What Type Of Ceiling Lighting Do You Have On Your Layout?

For My Ceiling Lighting on my Layout I have a grand total of 6 LED lights(they type that can be controlled using my cell phone or computer since there is no switch for them). Four in a track light setup and two in a flush mount type lighting. They light up my layout quite well.

Track lighting, with a wall mounted dimmer switch, controlling 14  small 50 Watt floods.

I'm interested in this topic, too, since I am in the process of purchasing a home with a decent-size basement train room. Am considering/planning on track lighting with some supplementary lighting (LEDs, most likely), but until I get into the place all options are open. The layout will be basically U-shaped, around three walls.  Fourth wall isn't much of a wall at all, and opens to another open area of the basement which will be a lounge area (has a fireplace).

After installing 4 ft LED fixtures in my auto shop......I ordered 8 of the same lights for the layout room. The cool thing is the fixtures are linked end to end......thus one plug in lead is all that's needed. And the light they give off is GREAT to my eyes. 

Since my motto is "this is a hobby, re-purpose wherever possible"  one half of the layout has halogen track lights that had been used in our kitchen.  These were being tossed out when the kitchen was remodeled so downstairs the went.  The other half of the layout has track lights (yes I know we had too many track lights in the house) from a different room.  These have those compact fluorescent lights but I will be replacing those with led's instead.  This works because the layout is linear and the two sections of the layout are separated by a mountain that reaches the ceiling, effectively dividing the space.  Should there ever be a rebuild of the layout in a new location I really like the LED lights currently being offered.  Expensive for sure but I think far better than the halogen or curley que bulbs.

I also put in four foot LED fixtures over my layout. They give great illumination and they light up immediately. They are suppose to last well beyond the years I am suppose to!

Rick

Like Allen, I also am interested in this topic. We just moved into our new home with a Huge Basement and the layout will also be sorta U Shaped and not sure what kind of lighting I will use except it will be LED. Recessed, Track or just tube shaped like I put up in the garage. My will be about 35 feet long and 14-18 wide at the closed end, still working on finishing the basement so not real sure what the final layout will look like. TCOCHRAN please tell us more about these lights you used controlled by your cell phone and AMCDAVE what about the lights you used to plug into each other, I would love to know more about both types of lights.

AMCDave posted:

After installing 4 ft LED fixtures in my auto shop......I ordered 8 of the same lights for the layout room. The cool thing is the fixtures are linked end to end......thus one plug in lead is all that's needed. And the light they give off is GREAT to my eyes. 

Where did you purchase yours??

Home Depot......sorry Mark!!!

Here are some shots of mine I installed on my new layout under construction....

Dimmable 6" LED's split up into (3) different zones. They are spaced around 4 feet or so and provide excellent consistent illumination.

Another big plus, they are cool to the touch and do not provide any extra "heating" of the train room.

They are installed in a 2X4 grid suspended ceiling.

I also a one long track light system running the full length of my basement that I can use to "high-light" areas if needed for photography, etc.

This replaces my old system of fluorescent fixtures and incandescent spots.

Donald

And I got mine from Menards!

Halogen spots and floods on light bars.

same thing as Donald above, 6" recessed can lighting with dimmable LED"s .....best decision I made....really looks nice..

I'm with AMCDAVE. I started out with a hodge podge  three different kinds. A double light from Menards, a single from Home Depot and a double from Sam's club. For the layout I settled on the ones from Sam's Club. They are either 4300 or 4800 lumens. With the one from Sam's Club  you can either butt them back to back or you can space them with the 5' cord. According to the directions you can hook up 10 together. I had fluorescents but am now in the process of changing over to all LED's............................Paul 

Two tiers of lights are in my layout room (12'x10'):  1). Two 4' LED fixtures with 5000k "bulbs" have been installed on the ceiling.  These lights are only used for work on the layout.  They are bight and crisp & highly effective for minute work.  2).  Three sets of DIMMABLE LED track-type lights (2-3 lights per track) with medium-warm bulbs spaced around the room high on walls.  (Walls are 10' in this room.)  These lights will be for effect during operating sessions.  A fourth set of two dimmable lights have blue incandescent bulbs used for "night" operating.  Those are the ONLY non-train, non-LED lights permitted in the train room (UV not welcome).

PAUL ROMANO posted:

What type of ceiling lighting do you have on your layout, florescent, l.e.d., regular bulbs, etc.? What works best to illuminate your layout? At NJ Hirailers we have florescent light fixtures up about twenty feet high to light up a very large area.   

A very large yellow bulb in a blue ceiling:

Regards

Fred

Didn't I read somewhere in a previous thread that the LED lights were causing some kind of interference with either the DCS or the TMCC signal please correct me if I'm wrong. Because as a lot of you on here I am also purchasing a new home with a very large basement and I will be looking into LED lights also.

sncf231e posted:

PAUL ROMANO posted:

What type of ceiling lighting do you have on your layout, florescent, l.e.d., regular bulbs, etc.? What works best to illuminate your layout? At NJ Hirailers we have florescent light fixtures up about twenty feet high to light up a very large area.   

A very large yellow bulb in a blue ceiling:

Regards

Fred

LOTS of UV there, though!  LOL!  

I have ten recessed fixtures that can handle BR30 bulbs (either incandescent or LED) over the table and six more adjacent. I use LEDs have had no issues with DCS or Legacy.

Thank you Kenjr.

I use DCS and have had no issues.

Our basement has no finished ceiling, so I used about a dozen 4' shop light fixtures with 2 - 5000k fluorescent tubes each for my work shop and layout area. We brought them from our old house when we moved about 4 years ago and I still have about a dozen or more left to install. I will be replacing the bulbs with LEDs as they go bad. I like the 5000k bulbs, especially in the basement, so will probably stick with the same for the replacements. Once I get started I might just do them all? Will have to see how that goes?

