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Hi everyone, some of you know I am building a new train room which is 16' X 20'.

What I am looking for is advice on ceiling lighting. My first thought is dimmable LED light, but not sure what type or spacing. I know there are several folks in the know of this kind of stuff so any help would be great! Below is a snapshot of the future layout.

Screenshot 2024-

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Well, the more lights you have, the better you can control how it looks.  My lighting came with the house as the basement was already finished, so I didn't have a choice or I'd have added more lights.

I compensated by finding some really wide angle high intensity reflector bulbs for the existing fixtures.  After a few tries, I found my solution to the lighting, these 2800 Lumen LED floodlights on Amazon.   I can dim them down to barely any light or at full intensity, it's like a sunny day on the layout.

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I'm in a similar boat. I need to figure out what lighting I need. It's tricky for me because my basement ceiling is low.

So far I can say that dimmable lights are very helpful because you can dial it in juuuuust right. I bought some LED track lighting and have them on the dimmer. The track lighting means I can scoot them on the track and adjust the aim. That is helpful. I don't know what Color Rendering Index to go with. Logically, I should go with the highest CRI I can find. Some one else will have to give input on that.

One thing I wasn't expecting with the track lighting was how much it high lights the shows. I'm going to also need some sort of diffused lighting over the layout.

So that's been my experience so far. Hopefully it helps.

My train room in my new home was already nicely finished, I did not want to put a lot of new holes into it. I hired an electrician which I needed in the house anyway and this is what we came up with. The TRACK of LED lights follows the track. I can swivel the direction of or slide over each one, as well as have him add more. It is also dimmable with a remote. I did not go with the daylight LEDs even though they are better for photography. For me, they are too harsh. The only issue is that I built out just a little farther than planned so the outer edge could use more light. I have something on order which can take care of that, I hope. Oh, one other issue......it wasn't cheap! There are still some shadows that another section would take care of but it works well enough for me.

Mikki20241011_133042

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@mike g. posted:

Hi everyone, some of you know I am building a new train room which is 16' X 20'.

What I am looking for is advice on ceiling lighting. My first thought is dimmable LED light, but not sure what type or spacing. I know there are several folks in the know of this kind of stuff so any help would be great! Below is a snapshot of the future layout.

Screenshot 2024-

@mike g.

Mike:

Let me start by saying that you have a GREAT layout plan!!!!!

I am not a lighting expert by any stretch of the imagination but, that has never stopped me in the past. The way the layout it situated around the walls plus your yard in the center seems as if it is perfect for track lighting. Also, I suspect that there are track lighting systems that use LEDs for illumination that will not add to the ambient summer heat.

Yet another of my hair-brained ideas is to have the main on/off light switch on the wall as you enter the room and, wherever your main train controls are located, have the output wires from the main wall switch go through a secondary dimmer switch to control daylight and nighttime lighting effects while operating the trains.

Keep posting your progress. We all are eager to see your finished(?) product.

Be aware that incandescent and LED wattage ratings are NOT the same! A dimmer rated for 600 watts incandescent is only rated for 150 watts when connected to LEDs. That means you need multiple dimmers with LEDs. Pay attention to the actual wattage of the LEDs and the output lumins. More expensive LEDs typically have higher output.

Note that the wattage considerations above do not apply if the dimmers are replaced with standard switches.

Chris

P&O

@lehighline posted:

Be aware that incandescent and LED wattage ratings are NOT the same! A dimmer rated for 600 watts incandescent is only rated for 150 watts when connected to LEDs. That means you need multiple dimmers with LEDs. Pay attention to the actual wattage of the LEDs and the output lumins. More expensive LEDs typically have higher output.

That's not really true for modern dimmers.  Yes, the LED models will control lower power using LED's, but even the super-bright LED floods I use are 20W LED bulbs.  So even with a 150W dimmer, I could still run seven of these.  For 2800 lumens of light, I'd need 150W incandescent bulbs, so I'd only get four bulbs on that dimmer you referenced.

I am following this thread with great interest. I guess I am in the category of "stuck with what the basement already has" via the older U-shaped fluorescent bulbs in ceiling troughs in the basement train room, they were pre-existing when I bought the house, and I've wanted to replace them with dimmable LED bulbs, and while U-shaped LED bulbs are available for sale, I am pretty sure they're going to require new ballasts. I did a price estimate a few years ago, before Covid, and it would cost about $800 for 4 main LED fixtures with dimmer control. In the meantime, I installed plastic filters that filter out most of the harmful UV light waves emitted by fluorescent bulbs.

