Lighting Dept 56 buildings better on my O Layout

Carey, great idea. Lighting looks nice and lot better than the bulky D-56 lights.

Tom

@Carey TeaRose posted:

Decided to pursue a different track (hehe) in lighting my Seasons Bay & New England Village buildings on my Prewar/tinplate Upstairs O Layout. I did not want to stick with the chunky white xmas bulbs and big cords, or use LED lighting. I ordered clear 18v large globe bulbs in clear and amber gloves and sockets with attached 6 inch wire leads. These arrived from Town & Country Hobbies today. Hooked up each separately To a Lionel CW-80 transformer and tucked inside the Seasons Bay Springlake Station. The amber bulb lookS orange inside the ceramic. The clear bulb looks much better. These will be easy-peasy for us to drill a hole and wire up under the layout as needed.

An interesting idea, thank you.  You prompted me to order 100 C7 brass sockets.  I'm so tired of the bulky D56 light wires and stuffing them under the 'snow' on my temporary Xmas layouts.  I'm going to have to add my own jumpers though.  That is what I wanted so I could use white wire.  Now I need to find some 2 pin quick disconnect connectors.  The idea is to make my own buss with a female connector every 12" or so that would run under the 'snow'.  My jumpers would be about 18" with the matching male plug attached.  I'm hoping this idea would give me more leeway in building  placement and also make it easier to put up and take down.

Any ideas where to find the 2 pin connectors?  Probably 10-20 wire gauge.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

Search the bay for JST 2 pin connectors. I use them on all my buildings so I can remove them easily without crawling under to unwire. You will get them fairly quick from over 500 US suppliers. Most are 22awg, which is good for around 5 amps; plenty if you are using one bulb in a building. You'll have to size your buss per number of total bulbs on a line.

@John H posted:

Search the bay for JST 2 pin connectors. I use them on all my buildings so I can remove them easily without crawling under to unwire. You will get them fairly quick from over 500 US suppliers. Most are 22awg, which is good for around 5 amps; plenty if you are using one bulb in a building. You'll have to size your buss per number of total bulbs on a line.

Thanks John,

I've been looking at the JST 2-pins and am blown away by the choices.  What I don't know is how to size he wire gauge.  I am using the C7 bulbs and I guess they have to run at 120 V.  So is 22awg okay for an 18" length, one bulb?  I can break the buss up into many pieces.  The idea is to run a lighter buss wire than the 18awg zip wire that comes with the buildings.

Can you tell me how to think about sizing the buss?  I believe C7 bulbs are 7W.

Thanks again,

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

Tom, I would suggest you start your own thread. If you are thinking 120v, that's another ball game.

@John H posted:

Tom, I would suggest you start your own thread. If you are thinking 120v, that's another ball game.

Yikes, and I thought this thread was about lighting Dept 56 buildings better.  I am not married to any voltage system, I’m looking for an alternative to the individual wires and plugs the run to each building.  It is a nightmare when you are dealing with 60 buildings on a temporary Xmas layout.

What I can’t tell from the pictures is if 18V bulbs produce the same ‘glow’ as the standard C7.  I believe LEDs don’t, so right off we are dealing with incandescent bulbs.

Do I have that part right?

Carey’s method got me thinking about running a lighter gauge (or at least more flexible) buss with many female plugs under the snow.  Each building would have its own light socket with perhaps about 18” of wire and a matching male plug.  Sounds easy to me, but I don’t know anything about mini connectors or sizing wire.  I just want to get rid of 60 bulky plugs and multiple octopus plugs and relatively heavy zip wire.

Didn’t mean to intrude,

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

Please take no offense. I don't want to take over Carey's thread.