Evolution of LED lighting for layouts

From the first time I saw a bright white LED in a locomotive I have been fascinated with the idea of using them to light model building interiors, street lights, vehicle head lights, or anything else where a light bulb would be used on a layout.  Another area that I have wanted to use these is for layout lighting.

With this layout being in a garage without any air conditioning, I was really concerned about any waste heat being generated by the room and layout lighting.   The technology is hitting main stream lately with the products becoming more practical and more affordable.  The room that the layout is in is lighted with 3 LED light fixtures with great results.  To light the layout itself, here are some products I've experimented with.

It must have been about 10 years ago now that I picked up this set at Ikea for about 35 dollars to use under some cabinets to light part of my California Northwestern layout.

While this did work rather well to light up a small part of that layout it were not practical due to cost.

I got this 18 foot long LED rope light for about 10 dollars at Costco last year.  The price was better but a single rope was not going to give off enough light so it might take several of these running side by side to light an 18 foot section of the layout.

Looking for LED replacements for the interior lights in our travel trailer I found this product on ebay. There are a total of 48 LED's on a small circuit board with a 2 pin connector.  The kit includes 3 different types of automotive bulb type bases with connectors.  After buying a few to try out they seemed very promising so I bought a larger order and was able to get them for about 2 dollars each.


In my next post I'll show what I've been doing with these to further determine their sustainability for lighting my layout.

Layout version 4 - turning everything around

While I liked the last layout design, there was one big problem with it.  The primary staging yard for this layout needed to be on the west end of the layout.  Up to now my orientation for the layout was looking north, left is west and right is east.  Following this orientation the west end staging yard would be on the shorter wall not allowing enough space for primary staging.

The solution was to turn everything around so that the orientation was looking south, with left being east and right being west.  This drawing shows this new arrangement without the track itself being shown.

Because in this configuration the Palisade tunnels would be on the other side of the room, I decided to use the tunnels to disguise the lift bridge at the entry door.

Another change is that the bump out for the helix was reduced from 4 feet to 2 feet after I realized that the modeled scenes could be extended onto the first turns of the helix so the space is not really wasted.




This drawing reflects how the room was actually built so while this may not be the final version of the layout, additional changes will need to fit within this space.

Another thing that I believe may be an advantage to this arrangement is that on the western end of the layout the WP line will be closer to the front edge of the layout which I find more interesting.  On the eastern end of the layout after the lines have crossed in the canyon, the SP line will be toward the front edge in Carlin which is where there is more going on.

At this point in early 2014, the blog postings have caught up with the events. Future posts should all be "current events".

2013 - Working with the AnyRail drawing program

I'm not particularly good at learning to use various computer programs.  I learned to use Microsoft Visio quite a few years ago and got good at it so I have tended to rely on it for all types of drawings.  While it is great for many types of drawings, to draw a layout plan there are several programs available that are especially designed for this type of work.

In the past I had tried XTrakCAD and CAD rail but had trouble of getting the hang of either of them.  Then one of my local N scale modeler friends suggested AnyRail and I found it to be much easier to learn to use.

This is a drawing I did showing the 10 foot section of the layout that will represent the east end of the modeled area.  The program allows the user to set up what the minimum allowed track radius will be and then as the track is placed in the drawing it will show if  and where the track is tighter than that minimum.  I'm still just getting started with this but already I would recommend it for anyone looking for layout design software.  It can be downloaded at http://www.anyrail.com.  The free trail version can do small drawings and does not have any time limit.

2011 to 2013 - Trying out Fast Tracks

For some time I had been admiring the code 55 Micro Engineering track and turnouts that I would see at local train shows on the Silicon Valley Freemo N layouts.  The profile of the ties seemed to much more closely match the North American prototype and I really liked how wheels went through the turnouts so smoothly without the bumps that I normally associated with the Peco turnouts that I had been using.

In 2011 when I was laying track on my AsiaNrail modules I needed a couple of cross overs in code 55 rail. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try out some Micro Engineering turnouts for myself so I ordered some custom made cross overs from an ebay seller who uses the Fast Tracks system to build them.  The track standard for AsiaNrail is Peco code 55 but I was able to adapt the Mico Engineering rail to the Peco rail.

