Layout ceiling lighting spacing recommendations ?

Just some food for thought….  I’ve been thinking about how to do lighting on my future layout. I’m leaning towards track lighting in which I could put LED color changing flood lights.  Floodlights spaced every few feet should disperse the light well enough. Having color changing LEDs will allow me to do anything from warm light to cool daylight to a blue light for night.   I’m even thinking about an LED strip along the wall behind the platform and using orange hues to mimic sunset.   Haven’t figured out the logistics yet but wanted to share.   It’s another one of my over the top ideas but it’ll be fun trying to figure it out.  😝

@VJandP posted:

Just some food for thought….  I’ve been thinking about how to do lighting on my future layout. I’m leaning towards track lighting in which I could put LED color changing flood lights.  Floodlights spaced every few feet should disperse the light well enough. Having color changing LEDs will allow me to do anything from warm light to cool daylight to a blue light for night.   I’m even thinking about an LED strip along the wall behind the platform and using orange hues to mimic sunset.   Haven’t figured out the logistics yet but wanted to share.   It’s another one of my over the top ideas but it’ll be fun trying to figure it out.  😝

Yes, I did have a blue bulb on the old 6 x 12 layout to mimic the moon, I liked it.  Also had a yellow bulb behind a mountain for sunrise or sunset. also cool.

Over the holidays planning on installing the drop ceiling and the track lighting. Using H track - BR30 bulbs, dimmable. Will experiment with spacing of fixtures and lighting effects.   I'll post some pics and opinion about how it goes.

Not quite there yet, but almost time to start a build thread.

My basement has a drop ceiling that is just under 8'. The room is an ell with two floods in each section that are spaced 2 tiles apart. This worked ok when the pool table was up but now I have dark areas over the layout, especially along the walls. It sounds like you'll be able to move lights around to where you need them.

I have 6 inch LED Round Surface Mount Lights on a white ceiling and the more the better. The older we get the better the light needs to be and when working on the layout your position will aways seem to cast a shadow over the are you are working on. Have the lights be on several circuits so you can select how and what you want lighted and when you want it lighted. My layout is approx 15 x 40 and there re about 40 lights in the room and I still have areas that do not have enough light and a lot of shadows in some areas.

Remember to have some illumination in front of the layout. Have seen some wonderful layouts which were built with a valance panel above them to hide the lighting. Unfortunately the valance was built in line with the layout edge and this caused everything at the front of the layout to be back lit. Looking forward to seeing both your progress on it and your enjoyment of it.

You are in a catch 22 situation.    You can't figure out to do the lighting without seeing how it lights the layout, and you can't (easily) put up the lighting after the layout is in place!

It is hard to do complete lighting without some idea of how it will hit the layout.   As mentioned above, dark spots might be there when you put the layout in place.     If you are doing a drop ceiling, leave yourself the ability to add lights later if need be.    My opinion with the drop ceiling type idea, is place the lights every other tile to begin with and see if that enough.     If you are just hanging light from joists, maybe put them on 4 ft centers but leave enough wiring/connections to add more.

In general maybe put a light source over a significant scenery item like a turntable, tunnel, yard, etc. And also over the control area. My  train room has drywall ceilings with cans that are now with leds, dimmable and at 5000k. Might go to more yellow 3000k but for now I like the bright blueish light.

Because it’s a drywall ceiling it’s pretty hard to add cans, the placement of the cans isn’t ideal but it works for now.  

RTJ

Re shadows where working, I had the same issue, I went with a rechargeable led work light. It’s small enough to get close to a work area but has no cord and is pretty bright.

Question

Does anyone know if any light source fades postwar paint more or less? Florescent incandescent LED Halogen Im with leds now and hope they are compatible to postwar paint. My shelf queens don’t get moved much

Rich,

You have presented a difficult to answer question. I will offer that the 85" ceiling height is pretty low in the grand scheme of lighting. With that height you may need more lights or lights placed right over areas you wish to high light. With a flat black ceiling and 2' x 4' lights there will be quite the contrast of light/dark across the ceiling. This may not be appealing to some. If you could set up some temporary table and light situations it might be worth while. In general track lights are the best as far as flexibility in aiming and the number of fixtures to be used but that 85" height means such lights risk being head knockers or at least making some people duck when in the area.

