front edge and then four 16” stiffeners across the width of the panel with the excess 4” hanging off the back edge.
To attach each panel, the 4” hanging off the back rests along the top edge of the lower deck skybox for support. Two tee nuts are inserted into the long stiffener along the front edge of the panel then brass thumbscrew are inserted through holes in the fascia, threaded into the tee nuts. A cut-away view of the benchwork shows the concept.
The metal frames on the light panels are pretty rigid but they will sag a little. These frames are designed to be supported by a suspended ceiling grid. Adding the pine stiffeners removes all sag from them.
So, before any panels can be attached to the layout, we have to install the fascia backing panels along the upper deck. Since that is happening, might as well do the lower deck too.
The fascia panels consist of 1/8” Masonite 3-1/2” tall running along the face of the decks. The panels are mounted such that the top edge will be flush with the top of the foam board used for the deck.
Once the fascia panels are in place, a strip of 3/4" x 1/2" pine is glued along the top and bottom edges. Eventually a second Masonite panel will be screwed to the front of these strips, forming a hollow box along the entire front of each deck. This box will house the main wiring bus. I’ll go into more detail on this in later posts on electrical.
The lower deck fascia is 5-1/2” tall. The extra 2” hangs lower and will be used to attach a black curtain along the bottom of layout for a more finished look and to hide all the stuff stored beneath the benchwork (like the lighting power supplies).
You can see in the next photo that the pine strips along the bottom edges of the fascias are short lengths spaced out along the length of the panel. These act as spacers and anchor points for screws while supporting the bottom edge of the (installed in the future) front fascia covers. Using short pieces saved on materials and allowed us to use more recycled wood.
The fascia runs along the entire length of both decks. Along the walls, across the window modules, and all around the peninsula. With the fascia back panel in place, we now had the mounting points available for supporting the lower deck lighting panels.
Here is what they look like installed.
In the photo above you can also see the screws I use to attach the stiffener strips to the panels. They are 3/4" self-drilling #8 truss head screws.
The truss heads are a broad flat head with a low profile. They provided excellent grip and were ideal for hanging these light panels.
Even though they are “self-drilling” I still used pilot holes. The #8 were just the right size to provide the strength I wanted and still fit the screw channel built into the panel. I drilled pilot holes through the front of the panels careful to be sure the hole aligned with screw channel inside the frame and to avoid any of the screws that were already there holding the sheet metal back panel. Aligning the pilot holes with the screw channel in the frame also ensured that I did not accidentally drill through the LED strips or wiring inside the panel.
So, with tubes lighting the upper deck around the walls and panels lighting the lower deck around the walls. The next step was tackling the peninsula. With a little experience under my belt, I figured this would go faster.
Lighting the Peninsula
Lighting the peninsula was mostly combining ideas I had used elsewhere. The thing about the peninsula is that both the upper deck and the lower deck are the same depth – 16”. The main difference is that on the upper deck, the lighting is 18” above the track and on the lower deck it is just over 10”. This means I will want more light on the upper deck to compensate for the extra height.
Due to height restrictions on the lower deck, it was easiest to simply use the panels in the same manner as around the walls. Thumbscrews through the facia into the front stiffener on the panel anchor the front edge of the panel just behind the fascia and the rear edge is supported by stiffeners resting along the edge of the backdrop board.
On the upper deck I was concerned that there would be deeper shadows as the light dissipated in the taller space and wanted to add an additional light source. With 16” of space only one 12” panel would fit and a 24” panel would be too big. I decided to mount a single 12” panel along the back, up against the backdrop, and then run a single tube along the front edge, directly behind the lighting valance panel.
This worked perfectly. The tube provided the extra light needed and was easy to install.
Installation on the peninsula upper deck went quickly. There was no need for stiffeners. Pilot holes were predrilled into the panel frames and through the aluminum cross arms supporting the upper lighting valance. The LED panels were lifted into place and fastened with #8 nut-bolt-washers. This anchored them directly to the cross arms. For the tubes, pine blocks were glued to the bottom of the plywood L-girder supporting the valance panels and then the metal clips were attached to the blocks. The tubes then just snapped into place.
A weekend of work took care of most of the peninsula. The lighting for the end of the peninsula, where the railroad makes the u-turn to head back down the other side, required some additional customization to fit the space available.
The Peninsula End – Upper Deck
The challenge with the end of the peninsula that sticks out into the room is that it is 38” wide and 18” deep. Also, the front corners are cut at 45 degree angles to make it easier to walk around.
