Wiring lights for Plasticville structures

I use the Woodland Scenics LEDs in my Plasticville buildings.  

Jay

You were not specific on what type of Christmas tree lights you used previously so here is my method.

The buildings 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.  My light transformer is 12 vac.  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.

Charlie

Thanks for responding JFC454 I will look at WS.

Charlie, thank you very much for your guidance. I hadn’t considered hanging the bulb from the ceiling; like it would normally occur. I will look into the mini bulbs. The sockets that I had used were once on my parents tree in the 60s so they could melt plastic.

Thanks again,

Jay

I love Plasticville, and have a few thoughts to contribute... Charlie mentions using 12V bulbs.  When my brother and I did this years ago, we used 4V (i think) incandescent bulbs cut from a string of Christmas lights.  We series-wired them in sets of four.  I think we were feeding the house lighting with 12-14 volts.  So each bulb was actually getting only 3, or 3.5V, which added to bulb life and created a pleasant warm glow.  Connecting multiple structures in series with lower-voltage bulbs also cuts down on wiring.  Instead of having two wires from each structure going to the terminal block, only two wires for every four structures went to the terminal block.  The other wires went from one structure to another.

Another thing to think about is "light leakage."  Newer Plasticville, especially, is made of thin plastic that's somewhat translucent.  Running the voltage down makes the bulbs dimmer, and that helped.  We also put a strip of paper or card stock along the front (viewing) side of each structure to create the appearance of "shades drawn."  In one case I made some accordion folds across the front window of a split-level ("curtains!")  If light still bleeds through the walls or roof, you'll have to use tin foil, or paint the inside of the structure black.

"Outdoor" structures like the small freight station had bulbs hidden up in the peak of the roof, which created a dramatic night scene.  We also hid a bulb on the underside of the coaling tower.  No O scale workers were injured at that site over the years, despite the occasional night shift :-)

We did all this in the '80s.  Today I would look into LEDs for reliability and less heat.  But our bulbs held up pretty well and the idea of connecting multiple lower-voltage LEDs in series to reduce wiring might still be viable.

One of the advantages of the Woodland Scenics is that the hub has a rheostat for each of the 4 circuits that allows you to vary the light intensities so you don’t have the same brightness in each building.

Thank you Ted and JFC. In the old days I tied my Christmas tree sockets in line and ran it to a transformer post so I could control intensity. However, I like your process for the wiring.
On Saturday I received delivery of a Dawrvin lamplighter 2. Initially I was underwhelmed but with some additional research it’s looking better. The filament gets cut to length and inserted into the unit. The filament has to be straight inside the unit for the light to be efficiently transmitted. I used cocktail straws to keep the filaments straight. I still need to experiment.
In addition, I’m going to incorporate your method for light leakage and creating shades.

All great suggestions thank you.

Jay