Milestone: Lights Are In

I hit my first semi-major milestone tonight.  The lighting for the first half of the layout has been installed.  I decided to pull the trigger on the track lights.  For the few problems they have they offer a ton of flexibility and are really quite affordable.  Before I show the pictures here's some background on the track lighting.

It seems like many railroaders choose the 4 ft. fluorescent "shop light" style lighting.  It's "cheap" and easy to install.  Those types of lights have two problems:  1.) if it's the cheapy style (sub-$20) they typically come with magnetic ballast which means the lights will flicker.  If your eye is fast enough to see it, it's very annoying, and even if you can visibly detect it, it makes your eyes more tired over time.  Bad.  2.) they aren't dimmable.  If you later want to do "night running" you're out-scout.  The first problem can be overcome by buying fluorescents with electronic ballast.  These of course cost more.

	Track Lights	Fluorescent (shop light)	Fluorescent (electronic ballast)
Fixture/4ft.	$30.00 w/ 3 lights $12 track+connector (1 light / 2 ft.)	$12.50	$27.50
Bulbs (4ft)	$2.50/ea X 4	$11/ea X 2	$11/ea X 2
Total/4ft.	$29.00	$34.40	$49.50
PROs	Cheapest option Easy to install Easy to uninstall Easy to move lights around Easily change how much light is in an area after installation Large choice of colors	Less chance of multiple shadows	Less chance of multiple shadows
CONs	Multiple shadows	Not Dimmable Flickr More involved installation More involved un-installation	More expensive all around Not Dimmable More involved installation More involved un-installation

Perhaps it's easy to see why I went with the track lighting.  The flexibility they add is really, really great.  And they are very affordable.


If you're wondering where the $29 cost came from, I spaced the lights approximately one every 2 feet.  This means one 3-light kit for $30, plus a 4 ft. track ($9) and a joiner ($3). Add on one extra light for $6 and the total for 8 ft. is $48 for the fixture.  It's another $10 for the bulbs.  To compare apples-to-apples against the fluorescent 4 ft. strip I divided the cost for 8 ft. ($58) by 2 for a cost of $29 per 4 ft.   I should point out the corners are $6 instead of $3 for a joiner.

After I set everything up I was able to then go back and re-adjust and control how much light is in a certain area.  It's very easy to do and for someone like me that likes to go back and fineggle with things to get them just right they're a great choice.

Enough talking, here's what they look like.  Also, I've decided to focus on the first 4 modules of the layout instead of attempting to do everything at once.  For now this is all the lighting I'm going to be installing.

You can see all the lights in.  I went with the black finish in hopes they just blend in to the ceiling.  I really wanted to paint the ceiling all flat black.  Maybe some day I'll go back and do that.

You can see in the back corner the "backdrop plate" coming up.  My wife though building real stud walls was overkill for a railroad so I'm building this "backdrop plate" out of 1x2's.  I re-built the test one I showed last week and you can see this one is being built to accommodate a much taller backdrop.


The sheets propped up int his picture are just for show.  I haven't decided yet how tall the backdrop will be. I'm leaning towards the slightly shorter length on the left instead of the "all the way up" look.  It also saves more material which I can use for the fascia.