The 38” width meant the 48” LED panels could not be used. The 18” depth meant 24” panels could not be used. I found some 12” x 12” LED panels that I could make work. Per square foot they were more expensive and they only came in 6000K – a bit cooler than the rest of the lights. The one thing in my favor at this location is that there is essentially, no backdrop because this is where it wraps around the end. With no backdrop, there is no large surface reflecting the light back into your face so you don’t notice the color difference unless you specifically stand there and look for it.
Three panels, placed next to one another with 1” gap between, across the width, would fill 36”. As for the 18” depth, the back 12” are full width and then the angled corners start. This means the three full sized 12” panels could be placed along the back edge to fill the main space.
This leaves the front 6” of depth empty. If you leave off 6” of width at each end due to the corner angles, this leaves an empty rectangle along the front edge 24” wide and 6” deep. It occurred to me that if I took a 12” x 12” panel and cut it in half, I would have two 12” x 6” panels to fill that space. Given I had disassembled a panel to see how they were built, I was confident this would work and went ahead with that idea.
It took about an hour to disassemble the panel, cut the frame on the chop saw and run the Acrylic panels through the band saw. I also needed to add a little extra wire to facilitate the new width. I got it all put back together and then used nut-bolt-washers through the Masonite ceiling panel to hang these. The result being that four 12”x12” panels were used to light the end of the peninsula upper deck.
For power, these panels each come with a small transformer that is detached and mounted separately. I really didn’t want to wire up four separate power cords for these units since they are so small and the current draw is negligible. On the upper support arms above the ceiling panel, I mounted a junction box and wired all of them together then wired in one 3-wire power chord that plugs into a nearby power strip used for the rest of the peninsula lights.
The Peninsula End – Lower Deck
For the peninsula end on the lower deck, I had even more restrictions. While the lower deck on the rest of the layout has a 10” clearance, here at the end of the peninsula it was 9”. This is due to the configuration of the support arms supporting the upper deck around the end of the peninsula. At 9” I want to avoid adding anything that will further reduce the clearance. Even the 1/4" is pushing me past my limit.
So, the solution here needs to fit up, in between the support arms rather than be mounted to the underside of the arms. And, the spacing of the arms? 12” on center so less than 12” of space between them. I can’t use the 12” panels here.
This led me to the last discovery. When I started with the 12V LEDs 2 years ago, most installations were under cabinets for additional kitchen lighting. They were out of sight and provided more atmospheric light than direct room lighting. Diffusers were not common. In the years that followed, these strips started having more applications and were becoming more popular. This resulted in after market diffusers designed specifically for the strips. I discovered these on Amazon..
These consist of an aluminum channel that you attach where needed (easy to drill for screws). Then, you run the LED strip along the back of the aluminum channel. It is a nice smooth surface for the adhesive back on the strips. Finally, snap the white diffuser in place. Fast and easy.
They come in 1 meter lengths and can be easily cut. They have a variety of fittings that come with them to manage wiring.
These were exactly what I needed.
At this point I had also learned that the 12V strips did not produce enough light. I decided to buy one roll of 24V LEDs for this. Given the rolls are 16’, one would be perfect. I need 4 pieces 36” long and one piece at 24”.
Given the spacing and location of the support arms, mounting these lights was going to be tricky. I decided to connect three of the strips together with a pine strip across each end. This would make it easy to keep them spaced evenly and make them much easier to handle while installing between two support arms. The fourth 36” strip and an additional 24” strip for the short front edge between the corner angles needed to mount on the other side of one of the support arms so I made a second assembly out of those.
I ran the LED strips down the back of each channel, soldered jumper wires to attach each section and attached a 5.5mm x 2.5mm barrel connector to each end. One was for power in and the other was to connect a jumper to the other assembly once they were both installed on the layout. Given these were 24V I made sure I was using the 2.5mm connector, not the 2.1. Finished up by snapping the diffusers in place.
This assembly ended up working out quite well. Between the cross braces and the stiffness of the aluminum channel, the assembly was rigid and light. To install, all I had to do was slide it up over two support arms and center it. The clearances are close enough that it can’t fall out. Its own rigidity prevents any sagging and the width is such that it just fits between to support arms running parallel to the length. It is a free standing unit that floats between all the support arms.
