The Continuing Saga of the LED lights

 In my effort to upgrade the lighting in my layout, I decided to replace the set of florescent 18-inch under cabinet lights that were above the curved track at Brooke with LEDs. My initial intent was to replace the florescent fixtures with equivalent LEDs. But while shopping at the local Lowes store I noticed a string of 16 feet of LED lights with adhesive backing. The box said they put out 4000 lumens.  The price seemed good, so I thought I would try them. Alas, when I checked out, the price mysteriously doubled with some kind of cryptic note printed on the receipt about "full retail price was charged for this item."  I went to return them, but the line was too long. So I took them home and decided to give them a try.

Removing the existing lights was both satisfying and difficult to do without damaging the existing scenery. But, I was able to do it with only a few swear words and lots of awkward bending and reaching. 

My wife helped me install the LED strip. They were fairly easy to install. I just hope that the double sided adhesive tape they provide will stand the test of time.  

When we plugged them in, we both were impressed by the bright, even light. Alicia said, "you need to put these on the other curved section of the fascia too." Maybe I will, but not right away. I want to see how these hold up. 

On June 29th Bill Sornsin and his family stopped by to see the layout while on a a vacation to the east coast. Bill has a huge GN layout back at his house in Seattle.  Bill's family was not as enthusiastic about trains as he, but it was a hot day and they appreciated the air-conditioned basement after a morning of walking around the sweltering city. The city is built on a swamp, after all.  Bill's younger son, Nick, did learn how to run an engine, couple and uncouple cars. So he is now qualified to run on the USMRR.

The Mysterious Case of the Malfunctioning Lights

 

New LED lights provide nice even lighting 

Last month I reported on several of the florescent lights in the layout room over Potomac Creek that burned out. The lights were on separate circuits and different makes. Yet four fixtures stopped working at the same time. I removed the burned out lights and fixtures and ordered replacement LEDs, but did not have time to install  them. 

Then a few weeks ago, I noticed that another 48 inch florescent fixture had become detached from the ceiling, fell through the egg crate diffuser, and landed on the layout. Luckily, the wire trees by Weilepp's Cut absorbed the brunt of the fall. They did not suffer any damage. The opposite end of the fixture landed on a parked train and derailed several cars, but again no damage. The light fixture did hit and pulled off two insulators from the telegraph line (the scenery ones, not operational). Luckily, these are lycra line and did not break. So, all in all there was not real damage as it was a simple matter to clear the fixture and re-glue the lines back on the pole.

Today, I installed the new LED lights. These can be ganged together creating a continuous line of even lighting.  They are mounted closer to the valance thanks to their low profile. Thus the light on the layout is now more front lit than back lit, of a constant color temperature, and the lights draw less current. So all in all an improvement.

I still have a few florescent lights on the curved sections of the valance. I will order smaller fixtures and replace them too. 

You can see the new LED fixtures ganged together to create a continuous line of light. There are now
no lights above the egg crate diffusers. Note the frontal light on the Potomac Creek bridge.

I will be working on my layout expansion in the coming weeks as well as building a model for a new museum. 

Hay, let there be light

Say hay! Finally have some forage to haul.

I took a break from building warehouses for Aquia Landing to do some miscellaneous jobs on the layout. I have 5 new warehouse buildings in various states of assembly.

New light over Burnside's Wharf. Some of the new warehouses
are also visible in the image.

First odd job was to add a new light over the Burnside's wharf area. My operators have complained about that area being dark and hard to see when switching. For the light I used a new low profile, recessed LED light that only draws 15W but puts out 850 lumens. It was pretty easy to install and the results are great. It is much easier to see the link and pins there now. I also like how the backdrop is much more evenly lit now too.  It pays to listen to your operators. This has got me thinking about retrofitting the rest of the lights too.

I also added some ballast to the wye tracks. I find that doing a small section of ballast at a time makes for better results.

Hay warehouse in Alexandria, VA

Two  of the major scenic shortcomings of the layout are been the lack of forage and not enough supply wagons.   Modeling forge is important because it was the predominant cargo on the line. So tonight I made about 140 hay bales. That should be enough to create loads 4-5 cars. I'll probably need three times that many in total for car loads and scenery at the wharf and stations.

