I've been looking for a good bulb for the trainroom. Some are bluish, some draw too much power, etc. I found some new bulbs at HD. They are warm white, have a decent pattern, come right on when the switch is thrown, and draw about 9.5 watts.
Seems like they should be about 7' apart. I have a few at 9 and 10'. They start having shadows in between. Uh oh, I'd better clean up the trainroom if I'm going to post pics! I may need a skirt! I left the bulb's box so you can see what I bought.
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We could only see what you bought if the box was in focus. 
Yeah I see that, and thanks for pointing that out. It's the one at HD with that color box. LED light for about $27. I wish they'd come down in price. Seems worth it though.
( "Those little lights aren't twinkling Clark" )
Joe
I bought a bunch of LED flood lights from China. Priced around 9.99 each with free shipping. Each comes with a remote control. They are dimable to a point. I love changing the cold schemes. Really changes the look of the layout. I believe there are 16 colors. I also bought a few LED spots for highlighting specific areas.
I can't say enough of how much I like theses. Favorite clors are red and blue. I usually shine yellow on my water effects. I spent about 125 bucks and it lights my whole layout. Very cool.
HD had a promotion this summer 7 watt LED (40 watt output) standard bulb for $9.99
They only came in bright white though, I used two in a ceiling lamp in a bedroom but it was too cold or Hospital looking, I needed something warmer.
However, I placed them in a Lamp and the tan lamp shade gives them a warm look like a traditional soft white bulb.
We went with a 5000k CFL Dimmable flood light. Warm color (2700k to about 3800k) is more for bedroom, kitchen, living etc.... The 5000k is a very bright white light where the 6500k gets into the blueish tones.
No matter what you end up going with, make sure to put in a dimmer. In one of the recent magazines, 1 of the top 10 things NOT TO DO, was not putting in a dimmer for your room lighting. Don't be stuck with full bright or off!
ABOVE: Incandescent kitchen bulbs 3800k warm tone 65watt
BELOW: CFL Floods 5000k full sprectrum dimmable 23 watt (equal to 75 watts)
The incandescent bulbs created so much heat, we couldn't work in there with all the lights on (24 bulbs), not to mention the electricity being used up.
The CFLs generate very little heat with 30 bulbs lit at full power. Not to mention a totally different look in the room between warm yellow light and bright clear light, and very little energy usage.
I've been looking for a good bulb for the trainroom. Some are bluish, some draw too much power, etc. I found some new bulbs at HD. They are warm white, have a decent pattern, come right on when the switch is thrown, and draw about 9.5 watts.
Seems like they should be about 7' apart. I have a few at 9 and 10'. They start having shadows in between. Uh oh, I'd better clean up the trainroom if I'm going to post pics! I may need a skirt! I left the bulb's box so you can see what I bought.
By using track lighting you can add or adjust a whole bunch and avoid or create shadows where you want.
I'd like to replace my incandescents with LED's, but they're still too expensive.
Alan
HD LED complete lights w/trim on dimmer about every 3' max over layout and close to the wall, low cost to operate and very low heat output
Just installed the new (to me) T-5 fixture / tubes with high Kelvin & color rendition index. Absolutely great clarity. Supposed to replacate noon June 21 Northern Hemisphere.
Lighting like music can be very subjective.
There are some rather simple design tools available for lighting. Lithonia Lighting (Visual) had/has a click and pick software many years ago/still available, that I would use on simple box structures to determine number of light fixtures, knowing what fixture/lamps/tubes, you wanted to use, size of the room, ceiling height, reflectivity of the surfaces, and foot candles of light that you were trying to achieve. IMO, the unfortunate nature of Recessed Compact Florescent fixtures is they don't cover an area well compared to standard 2' X 4' layin lights.
I've been looking for a good bulb for the trainroom. Some are bluish, some draw too much power, etc. I found some new bulbs at HD. They are warm white, have a decent pattern, come right on when the switch is thrown, and draw about 9.5 watts.
Seems like they should be about 7' apart. I have a few at 9 and 10'. They start having shadows in between. Uh oh, I'd better clean up the trainroom if I'm going to post pics! I may need a skirt! I left the bulb's box so you can see what I bought.
Merry Christmas and do not take this advice wrong. Your lighting will change once you have your ceiling up. Be sure to do so first. Joint compound on your layout won't be fun to find and clean.
Check out the other pics, ceiling is a must.
Thanks! I just built the O gauge ontop of the old G scale tables to test and make sure I'd be happy. I'm pretty sure they'll be ripped out with normal benchwork going in. The drywall mud is mainly done with the outside walls up. I'm sure more of a mess is to come.
I wish I could put the lights every three feet. It would be a huge expense. Maybe I could add more later. With the trains going strictly around the walls, it makes lighting a little easier. I could move the lights so they just direct at the trains to make a better effect.
I could then, have normal lighting for when a person just goes down to do something other than run trains. It's nice to play with the lighting while no ceiling is up. What changes when the ceiling goes in??
I skipped the dimmer because I thought I could add it at any time?
I believe it is not so much the presence or absense of any finished ceiling but perhaps the reflective value of a light colored ceiling finish.
Several of our local model RR layouts use flat black both in spray painted raw cellar joists and flat black ceiling tiles and their layouts are nicely lit due to a well thought out lighting system.
The job on which I am now working has row upon row of entry level big box 2 tube X 4' long fluorescent fixtures with a decent color tube choice. Kinda nice on a budget.
I find with an around the wall layout that a linear installation of 2 X 4 fixtures using 3' end to end spacing with a 8' ceiling height and a 48" average layout height to work well for me. 30" would be better and dark spots start to appear at 42" end to end spacing. tt
HD LED complete lights w/trim on dimmer about every 3' max over layout and close to the wall, low cost to operate and very low heat output
I keep coming back to these pics as a reference. The lighting looks great. I'm thinking of moving mine around and basically doubling the amount. I can see why a dimmer might help tone things down then. My room has a more toned down look already. I just don't want to many dark areas.
I had track lighting but with the low 7' ceilings, they're a problem. The recessed cans seem much better here.
Ok after seeing how good others layouts looked I added more.
They are low temp and low amp draw. It's getting expensive trying to make it shadow less. The track lights have new $10 LED bulbs facing the trains and CFLs pointing opposite (facing) that need changing. I may have to fill in with track lights later around the rest. Excuse the mess.
I had done a permanent file on my track lighting not long after this thread started. While I haven't done any low voltage lights. Some of the smaller 120 volt lamps available do a relatively good job of flood lighting and in some cases with the R 16 spots do decent high-light spot lighting. Two lamps use 50watt R20 floods , larger lamp and 60watt R16 spots, smaller open lamps.
60 watt R16 lamp to the left in this picture below. 50 watt R20 lamp right in the picture above.
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