I am leaning toward the replacement bulbs that do not require a ballast. Been looking around at them for a while now. Most of the 4' fixtures I have are 20-40 years old and many have never had the ballast changed. We already have LEDs in almost all the fixtures in the rest of the house and they are great. And as others have said the LED bulbs have a longer lifespan than I have left so that should mean no further replacements. 

Allan, look into smart lights. Any color, or brightness all from your phone. No extra wiring. Don

scale rail posted:

Allan, look into smart lights. Any color, or brightness all from your phone. No extra wiring. Don

This is what I do

I am about to have 4100K dimmable LED bulbs (BR30) installed in track lighting in both my workshop and train room.

The track lighting will give me a lot of flexibility in terms of massing and directing light.

George

I have four, 4 foot fluorescent  light fixtures over my layout.  These replaced incandescent lights and, despite some of the negatives I've read over the years concerning toy trains and fluorescent lighting, I've found no distortion or fading of colors.  I've also found the fluorescent lights don't generate as much heat as the incandescent lights did.

One other thing that quickly became apparent once the new lights had been installed; was that I hadn't done as good a job ballasting track or spreading ground cover as I thought I had.  

Fluorescent lights might not be the answer for everyone's layout area but, I've been pleased with mine.

Curt

10 flush mount fixtures from Home Depot running on two seperate circuits, each with it's own dimmer. Originally had 100 watt Halogen bulbs, replaced with dimmable LED equivalent bulbs. No problems so far running TMCC.

Bruce

Incandescent, as they are cheaper to buy as I do not put a lot of hours on ceiling lights, warm light color and dimmable without interference with audio gear.

Charlie

This is an area where the technology treadmill has done an extreme fast-forward on all of us.  Unless we've looked at lighting systems in fairly recent years, we're essentially dinosaurs operating with dated information.  I photograph for a living, so I wasn't about to take short-cuts with layout lighting, since good lighting can add impressive and dramatic elements to the vignettes on our toy train empires.

My current plan is to use multicolor LED light-bars (unbelievably low power consumption) and a digital scene controller that can change lighting "scenes" (representing daylight, twilight or nighttime) at the touch of a button on the wall or remotely from an iPhone.

David

I began with nine 50 watt PAR 20 Halogen dimmable track lamps. Lighting was good, but the 450 watts and heat, not so. Replaced them last year with Home Depot’s “Econosmart” brand 3000k PAR 20’s that draw a total of only 81 watts. Lighting is as good, dimming is a tad less effective.

While I have not encountered LED lamp interference with my Legacy or DCS, the concern may be real with some applications. The 60 watt equivalent LED’s from Costco I put in my garage door opener killed the signal if the remote was out of line of sight. Back to incandescent lamps there. Does anyone know if it’s an RF interference, or one that’s imposed on the house AC circuit. With my Wayne Dalton GDO, the lights are mounted on, and wired into the door’s receiver box.  

Woodson posted:

AMCDave posted:

After installing 4 ft LED fixtures in my auto shop......I ordered 8 of the same lights for the layout room. The cool thing is the fixtures are linked end to end......thus one plug in lead is all that's needed. And the light they give off is GREAT to my eyes. 

Where did you purchase yours??

I bought these online at costco. They came in 2 packs that were under $50 a pack and free shipping.

The link feature is great. Have 6 over my layout 3 are linked on each side and then plugged into the outlet on my existing light sockets. Easy peesy. Ran a couple screws through the top of each fixture into the 2x10s and done.

I'be had no issues with the legacy signal.

Photo of the Cosco light install??

AMCDave posted:

After installing 4 ft LED fixtures in my auto shop......I ordered 8 of the same lights for the layout room. The cool thing is the fixtures are linked end to end......thus one plug in lead is all that's needed. And the light they give off is GREAT to my eyes. 

I have two 28' x 36' bays in my workshop.  One is a workshop the other is being set up for trains.  My electrician friend lowered about 8or 9 wall plugs so they won't show above the table and is installing a baker's dozen of the lights you describe.  The tables and frames will be 30 inches from all four walls and there will be a 36" opening in the south table for access to the middle where the controls will be.  All tables except one are to be 4' x 8' x 43" high.  The one exception is a 10' x 10' corner unit the same height.

AMCDave posted:

After installing 4 ft LED fixtures in my auto shop......I ordered 8 of the same lights for the layout room. The cool thing is the fixtures are linked end to end......thus one plug in lead is all that's needed. And the light they give off is GREAT to my eyes. 

Great information Dave! Might I ask if to be so lucky, would you have the Sku#, brand, or maker of the lights?

Tom Tee posted:

Photo of the Cosco light install??

Each 4' fixture is a mere 42 watts.

They come with mounting hardware butI found it easier just to drill a hole 6"from each end and mount with wood screws. They aren't very heavy so this secures them just fine.

I haven't gotten around to making sure all of the cords are tucked along the joist. I'm happy with the result and the lighting.

I added some led floods in the empty sockets on one side just to show where they are.

This was far less expensive than permanent "can type" fixtures and since my incandescent sockets are on a switch I can turn them all off an on with a flip.

These quick cell phone pics make the light" appear" dim and patchy. It's actually quite the opposite, far superior to the fluorescents I used to have.

Ricko, are these the ones that can just be plugged into each other?

Yes Mike. I believe you can link up to 4.

I did 3 and 3. One on each side was plugged into the outlet on the side of ceiling socket.

If you zoom in on the photos you can see most of the cords as I haven't made an effort to hide them yet.

I use can lights with incandescent 45W bulbs (R20) spaced 3 feet apart in a row and rows that are 4 feet apart, no dimmers  It's like daytime down here which in the winter is fantastic!