I remember being at LightFair in Chicago years back when a presenter made the observation that "good" lighting is difficult to define but EVERYONE knows when they are in poor lighting. Ha. Not that we are lighting office complexes here. 8-) Train ON!

FWIW

Jim K

Hey Trestle,

In the attached pictures I am just starting a moderate sized layout 24 x 14.  Before drywall I ran 5 separate runs of 14-3 romex from a location under the layout but near the door to the powered end of 5 separate lighting tracks. By using 14-3 wire and installing JUNO 2 circuit track I was able to control 2 different groups of lighting track heads on each single track. When using two circuit track you move a tab on each track head to choose circuit A or B

That is I now have 10 individual circuits at a common junction box. Today I have them switched all on for construction.  When the layout is done, I will connect the different circuits to a scene controller next to the junction box under the layout.

I will then have two remote controls (one mounted at the door) (and one at the train controls).  With the ability to use different LEDs, aim individual track heads, add or subtract track heads, Dim and combine circuits; I will create several scenes ie: work lights (all on including 5000K leds full bright) Daylight (all 3500K on bright) dawn /Dusk (a few 2000K on low) Night (a few on dim over controls) etc. You get the idea.

I bought the equipment; bulbs at Depot, Tracks from Juno distributor, Track heads from the auction site, I will buy the Lutron controller from Platt or on auction site. 

Anyways no matter what I build or how I want to light a scene lit I should have it covered. If not, you can even extend or "T" off of installed tracks. A little confusing to write let me know by email if I can clarify.

Good luck, kevin

@Fast Mail posted:

Hey Trestle,

In the attached pictures I am just starting a moderate sized layout 24 x 14.  Before drywall I ran 5 separate runs of 14-3 romex from a location under the layout but near the door to the powered end of 5 separate lighting tracks. By using 14-3 wire and installing JUNO 2 circuit track I was able to control 2 different groups of lighting track heads on each single track. When using two circuit track you move a tab on each track head to choose circuit A or B

That is I now have 10 individual circuits at a common junction box. Today I have them switched all on for construction.  When the layout is done, I will connect the different circuits to a scene controller next to the junction box under the layout.

I will then have two remote controls (one mounted at the door) (and one at the train controls).  With the ability to use different LEDs, aim individual track heads, add or subtract track heads, Dim and combine circuits; I will create several scenes ie: work lights (all on including 5000K leds full bright) Daylight (all 3500K on bright) dawn /Dusk (a few 2000K on low) Night (a few on dim over controls) etc. You get the idea.

I bought the equipment; bulbs at Depot, Tracks from Juno distributor, Track heads from the auction site, I will buy the Lutron controller from Platt or on auction site.

Anyways no matter what I build or how I want to light a scene lit I should have it covered. If not, you can even extend or "T" off of installed tracks. A little confusing to write let me know by email if I can clarify.

Good luck, kevin

Kevin, your layout to date looks well thought-out.  Thks for the suggestions.

Rich

For those of use with 8' foot or less ceiling height flood lights often become more like spot lights. Fast Mail has done a good job of lighting the room but you can still see this effect a little. As I mentioned before I need lighting along a wall and most lights I have found would be coming over the shoulder and kind of defeat the purpose. Maybe I need a combination of track lights and sconces?

Just an update... a model RR construction book I found says the distance of -   overhead layout light sources  - from each other - should be the same as the distance from the overhead light source - to - the layout surface.  In my case then 30" is my "number" .   I bought the last (5)  2' x 4' LED flat panels my Lowe's had (on sale $60/ea).   If this turns out to be overkill, then the lights are dimmable.  More to come...