Lighting for Large Collections of Dept 56 on Your RR

We had 54 buildings on the holiday layout last year.  Only used the cords and bulbs that came with the buildings and plugged them into power strips under the layout. 

One thing that helped was buying the multi-bulb cord strands from Wal-Mart so that I could get 5 lights with just one plug. 

I have also used different color bulbs for Halloween.

There must be a better way to do this but it has worked so far.

Dept 56 has light strings with 20-25 bulbs that work really well. We have over 100 North Pole buildings and maybe 75 Dickens. The large strings drastically reduce the number of power strips... Now, when you get to street and floodlights, lit trees,etc, we have not found an acceptable solution to the adapters and multiple power strips. 27 power strips with North Pole.

Saw Central Va... we are in Suffolk.

I will try to locate mine in the attic tomorrow and get the number. Hopefully they have not "retired" the set as it works well. We have 4-5 of them.

Fishing in am so won't be until late afternoon.

Another option for the bulbs themselves would be to use the replacement LED version of the night-light bulbs (C7 size?). That would cut the current draw, and heat, for that many bulbs.

I've seen them in 2-packs in the big-box stores, you may be able to find them on-line in quantity.

Dave

There was a thread last week about LED screw-ins for the C7 in these houses. A supplier was located at about a $1.12@ for a box of 25.

That solves the current draw. Then you could use almost anything for the mass of plugs

Dept. 56 led replacements

Try over 200 to do on the layout. I used a product from Department 56 that is a plug and play lighting system. It is a jack system. E-mail me if you want more details.

C7 Warm White $28 for 25 bulbs

If you go this route be sure to check the number of LEDs inside each bulb. These C7s have 3 LEDs as noted in the specs.

These are commercial type bulbs, not the kind you find in the big-box stores at Christmas with only one led per bulb, regardless of size. That's why the larger bulbs are dim. C9s should have 5 LEDs per bulb.

Last year, in addition to the common Warm White and Cool White, I found a new flavor of LED called Sun Warm White. This is very close to the color of incandescent bulbs.

Dave

Found these today at my local Menard's in the Christmas lights area.

Larry

I own approximately thirty-five Dept. 56 and LeMax buildings.  My collection has grown over the years, and I have displayed them for the Christmas holidays in a bookcase.  I have used the individual lights that come with each building that were cumbersome with all the connections that had to be made.  I went on-line and found a Christmas light source that sold light sets compatible with the lights in Dept. 56.  The are spaced about a foot apart and may be as many as 25 on a string with a single plug.  This was much easier and also gave the required illumination that may be lacking with some LEDs.  This year I used some of the buildings on my layout, creating a small town that had city blocks with grouped buildings on them (usually 6 on each block, facing in different directions).  The buildings are on a base with the edges replicating a sidewalk.  I used a similar light string to illuminate them in this fashion:  In the back portion of the platform, I drilled a small hole with a 2" drill bit which is large enough to push through a plug.  I started with the buildings in the back, inserting the lights one after the other into the buildings, moving from back toward the front.  When there was a longer run that had to be done, I concealed the intervening light sockets by removing the bulbs and either replacing them with dead bulbs or placing a strip of electric tape over the socket.  Trees, shrubs, and other buildings helped to conceal these runs until they reached the next city block where the line continued in the same fashion with lit bulbs.  The light string was green in color which helped to conceal the wiring.  Since the light string had many more sockets than I needed for the layout, all the extras were fed underneath the platform and were sealed with electric tape or dead bulbs.  I then used a special switched long extension cord.  This type of cord plugs into the wall and the plug from the light string goes into that rear of that plug.  The switch is already wired into the line and turns all the lights on simultaneously from my command position where all my transformers are located.  This system worked out for me quite satisfactorily.

Are you talking about the Christmas tree type light where they don't have any way of securing to the building other than taping or some other method?

i have a bunch of lemax buildings ,,i used e12 smd -led corn bulb,there are diff.sizes,really bright.on the bay from japan,search,e12 smd corn bulbs.hope this helps

on some i just had to trim the plastic base ,to fit in some of the buildings

rich

As an alternative to the C7 replacement bulbs (4 watts) I bought some flame-shaped flicker bulbs from Hobby Lobby that "flickers" between two filaments. It looks similar to the way a candle flickers and creates an interesting effect in the buildings as if there is movement inside. I have enjoyed it. 

Those flicker bulbs are great for anything with a fire to light.

So far I'm pretty light on these ceramic type buildings.

Have 9 plugged in right now using all the original lights/cords.

Remote Power strip to another heavy strip for the farther units.

I do need to find the remaining buildings that are still missing.

Working on a permanent Christmas layout and currently have 17 power strips hooked up and more to follow. This does not include the 7 loops of track. I will experiment with diff types of leds but probably after the holidays. Just trying to get it set up for the club Christmas layout tour at this point. Appreciate all the feedback.

Bob