TRAIN LAYOUT LIGHTING

For the most part lighting tends to be a rather simple matter. There are five main types of lighting I intend to employ:

STRUCTURE

Structure lighting consists of drilling holes under each building and inserting lights which can be nothing more than bulbs with soldered leads.  These bulbs typically run off of low voltage and draw 50 to 150 milliamps.  These are inserted over the hole and run to a power source in a serial manner.  Structure lights will be installed early on in the development of the train layout.

STREET LIGHTS

Street lighting is usually a purchased item made to look like a short neighborhood street light or tall highway or parking lot light.  These are placed over a hole and run to a power source in a serial manner.  Street lights will be installed early on in the development of the train layout.

ENGINE HEADLIGHTS

Engine headlights consist of lights in front for steam engines and in front and back for diesel and electric style engines.  They pick up their power from the track through the wheels along with the motor that runs the engine.  Engine headlights exist in most of engines.

TRAIN PASSENGER CAR LIGHTS AND INTERIORS

Passenger car lights have small bulbs placed each car and get their power, like engines, though the wheels.  Passenger car lights and interiors are only in a few of my passenger car sets and it will be  a while before I install lights and interiors in the others.

SIGNAL LIGHTS AND SEMAPHORES

This can be a bit more complex and can be incorporated in automation.  Signal lighting (in the real world) controls the progress of trains by signaling the engineer.  Semaphores are physical flag type devices that act the same as signal lights.  These devices can be automated, but on my train layout they will initially just be lit up.

OTHER LIGHTING APPLICATIONS:

Some other items that can be lit in a layout are car headlights and signs