Flat car laced with forage at City Point

The mechanical hay press was invented about 10 years before the civil war according to this web site and documented in this booklet from 1842.

To make my bales, I used balsa blocks for the basic shape. I tried to add some variation in size and shape as hay bales in this era were not uniform, as you can see in the image at the left.  The bales were pretty big, about 300 pounds.  Mine are 0.9 inches long and half inch square cross section.

Then I painted them with a mixture of straw color acrylic paint and white glue. Then I sprinkled on a layer of static grass that was mixed with clippings from cheap bristle brushes. Once dry, I glued the blocks together and wrapped them with baling twine.

I used Woodland Scenics harvest gold static grass with some clippings from cheap bristle brushes. Hay comes in different types and colors.  I went with hay that is not quite so green, since I model the late-March time period, so the hay  would be a few months old.

Note the hay bales on the roof of the barge.

LED Lights in Recessed Ceiling Fixtures for Layouts

Over the past few years I have experimented with several types of LEDs for use as layout lighting in  part of my basement that houses Aquia Landing and the Port of Los Angeles Layouts. These rooms have 12 recessed can lights in the ceiling.  Note that the front room of the layout from Brooke to Falmouth has a built-in valance with tube florescent fixtures. If I could, I would get rid of all those lights.

Over Aquia Landing I opted to not have a valance. So I stuck with the recessed lights. I tried several types of CFL and LED bulbs, but only one really worked well.  I'll spare you the results of the experiments that failed and just point you to the ones I have found that work the best.  They are Ultilitech Pro 120W BR 40 Floods. Lowes is the only store in my area that carries them.

These lights create a nice even flood of light. They are dimmable and only use 20W of power for 1400 lumens of light. They cost about $20 a pop, but should last a long time.

Vemeer and Camera Obscura

If you have an interest in photography,  painting realistic miniatures or backdrops, and have a spare 41 minutes, I strongly suggest you watch this video. The last three minutes are especially fascinating.

In this video Professor Philip Steadman, UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, provides a "proof" of his theories on how the famous Dutch painter Vermeer used a modified camera obscura to paint his "photorealistic" scenes.

 

When I was in graduate school in mechanical engineering, I had one unrestricted elective class. I took photography. In that class we made a camera obscura in a dark room in the old armory at MIT. It was really fun to watch the outside scene projected on the walls of the darkened room. But the room was too dark to paint in. This video shows how Vermeer probably developed the camera obscura  even further to create a device that could record a scene and allow enough light to make a painting.  There is a documentary film mentioned in the video, "Tim's Vermeer," that I have not seen, but plan to at some point.

Prof Steadman also makes a point that there are no out lines in Vemeer's artwork. I have noticed a similar effect when working with Photoshop. When you reduce an image to colored dots (pixels), and look at the dots in a magnified way, you can see this clearly. You'll even note that the areas were colors meet are not sharp, but tend to blur into each other.  Being aware of this effect makes compositing images in photoshop more realistic. Sometimes, you have to add blur to an image to make it more realistic.

Hit the Hole, Pole man

Pole line near the water mill. This scene is almost complete, all that is missing is Nellie and her pig

Anyone who has been to U.S. Army Airborne School knows what the phrase, "hit the hole pole man, hit the hole!" means.  After  reciting that phrase over hundreds of pushups, it is indelibly etched into my mind. So it is not surprising that as I finished installing the last 36 telegraph poles on the Aquia line, that phrase popped into my head over and over.

Any time you can use a rubber mallet in layout
construction, you should happily seize the chance 

When I made the first batch of telegraph poles in 2011, I used custom made brass turnings for the top-hat insulators. But a few years ago, I noticed that the nylon axle bushings that Tichy offers for HO truck frames were the perfect size to act as O scale top-hat insulators. To speed the construction of the insulators process, I decided to laser cut the wooden pegs that hold the insulators to the poles, instead of shaping each one by hand. I was able to  make quickly the 72 insulators I needed plus a few spares.

