Building Lighting and Goose Neck Flood Lights for Accessories
All buildings should have lights in the ceiling like real buildings not on the floor. My childhood layout buildings had 4 watt or so Christmas tree 110v lights. I use small 12v mini Christmas tree lights for building lights. These 12v Christmas tree lights are replacements only for stings of 10 bulbs and each bulb draws only 0.4 watt per bulb. I cut up mini Christmas tree light strings and use the pig tails and sockets for the building lights. The 12v mini Christmas tree lights, being incandescent, give a warm color light like lights in the 1950's that I model. A small staple or plastic loop is usually used to suspend the light socket in the ceiling. I hook up the building lights with plastic wire nuts to pig tails coming through a hole in the layout to allow quick and easy building removal. I can find replacement 12v mini Christmas tree bulbs, in packs of 6 for about $1 before Christmas at Walmart and fifty cents after Christmas if they have any left (or eBay). The 6v mini Christmas tree bulbs, for 20 bulb light strings, are also useful as I hook them up, two in series, when two bulbs are needed.
Mini Christmas 12v, 0.4 watt, light bulb and socket in ceiling of building, held by a plastic loop.
Homemade Yard and Flood Goose Neck lights from Plastic Christmas Bells and Plastic Balloon Sticks
There are 20 so, small homemade flood or goose neck lights on some buildings and accessories. The homemade flood lights are made from 1 inch diameter or so Christmas plastic bells, and poles are made from hollow plastic balloon sticks (from party stores which we have lots of in the big party town of Baton Rouge, LA) and 12 v mini lights (grain of wheat size with pig tails) from Radio Shack.
The base is a 1/4 inch slice of a 3/4 inch dia. wood dowel (wooden broom stick !). All accessories like saw mill, drum loader, milk car platform, barrel loader, cattle pen, etc. have a pair of these flood lights. The flood lights have a on/off switch for each layout board.
The yard and flood lights are a must for night and dim light train operating. They were very useful when the train board was on the floor near with room lit only by the near by Christmas tree.
Other uses for mini Christmas 12v bulbs Lights in the coal mine illuminate the car below and the coal loading building
Charlie