The remaining 36” strip and the 24” strip to light the front edge had to be mounted outside the support arms. For these I connected them with pine strips at each end and then used wood screws into the deck above to mount them. I had added barrel connector for the power connection to attach this assembly with the first one mounted between the arms.
To power these strips, I found a 24V power supply used for things like laptops. Since I had used the 5.5mm x 2.5mm barrel connectors, this power supply was plug-and-play ready to go.
The end result produces plenty of light and is placed such that there are no unwanted shadows being cast by the support arms – even though some of the strips are actually resting on top of the arms.
With both decks around the walls and both levels of the peninsula lit, the last step was to get the lights installed for the modules across the window.
Supporting the Upper Lighting and Valance for the Window Modules
In an earlier post The Mud Bay & Western #7 - Bridging the Gap (Dealing with a large window) I discussed how removeable modules were built to bridge the gap across a large window. Before I could finish up the lighting on the upper deck, I needed to figure out how to support the upper lighting and valance across the window gap to provide lighting to those modules.
Like the modules, the lighting support for this section also needs to be removable. Since I need to maintain access to this window for maintenance and replacement, this section of the lighting support and valance cannot be permanently mounted. The solution ended up being what I will call semi-permanent.
What that means is that it is firmly attached to the wall on each side of the window and requires tools to remove. However, the whole thing comes down by popping the light fixtures out of their mounting clips (a five-minute job), lifting the valance panel off, and then removing four 3” lag screws. It takes about 15 minutes and it is all gone. It can even be done by one person with some forethought, but it is much easier with two (as I discovered while putting it up by myself).
So, what is it? The gap I had to span is about 8’. I needed something strong enough to span that with no support in the middle while supporting the valance and lights attached to it without sagging. I decided to build a rack to support the valance and lights that would span the gap and attach to brackets at each end. The brackets would be bolted to the studs framing the window.
To make the rack, I used square aluminum tube by the company that makes the aluminum we used to support the peninsula, 8020.
They have a square tube product they call Quick Frame. On the peninsula, we used the plain square tube for the support arms. The tubes come in a variety of options and have an array of easy to use Nylon connectors. For the lighting support rack, I used a version of the tube they call 9025, end connectors they call 9240, and corner connectors called 9220.
9025 is a square tube that has two additional fins of aluminum that run along the length. They are spaced such that you can pound a 3/8” thick panel into the slot formed by the fins if you wanted to frame up something with a solid wall. For me I want the extra rigidity provided by the dual fins. This will help reduce sag in the tubes over the 8’ span.
The 9240 tee connectors will pound into the ends of the spanning tubes and make it easy to use bolts to attach the tubes to the wall mounted brackets at each end.
The original plan was to use four tubes to span the gap spaced about 4” apart. The spacing was based on the spacing I wanted for the lights. Since the lights were mounted to the tubes, the light spacing dictated the tube spacing.
Rack construction began by prepping the tubes. The front tube was responsible for supporting the lighting valance, the heaviest item of everything that will be mounted on the rack. If you recall in the post The Mud Bay & Western #6 - The Upper Lighting Valance the rest of the valance around the room is supported by a plywood L-girder.
For the rack across the window, I bolted the vertical rib of 3/4" plywood along the length of the front tube. Not exactly an L-girder but it provides the needed rigidity and support. This would provide the same stability and the vertical plywood edge could be used to hang the front valance panel similar to how the L-girder works around the walls. Additionally, I could drill into the face of the vertical plywood rib and mount the tee-nuts used to receive the black bolts that hold the valence in place.
Prepping the other tubes was easy – cut to length and insert the end connectors. Here are the prepped tubes ready to be assembled into the rack. The small clips you see are for mounting the light fixtures. I ended up removing these and remounting them later. I’ll cover that in a bit.
The next step was to prep the shelf brackets and attach the rack end pieces to the brackets. I used some stout steel shelf brackets I found at Home Depot.
A note about the brackets… I needed to make sure the brackets were perfectly square. Because of how I was using them, they could not have any slant to them (some brackets are manufactured with a slight slant in them, others are out of square due to poor quality control). The main reason being square was important was that this was going to be supporting the lighting valance and the valance panels need to be parallel to the walls and plumb to the floor. Any upward or downward tilt to the panels would leave obvious gaps at the corners. Made even more obvious by the fact that they would be back-lit once the lights are installed behind the valance, exaggerating and calling out any error. Second, because this rack was supporting the valance, they had to be mounted at a precise height from the floor to align with the panels along the walls that were already in place. I didn’t want to have to adjust the height of each bracket based on how much it was out of square.