This photo from the Tokyo In N Scale post 3 Types of Track shows the blending of the Micro Engineering / Fast Tracks turnouts with the Peco track on the AsiaNrail modules.




The AsiaNrail modules have been to a couple of shows now I am happy with the way the turnouts have work out.  The only issue that has come up was that one of the points came loose from the throw bar tie and I had to re-solder it.  Also the throw bard tie is rather delicate near where the hole is to connect it to the turnout machine linkage.  Looking closely at the photo above it can be seen where I had to re-enforce this spot.

Then In early 2013 I finally purchased a #6 turnout building set from Fast Tracks.  So far I have built just a few turnouts but they seem real nice. I learned that code 80 rail can be used in the same fixtures as the code 55 and have also built a couple of code 80 turnouts that way.  I plan to use code Atlas code 80 track in the staging yards and and code 55 in the visible areas of the layout.

The next thing I want to do is to set up a sort of test fixture where each turnout can be temporarily connected to sections of track and manual turnout control for testing prior to installation.

Layout version 3 - loose the peninsula

Sometimes what looks good on paper does not work out in 3D.  As I started in May of 2013 to lay out the new room within the garage and allocate space between the train room space and the garage space I realized that I would not be able to give up as much garage space as I had hoped.  Originally I was going to take the back 13 feet of the garage but discovered that having only 7 feet left for all of the other uses would just not be enough.

I also discovered after making a full sized mock up with cardboard boxes that the space I was allowing for a module work area in the train room was going to get rather cramped.  So I decided to go with a 50% use of the garage which would result in a 10 ft x 21 ft train room and no Peninsula.

I was counting on using the 3 ft width at the end of the peninsula for the helix and did not like the idea of filling up one corner of this narrow room with the helix.  I came up with the idea that I could have the helix inside a 4 ft x 4 ft bump out which would free up the full perimeter of the room for scenicked parts of the layout.  The part that sticks out into the garage would be in a blind corner anyway.

Here is the drawing for version 3.  It's a simpler around the walls type of layout with a two stacked helix's for each end of the layout to access it's own staging yard.  This drawing does not show the staging yards which would be above the top section and below the right section.



Another issue that came up as I was laying out the area for this room was that the concrete floor of the garage was too cracked, tilted, and uneven to be able to easily roll the items I wanted to have on wheels.  To have the garage floor demolished and replaced was cost prohibitive so my only other option was going to be to build a raised sub floor for the room.

2009 to present - Building a WP locomotive roster

In the summer of 1970 I was lucky enough to visit the Feather River Canyon for the first time and see some silver and orange GE diesels of the Western Pacific Railroad. Because of that memory I have always liked the WP but had not really collected any WP engines except for a pair of Atlas GP7's.  Building this new layout of the paired WP / SP line in Nevada gives me the the opportunity to model another railroad that I liked.

So starting in about 2009 I began to find the occasional deal on WP engines on ebay.  All of these were Atlas models as WP had only 4 axle road diesels and all of Atlas's offerings are 4 axle while Kato's are mostly 6 axle, wonder why that is ?

So here's what I have so far:

I'm really proud of the fact that I've got decoders in all of my WP locomotives.  The ones with Lenz decoders came with those but all the others I installed.  While it's always tempting to buy more locomotives, this should be a good fleet for this layout and I believe is a good representation of what they had running by the time of the merger with Union Pacific.  One locomotive model I would like to add is the U30B as WP had 19 of these.

2012 - A double deck design

After finishing that first layout drawing it occurred to me that I would really rather have the layout not just go around and through a single staging yard.  What I really wanted was to have a staging yard on each end and a way to for a train to turn around at each end.  I wanted it to have a sense of actually going somewhere.  The other problem with this design was that is was completely flat as both ends had to meet at the staging yard.  The prototype does have a bit of a grade with the east end being higher than the west.