I spray painted the insulators a flat black color. Then I glued the pegs into the holes in the underside of the nylon bearings with CAA. Once the CAA set, I trimmed the insulators from their frets and glued them to the poles.

Dead cattle from shock waves when
hammering in the 16D Nail to make pole holes.

To make the poles I selected an assortments of stalks from weeds I collected a few years ago. Alas, the city has redeveloped the field where I used to get these stalks. It remains to be seen if any will be available for harvesting this winter.

Cedars hide backdrop corner

I glued the pegs to the poles with CAA. Once they were set, I gave them a wash of black, gray and tan to hide any shiny glue residue. I planted them about 16 inches apart. I introduced a little forced perspective by shortening the poles and planting them closer together in places where they moved away from the viewer.

With the poles in place, I added the green lycra E-Z Line from Berkshire Junction to simulate the wires. This is an amazing product as the line is very flexible and can withstand a lot of abuse. Nonetheless, I managed to break the lines twice during install, perhaps because I used the fine wire, which is about two microns thicker than gossamer and is very hard to see, especially with bifocals. Also, be very careful with CAA near this line as it seems to set very quickly when it touches the lycra.

Trees and builds help screen view

The completed pole line gives the layout a closer to finished look and helps tie the disparate scenes together. It adds an interesting man made element to the areas of the layout that are otherwise open country.

Next I added some foliage to the area above the tunnel portal. The purpose is to help screen the view when one looks past Brooke to Falmouth and the entrance to the layout. The large tavern and the "cedar trees", and tall pines do a pretty good job or breaking up the view.

I also was able to add some LED under cabinet lights in the staging area in the closet for the PoLA layout. Seeing this blank wall makes me want to add some kind of backdrop behind the staging tracks.

LED, follow or get out of the way?

Some of the original lights from 10 years ago. This is the
site of Falmouth on the layout now.

Several years ago, before I was building the O scale layout,  I installed some inexpensive shop lights and low profile under-cabinet lights to illuminate the layout. The layout has changed a couple times, but the lights have remained. In fact I have added more.

But, most of these have failed at one time or another. This week I replaced four more. Replacing the under cabinet lights isn't too hard. The shops lights are more difficult as they are over parts of the layout with deeper bench work. I am phasing them out with smaller fixtures so they are easier to replace. 

I am seriously considering removing all the fluorescent lights and going with the LED strips like we used on McCook's Landing.

While I was in the layout room I fired up the locos and ran some trains. It was gratifying to see everything run without problem. Even the DCC locos ran great, an impressive achievement as I hadn't cleaned the track in about a half a year. 

I have noticed that every winter the wood contracts in the layout room. Some of the turnout stub switches get tight. But tonight that wasn't a problem. 

Actually, not everything ran great. The battery in the engine Fury is not charging. I knew that before I started so I didn't try running it. A few months ago I sent it out for inspection and they said it checked out fine. But now it won't take a charge. I suspect the battery is bad. I have replacement batteries, so replacing its battery is now on the do list.

I am itching to get working on the layout, but I have backlog of custom models to build for clients. 

LED lights Installed

The layout with the LED strips installed. Note the different colors. The iPhone camera accentuated the
color difference. It is not as noticeable to the eye, especially with overhead lights on.

I installed the LED strip lights to the inner edge of the valance over the past two days. They work well. I used two strips on the narrower sections and three strips on the widest section. After installing them, I noticed that the second strip I installed is not the same color light as the first. I ordered only cool white lights, but it looks like I got one of each. For now I'll live with it. But I may have to go back and swap some of the strips to allow each section to have similar colored light.

The issue that some have noted with LED strips  of light spots reflecting off the rail tops does not seem to be a problem. It may be a function of the relative angles of the lights and rail.

We tried a clear, patterned diffuser, but it didn't enhance the lighting. It was also very difficult to cut without cracking. So we opted not to use it.

The mock-ups show how quickly O scale models fill up the layout space. If you convert this 29 feet long layout to N scale it is equivalent to a 6 inch by 4 feet layout not counting the staging.

Some good photos angles will be available on the layout