I had a suspended ceiling in this room and I needed to be sure that the brackets would fit in the space available – high enough to support the valence but not so high they ran into the ceiling. I ended up needing to trim about 1/2" off the end of the vertical portion of each bracket to avoid hitting the ceiling.
Additional prep included fitting and drilling the end pieces and bolting them to the shelf brackets and then finally, pounding the end pieces into the corner connectors in the tube ends. At this point the rack was ready to mount.
I want to point out that I ultimately ended up moving the fourth tube (the leftmost in the photo above) all the way to the back edge near where the bracket mounts to the wall. I ended up using 3 rows of the LED tubes for the lights (same as along the walls). Given that, I did not need a fourth tube for a mounting point. This worked in my favor because now the fourth tube will be used to support the backdrop when the time comes later.
Hanging it was a matter of running two 3” lag screws through predrilled holes in each shelf bracket, making sure they had good purchase in the studs framing the window.
It is very solid and relatively easy to handle. Due to using the aluminum, it is light enough that I did not have any trouble wrangling it around on my own, even though it is just over 8’ long.
I ended up needing to add Masonite ceiling panels to prevent sunlight from the arched window (you can see the arched window through the rack and above the blind) from hitting the layout below. After installing the panels, I reinstalled the metal clips and snapped the LED tubes in place. This section used eight 4’ tubes.
The last step was adding the valance panel that rests on top of the plywood-tube girder and is secured by bolts through the face into tee-nuts in the plywood.
Lighting the Lower Window Modules
In an earlier post, The Mud Bay & Western #4 - Skyboards and Backdrops I describe building the skyboxes. These are the plywood and Masonite boxes along the back of the lower level benchwork around walls that will be used for the backdrop. These boxes also help support the lower level lighting. The plan is to use similar boxes for the lower level on the window modules. The main difference will be that these boxes will only be an inch deep rather than the 3” used along the walls.
So, the next step was to build the skyboxes for the lower level window modules. These are just Masonite panels for front and back with 3/4" plywood ripped into 3/4" strips that act as spacers between the panels. This produces a box structure that is rigid and strong – a good foundation for mounting the backdrop when the time comes.
There is one additional design consideration for this skybox. Due to how the support arms have been built for the upper deck, the lower level skybox needs to fit around the support arm. Specifically, the two steel L-brackets intrude into the space where the skybox needs to fit.
To solve the problem. Slots are cut into the rear panel of the skybox.
Due to the portable nature of the window modules, the skybox will also be removable. When installed, it will be free standing and lean back against the vertical support arm. The edges of the L-brackets will fit into these slots. This allows the skybox to fit in the space and keep it from moving even though it is free standing.
Being able to remove the upper module, made fitting and installing this skybox much easier. Here is a shot of the completed skybox installation after the upper module was back in place.
At this point, the lights for the lower modules are exactly the same as the lower deck around the walls. 1’ x 4’ LED panels with pine stiffeners. Brass thumbscrew through the facia to anchor the front edge and the back edge supported by stiffeners resting on the top edge of the skybox.
With the skybox, fascias, valance, and lights installed, the window modules now look like the rest of the layout.
Well, that is finally the end of this part of the story. The lighting was very important to me so I was willing to put a lot of effort into it. Including rework after discovering the sparkling rail problem. Now that I am done and it is behind me, I am very glad I did. The layout is well lit with consistent lighting all the way around on both levels. All the lights are accessible for maintenance with minimal interference to the railroad.
The last thing I want to mention is that I run all the lights on two circuits. With over 1600 total watts in the room, I wanted to divide the load a bit so it isn’t all on one circuit. So, all the lighting for the layout around the walls, both decks, is on one circuit. All the lighting on the peninsula is on a different circuit. It works out to be roughly 1100 watts on one circuit and ~600 watts on the other. The peninsula lighting (600 watts) shares the same circuit as the track power. The one good thing about this is that there is no question as to whether or not track power is on – if the peninsula lights are on then track power is on. This will likely change as I am thinking about adding one more switch to separate the lights from the track power but that hasn’t been installed yet.
Thanks for sticking with this one. It was long but I wanted to walk through the whole process, both the successes and failures, in case any readers out there were considering some of these options.
The good news is that after almost 2 years of prep, I am almost ready to start laying track. Now the fun part starts…
In the next post I will go over the remaining odds and ends before we can say “Benchwork complete!”