Using the fact that the prototype has a grade I came up with the idea of placing a two stacked helix's at the end of the peninsula connecting the ends of the layout to staging yards on each side of the peninsula.   The west end being lower would helix down to a staging yard that was below the east end.  The higher east end would helix up to another staging yard above the west end.  I never did finish an actual layout drawing of this version but did have a track schematic shown below.

Just as well I didn't spend the time on that drawing because Version 2 would not be even close to the final plan.

Lessons learned from the old layout

In early December 2013, I dismantled the layout that I had called the California Northwestern.  I had started it almost 12 years before and it was fully completed.   It's always a bit sad to tear down a layout but at the same time I am looking forward to starting the new one.

When I built the California Northwestern my goal was to try as many new ideas (new to me anyway) as possible.  I consider this to have been a successful layout when I recall everything I've learned from it.  While I was dismantling it, I recalled many of the things I had tried, what worked well, and what did not.  I got out the camera and documented some of them.  This is how we learn and build the next layout even better than the last.

After all the buildings, trees, and other details were removed, the two sections of the layout were taken outside as it would get messy next.

I had used the Busch instant roadway product for my highway.  In this photo it is very noticeable that it had cracked and split where the material had been bent around a curve.  The material had generally degraded by about 8 years after being installed.


The raised areas of the layout were built with Styrofoam sheet to match the Woodland Scenics Styrofoam risers.  While the risers worked out fine, I would not recommend using Styrofoam for scenery base.  Besides being more messy, it also is not very firm as a sub roadbed.  The six turnouts on this layout were built on 1/8 inch acrylic sheet as a unit including the cork road bed, Peco code 55 turnouts, and Tortoise motors.  After being thoroughly tested, these units were then placed into cutouts in the foam and secured with Liquid Nails adhesive.  This meant they were non serviceable but they never gave me any problems in 11 years of service.

This photo shows one of the turnout units after it was removed from the foam.  I've really become a big fan of the Tortoise switch motors.  I've mounted them vertically, horizontally, and upside down and they've always worked.The ones on this layout had been re-used from another layout before and will be used again on the new layout along with some additional new ones.  They are about 20 years old at this point.

Here the metal shelf brackets are shown after the layout shelf had been removed.   I had set this layout just high enough at fit the file cabinet under one end. It was not until I was removing the layout that I realized that I had forgotten to put the screws into the layout shelf on last two brackets by the file cabinet.  I had never noticed any weakness there so using these type of brackets every 16 inches really works well to support a layout like this and all these will be re-used on the new layout.

Another thing I had tried on the old layout was the use of plastic paneling for the sky board and to cove the corners.  This is available in 4 x 8 ft sheets and has a textured surface.  I used it backwards as the back side is smooth.  It was attached with a few finishing nails and then painted.  This seemed to work really well.  I want to use some sort of photo backdrop on the new layout but this will give that a smooth firm surface.

With everything salvaged from the layout that could be re-used or sold, it was time to scrape off all the Styrofoam which was bagged for trash collection. The Peco code 55 track and turnout were also not re-usable. The plywood bases were then cleaned up and will be re-used.

2011 - A place for the new layout

In the spring of 2011 my wife and I purchased a travel trailer.  At our place we have a seperate double car garage toward the rear of the lot with a narrow driveway to access the garage.  We needed to park the trailer in front of the garage which blocked any possible vehicle access to the garage.

Since we were no longer parking the vehicles in the garage, I began to start looking at using part of the garage as a layout room.  This room would also have to serve as my model / DCC & Electronics work space and have space to set up a module or two for working on them.

First layout drawing

Before I could start building the room, I needed to know what the layout was going to be so I began the process of  actual layout design.

My first design drawn with Microsoft Visio is shown here had an overall size of 21 x 13 ft. The layout went all the way around the room with a peninsula that included the double ended staging yard.  Near the entry door there would be a lift gate.

In this configuration I was able to include most of the scenes that I had made the drawings of.  The open area at the end of the peninsula could be used for working on a module.  The work areas would be under the layout on the left hand side in this drawing.

This would be only the first of several layout plans I would draw but it was good to actually now have an idea where I could build a new layout and to get started with actual layout drawings.