@Paul Kallus posted:

I am following this thread with great interest. I guess I am in the category of "stuck with what the basement already has" via the older U-shaped fluorescent bulbs in ceiling troughs in the basement train room, they were pre-existing when I bought the house, and I've wanted to replace them with dimmable LED bulbs, and while U-shaped LED bulbs are available for sale, I am pretty sure they're going to require new ballasts. I did a price estimate a few years ago, before Covid, and it would cost about $800 for 4 main LED fixtures with dimmer control. In the meantime, I installed plastic filters that filter out most of the harmful UV light waves emitted by fluorescent bulbs.

Hi Paul, Thanks to @NJCJOE I found these from the big A for $89 for a 12 pack, I be you could use your existing wiring and just plug the box in and then the light!

I plan on getting them!

LED lights

You can look them up and they have an install video also!

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I'm going to use flat LED panels in my train room. They seem to be available in a number of sizes from 12" diameter , 24x24, 12x24, 12x46. My only problem is I'm looking for a RBG panel that I can use as a blue light to simulate night in the train room that doesn't require me to use my phone to operate it. Call me old fashioned but I like the lights in my home to be usable to people who don't have access to my phone. I do have a lead on ones that can be operated by a remote but I haven't looked into them yet.

Jerry

@Paul Kallus posted:

I am following this thread with great interest. I guess I am in the category of "stuck with what the basement already has" via the older U-shaped fluorescent bulbs in ceiling troughs in the basement train room, they were pre-existing when I bought the house, and I've wanted to replace them with dimmable LED bulbs, and while U-shaped LED bulbs are available for sale, I am pretty sure they're going to require new ballasts. I did a price estimate a few years ago, before Covid, and it would cost about $800 for 4 main LED fixtures with dimmer control. In the meantime, I installed plastic filters that filter out most of the harmful UV light waves emitted by fluorescent bulbs.

There are U-shaped bulbs that will run with your existing ballast, or you can remove the ballast and direct wire them.

Search on Amazon for B08PCHCHML for one such product.  Apparently, they're dimmable if you bypass the ballast, which I'd advise in any case.

I'd strongly consider getting rid of those old fixtures. You can go to HF, L's, HD, other big box stores, or Amazon and find reasonably priced LED fixtures w/o any ballasts. Not having to deal with replacing ballasts is a plus in my book. You have to check the package to see if the fixtures are dimmable or not. There are now quite a few on the market that are dimmable.

I went with track lighting some time ago, when LEDs were just starting to come onto the scene, so it has been a learning curve for me. This is especially true with lamp selection. Read the package to determine the actual wattage and lumin output. Unfortunately, I have quite a mix! That's something I need to fix. GRJ is quite correct when he says you can only put 7 of the 20 watt LEDs on a dimmer. In his case, he has enough ceiling height and the right type of LED that he can get by with fewer LEDs. My ceiling is lower, and as I alluded to above, some of my LEDs are not the best, to say the least! (Low lumin output). So I ended up needing more fixtures to cover the area.

Chris

P&O

@mike g. posted:

@ENichter Eric and @Terry Luft Terry thanks for the great photos! They both show the wonders of lighting for day and night scenes!
Eric I really like the idea of mostly all white and just a couple for night running and photos! I will have to see if this company I want to use has blue lights if not I will find someone who does!

Thanks again!

Just regular LED bulbs, I believe I got them at Home D. light sockets are also from Home D.

600-Watt 250-Volt White Outlet Box Lampholder

When I build the trolley layout in one of the bedrooms, I plan on using a couple of almost ancient trolley-era fixtures; one ex-NYCTA and one ex-United Railways of Baltimore.

The ex-NYCTA one (not shone is the large green/white porcelain enamel reflector and the security cage):

NYCTA Botanic Gardens station cluster light-003

This one was always used indoors so is in almost-new condition. It is parallel-wired, I will be using either warm white 60w (equiv) led bulbs or the reproduction carbon-filament-style led bulbs.

Not shown (I never took any pictures of it!) is the ex-United Railways of Baltimore cluster; it is a plywood disk about 12" in diameter with an asbestos sheet between the five Edison-base sockets (in a circle near the outer edge) and the plywood disc.  After I rewire the sockets from series to parallel, it will get the reproduction carbon-filament-style led bulbs. Note that they were made in United's shops' probably in the 1920s.

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