Light'em up! Layouts at night

Clifford, excellent scene, thanks for the thread. Your model railroad is awesome. Happy Railroading

The lights close the deal and make the big kids and the grand kids eyes light-up!

Clifford,

Thank you for this thread. I hope to build a layout soon, and making night operation with lots of layout lighting, is a big focus. Indirect lighting from inside structures, lampposts, and track signals. So I hope others share ideas and photos in this thread.

Thank you

Here are mine of my city (Chicago):

Night in my little city -

Wow!!!! Nice! Love the neon signs! When you think about, it we've definitely come a long way, not only in command control of trains but in other areas also. Amazing to say the least.

On the Shenandoah Short Line lights begin to flicker on as dusk enshrouds the rail yard facility and the city and suburbs beyond.

We were about to leave the building one evening and forgot to turn off the layout. On the way back to the switch, I decided to take a couple of photos.

Still working on wiring everything up, but here are some pictures

NWL

@ConrailFan posted:

Wow!!!! Nice! Love the neon signs! When you think about, it we've definitely come a long way, not only in command control of trains but in other areas also. Amazing to say the least.

Thanks Conrail. Crazy things happen down in the Bowery on the other side of the tracks late at night.......

BTW, those are all 7 trains on the elevated line.

I agree, a layout at night with lights on is a really great effect.   Particularly if you use the lights to guide the viewers eyes to specific scenes.  Here is one of mine:

That is a 3D printed model of the moon I got from Amazon. Details how I did it are here

https://ogrforum.com/...-it-full-moon-rising

@John Sethian posted:

I agree, a layout at night with lights on is a really great effect.   Particularly if you use the lights to guide the viewers eyes to specific scenes.  Here is one of mine:

That is a 3D printed model of the moon I got from Amazon. Details how I did it are here

https://ogrforum.com/...-it-full-moon-rising

Wow!  That's really cool.

I took these photos on my last layout after I built a "wall" to put my Miller Engineering Sunoco sign in view in the refinery scene.  The oil well to the left was made by Colber and came off my high school layout.

  Straphanger your CBGB's looks as sleazy as it was back in the day!  Nice work.

What's a layout without lights?

Here are a few shots of my vintage prewar layout....enjoy!!

from Popsrr sometime in the past.....

Layout review & update 02-09-13 w/Pictures | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum (ogaugerr.com)

Night time in Schenectady.

Clifford, your thread is really Lighting Up, great pictures fellows, beautiful night scenes and awesome layouts. Keep the pictures coming, all are interesting. Happy Railroading Everyone

Great thread, stunning night scenes. Here's a contribution from me:

Night game at the Polo Grounds in 1954.

Some really great night scenes above...sharp detail on impressive layouts...!

Chicago El train pauses on a friend's Carpet Central:

Night time is my absolute favorite time on the pike!

Here is my layout at night:

A snowy evening at the Union station in Ophir on the Ophir and Oblivion RR.

Really nice photos everyone.

Here is a wintry night on the Mountain Pass Railroad with the steamer making its way up the 3.5% grade.  This was an experiment with a "live" backdrop.  I hooked up a small projector with a Roku stick and found a wintry mountain scene on YouTube.

@Brad Trout posted:

Brad,

Is that tall building one of the ones from Menards?  Does it have individual floors inside or just an open space?

My last layout was set in a beach town, a theme I plan to carry into my next layout.  After seeing some tall condos along the shoreline in Orange Beach, Florida, I got the idea of having a condo building along my next layout's "shoreline".  I'm wondering if the inside of your tall building can be detailed with clear windows, people looking out, etc.

Thank you.

@Pat Shediack Yes, it is the York Hotel, which BTW, I saw recently somewhere that is nearing end of availability from Menards.

I believe it was one of their first buildings.  I bought it at the Allentown show in 2017, so sad to say, I don't remember what the interior is like.  If I had to guess, I would think there are NO floors as they would simply add cost without any visible value.  The exhaust turbines on the roof turn and there are lights up there, so there is power going up there, which would also suggest open space, to make that wire run easier (i.e. less costly).   Also, looking at the night time photo, the light appears to be dimmer at the top floor which would suggest open interior with lighting towards the bottom floors somewhere.

It does have a "train tunnel" as the back half of the first few floors, so there is likely a "floor" or "roof" on top of that.

Rural and urban...

This is one of my favorite night images on any of my Christmas layouts.  This one is from 2017

walt

All of these photo's use only the lighting from the layout ! Taken with iPhone 6plus.

Kudos to everyone! wonderful photos ! Thank you !

Here are some shots taken at night.  Note my comment on the sunrise shot.

Some fabulous pics above...great detail and "night" scenery...!