New Lighting In The Train Room

The plugs were cut off and hardwired in a metal box.

Nice lighting work to go with your great layout Dave. The picture is excellent.

Because it looks like the wires are insurted in to the female plug in your Picture.

OK, then John 

The disk lighting is a no brainer. However, I felt it was going to be too hard to do the conduit and boxes over my layout. ( should have done the lighting first)

Leds are without question the way to go. I ran across 4' led shop lights online at Costco.  A 2 pack of 4' LED lights is on sale for $47.99 and free shipping

They're like $35 a piece individually. I bought 3- 2 packs for my 14'x20' train room and its like seeing my trains in high def. Leaps and bounds better than my old flourescents. My trains are "vivid" just like Daves photo.

They are corded and linkable, I just plugged them into my socket outlet and screwed them to the 2x10s in my basement ceiling.

Heres a link to the lights: Led Shoplights at Costco

The lighting looks great, Dave. 

Since this thread was brought back to life, I thought the photos I posted on another thread recently might be helpful here too.

Dave's post and a few others finally convinced me to take the plunge with LEDs too.

A few facts about my decision and about the bulbs themselves.

-  I originally had old shop light type fluorescent fixtures strung around the ceiling. They were OK but gave color balance problems for photography on occasional. 

- I was not going for energy savings as much as the lower wattage which allowed more bulbs on each circuit. 

- I chose bulbs with a 3000K rating. I could have lived with 2700K, but the next step up was 5000K which is way too blue for my tastes and for the photography I do.

- About the floodlights I used. I chose BR rated bulbs which give a wide coverage. The PAR series are spotlights with more intense light over a smaller area. The PARs are good for highlighting certain areas, but, for my photography, I prefer the even illumination of BRs.

- I ended up using BR40 17 W (100W equivalent) bulbs spaced about 32" apart (every other joist) for my 30" wide around the walls layout. In hindsight, I could have gotten away with 65 W equivalent bulbs with this same spacing, but the brighter bulbs will make photography easier and they can be dimmed when desired.

- To cut costs I used inexpensive outdoor-style floodlight fixtures. My basement is unfinished and everything will be hidden behind a valance so appearance was not a factor.

Best money I've spent on the train room!  Now I flip a switch and instant light - no more flickering to life and no more buzzes or hums. I didn't realize how noisy all those fluorescent fixtures had been!

Thanks to Dave and others whose descriptions of their experiences helped with my decision.

These photos were taken before the valance (which hides the lights and fixtures) was installed.

Jim

J Daddy posted:

David looks great,

I am looking at revising my over the layout lighting. Currently I have 20 amp spot lamps that put allot of heat and suck up allot of juice!

Can you show us a picture of the fixtures, bulbs, and distance away the lights where hung?

Thanks! 

I have builder grade cans in the ceiling with standard rated spots at 60 watts. I replaced the spots with dimmable 100watt equivalent (draws much less than 60 watts/bulb) LEDs. The resulting increase lighting was beyond my expectations. Easy solution as well. 

DAVE IS THIS THE LAYOUT IN THE STORE?

David Minarik posted:

...Here is a 2:30 am, just finished phone photo.  ...

 

 

2:30am?  I thought nothing good happens after midnight.

Looks great Dave, I too am late to the party. LED fluorescent replacement bulbs are also available for those with fluorescent fixtures. I work at a school district with five school buildings, and we are replacing most bulbs inside and out with LED equivalent bulbs. Even outside security fixtures have LED replacements available, and are extremely easy to install. The ballast is disconnected, and the bulb is wired direct to the incoming voltage. No more amber light, it's a nice white light, and the bugs aren't attracted to them either. We will be replacing fluorescent bulbs with LED equivalents in the near future. Great improvements have been made in just the last year, and prices have come down dramatically.

Don

L.I.TRAIN posted:

DAVE IS THIS THE LAYOUT IN THE STORE?

 

Steve,

That is my home layout.

Dave

ToledoEd posted:

I have builder grade cans in the ceiling with standard rated spots at 60 watts. I replaced the spots with dimmable 100watt equivalent (draws much less than 60 watts/bulb) LEDs. The resulting increase lighting was beyond my expectations. Easy solution as well. 

Ed,

Do you have a p/n? Our cans work like an oven and my older guests can't see with them!

Very nice indeed.  Thanks.

Dennis

SandJam posted:

I just got done remodeling my basement for my new train room in December.  I installed 27 recessed cans.  I looked for a long time for an LED light that had high lumens but have a color range of 2700K (soft white).  The Daylight ones are too harsh.  I used these which are 1245 lumens (100 watt bulb equivalent), dimmable, 2700K and only 20.00 per light.  They are fantastic, soft bright light and I have them on dimmers so I can dial them down if I want.  Highly recommended and they replace any Flood blub in a standard 6 Inch can.

 

THANK YOU SEAN for this post!!!   I have twenty to thirty cans around the perimeter of my basement and was pretty alright with the amount of light that they produced UNTIL recently.  I just reached the point where I feel that it is still too dark on the layout.  I hated the thought of pulling down the ceiling panels and installing multiple other fixtures.  My old fashion, non-LED bulbs, produced I think about 60% of what these LEDs will give.  I'm anxious to try this.  I just read this post today, 7-26-2016, 10 A.M. Indiana (Eastern) time.