After several years of procrastinating, I finally hooked up the lights in several of my buildings and accessories. I was really excited to see the effect the lights would have in the darkened room. When I flipped the switch to turn on the lights, I was disappointed, to say the least. Three very obvious problems revealed themselves; 1 The lights cause the buildings to glow as the light bleeds through the plastic, 2 The interiors are now fully visible revealing every brace, screw and wire in the building, 3 The flood light tower activates the IR sensor for my crossing gates causing the gates to be down and the lights flashing when no trains are in sight.(Actually, since I model the Penn Central, this feature is very prototypical.)
As far as the first problem goes, what are my options. Do I need to paint the interiors black to block the light? The second problem has an obvious solution-build interiors for the buildings. The flood light tower is on a seperate switch so I can just leave it off. Repositioning the IR unit is out of the question as the track is at the edge of the layout and it can't be placed on the other side. Can the bulbs be replaced with LEDs or will they cause similar problems? I'm open for any suggestions.
Thanks,
Tom