thoughts on your lighting choices....

[tabooma county rwy]

Gents......

My railroad is in a room over a garage and about 15 by 22. As the ceiling is sloped a bit at the walls and the ceiling is a bit low there I chose to use a fabric valance with soft white fluorescent tubes. We have a few modelers who are pretty tall here and they are regular operators on my RR. So the choice allows them to bump into it without damage to the valances....... I'm too alarmed with what might have happened to them ! ! ! ! !

The fabric is a black garment lining and I sewed a white backing on it that is visible in the photos. The white keeps the light moving on the RR side of the valance.

Also visible in the second photo is the track lighting that is on a rheostat with blue cast floods for night operations.

The fluorescent tubes are relatively white and don't alter colors of the railroad too much. In the main, there is no direct light hitting the operators.

see ya
Bob

Bob, that is just too cool of an idea. I too have concerns about people (me, mainly) bumping into the fascia that I intend to put up. I too have sloped ceilings in my new train room, so this "soft" or "flexible" valance is a great idea. I just happen to have extra black (burlap) skirting from my last, larger, layout. I'm thinking I could cut some of it down and use it as you have. Thanks for the idea!

Al Carter

valence 1.jpg

Valence 2.jpg

[bparrish]

OK......... I'm going on a rant here.........

I hate the compact little screw in type lights that seem to be on the way to being mandated. We have a pending law that will make incandescent bulbs unavailable at some date in the near future. The options on four and eight foot long fluorescent tubes has dropped dramatically in the last year and will take another hit January 1.... I think.

Things used to be simple....... bulbs had wattage printed on the bulb.......... fluorescent tubes had an approximate formula at ten watts per running foot.

I am absolutely unimpressed by the compact fluorescent bulbs. They take forever to strike when powered up. They come on at half or less the prescribed wattage and take several minutes to come up to speed. My old eyes need light NOW when I throw the switch.... that's why I threw the switch.

Those compacts only work in a vertical......glass tube up.... position. Put them the other way and they overheat and fail very quickly. They really don't like horizontal either. I have a pile of dead ones in the garage as no recycling place here in town will take them. What's in them that no one wants?

Here's a solution. When you leave the room............. turn stuff off.

end of rant.

see ya
Bob

[willywally]

Bob,
The stuff in them no one wants is mercury. Ground water contamination and all that. The politicians don't want us to use electricity so they outlaw light bulbs then we get poisoned by mercury. The law of unintended consequences in full effect.
Bill H.

[bparrish]

Bill......

I particularly like when the water or power company asks for a rate increase because we have conserved so much that they have declining revenues.

There is a lot of stuff in the world that just makes me laugh.

see ya
Bob

[jbvb]

Bob, I've been using CFLs in my house for 18 years, since I installed a PV/battery/inverter home power system. Some are sideways or upside down in enclosed fixtures, some are turned on and off frequently but I get good life from all of them. I think this is because of the inverter, which gives me better power quality (no brownouts or spikes) than grid power. When CFLs were new, the utilities offered subsidized purchase programs as a conservation measure - some of the bulbs I bought went into my house, some were given to friends & relations. All of the gift bulbs were dead in 2 years, while quite a few that I kept went past the 10 year mark.

Mercury is present in both CFLs and conventional fluorescent tubes. They all should be recycled, but I saw a lot of conventional tubes at the dump when I was a kid, and I see them in trash cans now. My warm-up times vary with the bulb, some are slower than standard fluorescent tubes, some the same. Color temperature of current production CFLs seems to center around maybe 4000K? LED bulbs are getting better, but the last few I bought seem to still be pretty blue. I used conventional tubes in the attic partly for efficiency, partly because I didn't want 5x or 6x more heat in the attic from incandescents.

But yes, whatever they are, turning 'em off when nobody's using them is the best solution, regardless.

[bparrish]

James...

I clicked on your site data string... not sure why I had never done that before.. Very cool photos..

thanx
Bob

[rebel]

OK......... I'm going on a rant here.........

I hate the compact little screw in type lights that seem to be on the way to being mandated. We have a pending law that will make incandescent bulbs unavailable at some date in the near future. The options on four and eight foot long fluorescent tubes has dropped dramatically in the last year and will take another hit January 1.... I think.

Things used to be simple....... bulbs had wattage printed on the bulb.......... fluorescent tubes had an approximate formula at ten watts per running foot.

I am absolutely unimpressed by the compact fluorescent bulbs. They take forever to strike when powered up. They come on at half or less the prescribed wattage and take several minutes to come up to speed. My old eyes need light NOW when I throw the switch.... that's why I threw the switch.

Those compacts only work in a vertical......glass tube up.... position. Put them the other way and they overheat and fail very quickly. They really don't like horizontal either. I have a pile of dead ones in the garage as no recycling place here in town will take them. What's in them that no one wants?

Here's a solution. When you leave the room............. turn stuff off.

end of rant.

see ya
Bob

Your buying bad bulbs, my come on instantly and only power down as they are nearing death. I install them sideways,upside down and vertical (which is a rarity), I even have floodlight floresents!!!!!!!!!

[deemery]

There's been a substantial increase in quality and responsiveness of CFLs. I have both CFLs and tubes in my train room. In the tube fixtures I've alternated warm and cool bulbs, to try to get better color balance. But since I've never gotten to the point where I can take any serous photographs, I can't say how well that works for photography.

dave

[PennCentral]

I wasn't planning a second layer, thats why the metal brackets are annoyingly visible, some I might be aible to cover with structures and scenery, anyone have ideas how else to cover these up?

Jan

[/quote]
Jan,

I would eliminate the brackets. Seems you have some studs behind the backdrop since the brackets are screwed into something solid. You might investigate using the same 2x2 lumber you have on top of the brackets. Mount 2x2 wood strips to the wall behind the shelf tight between the wood on top of the brackets. Attach the existing wood supports to the ones you mount on the wall. I would think glue and screws would support the benchwork weight. Work from one end to the other and then remove the white brackets. These new wall mounted supports would be hidden by the fascia boards.

Just an idea!

Bob

[LongHornCaddy]

I had these brackets made up for $11.23 each. The masonite was screwed into them and seemed to work well








For lighting, I using LED strips ($9.00 ea). I decided on the natural light

There's 3 different types in this photo. From L to R; warm, natural and cool