Lighting...

Hi everyone,

Things have been busy around the layout shed and this means the blog has had a bit of neglect. Not only has installation of the spray booth taken some leaps forward but so has the wash bay.

I also decided to start assembling Infront Models DOT tanker so there goes some more time.

So now that you have my excuses lets move on....

All the lighting is 28w, T5 , 4 foot fluorescent tubes. They are Sylvania (part no. 200768) 6500 Kelvin daylight tubes and retail for around $4.50 per tube. The tombstones are fitted to fabricated bracket and mounted to the ceiling directly behind the pelmet which is 100mm deep and protrudes 100 mm out in front of the layout as to avoid any shadows on the front edge. The 4 scenic modules require 6 tubes, 4 of which are in line and 2 offset to make sure there are no dark patches. Now as these 2 tubes cross a module join we needed to find a way to safely transport them, this is where the T5 tube comes in. T5 tubes fit neatly into 20mm electrical conduit, so two 1200 mm lengths of conduit are saddled to the roof of the layout where they are stored until the layout is assembled. The other four tubes are never touched as they remain housed within the module which make set up very easy. 

That leaves the power source, we wanted to keep the weight down but ballasts are heavy and then you have to find room for starters. This was solved by the use of electronic ballasts. They are very light and don't require starters. The only disadvantage is they are quite expensive but at least one ballast will do two tubes. Lucky for us I had acquired some some without cost so we were very fortunate.

OK that was a pretty quick post but really, its lighting, it has to be covered so hopefully I can cross it off the list. I would prefer to be covering track work so lets do that next post.

Happy Modelling...YEAH...