Platform/building lights etc

Admiring Paul Holt's pics of his line at night, it occurs to me that artificial lighting of stations etc is something my line is lacking. I am seeing that there could be a whole lot more photographic opportunities if I could work out how to set that all up. So, I thought I would ask of you good people: Where do you obtain your 'station' lights from, and how do you power them, how do you sort the wiring out etc...

Oh, and just telling me that you've done it won't be enough - I'll want pics too!

When the snow has finally thawed (just started today) I will show you.
My body was just too feeble to get outside at -7 in the dark.

All very rudimentary here, simple e5/e10 bulb holders inside buildings plus an assortment of mainly dolls house lamps for the outside.
4mm main cable laid underground in plastic conduit from shed which houses a 20amp 12v regulated power transformer.

Oh...you want pics...ok.

From H&DLR public album photos

Starting from the left...
The wooden pole lamp is a Pola 16v lamp, off the shelf.
The light inside the water fountain is a Pola 16v assembly that I accidently broke off a lattice pole yard lamp. The remains are concealed in the roof space.
Inside the church are 2 x 18v LGB or Maplins LES type lamps/lamp holders hot glued into the roof space. On the front wall of the church is a scratch built lantern housing, containing a 16v Viessman spare bulb. This has since had a resistor added in line to reduce the brightness. I was going to use the Brandbright lamp kit but could never get it to stick together properly. After faffing around with the kit for literally ages I eventually made my own... in about 5 minutes...
The three platform lamps are 16v Busch lamps. Quite cheap, looked down upon by those who prefer the no doubt better engineered Viessman jobs. Main problem is sticking them down... I use Evostick, seems to hold, at least until I kick the nearest one over, again...
Inside the station are the other two Viessman spare bulbs from the pack, hot glued to the roof.
On the bar, there are two 12v Gaugemaster gow bulbs wired in series ('cos the supply is 16v) inside the building and another two, also wired in series, illuminating the terrace.
The whole lot is powered by a Gaugemaster 16v a.c. supply. The transformer delivers 2 x 0.5 amp outputs. There's a "trunk" cable from the shed under the track to the station, then a rat's nest of wire - LGB, Busch, whatever came to hand from years of modelling - connected via the standard connector blocks. The "brass" elements of these "only" rust slowly. Yes, I know there's a theory about minimum gauge wire, and there's a long technical article in Garden Railways if you want to do it correctly, but I worked on the principle of "if it's thicker than the Pola wire, then it'll be ok". The local wiring is neatly (not) buried, and if ever I need to find it, I start at one end, and pull. I'll no doubt regret that approach one day. One tip - it's well worth tinning the ends of every wire, 'cos you will end up adding and altering the layout...
Other stations have fewer lights - yet - but to the same principle.

Top rack station - 1 x Busch platform lamp, 1 x Pola...

From H&DLR public album photos

Holzapfel - 1 x 18v LGB bulb stuck with insulation tape (!) under the eaves, 1 x LGB on the buffer stop...

From H&DLR public album photos

I haven't got a decent night shot of Birkenhof just yet.

Most rolling stock isn't lit. This bar car, however, does have battery powered lights. I have tended to use bulbs rather than LEDs, 'cos I'm really not sure what I'm doing with LEDs and I do find the colour from LEDs either too white or too yellow and not a convincing incandescent glow.

From H&DLR public album photos

Quote :

Oh, and just telling me that you've done it won't be enough - I'll want pics too!

Better late than never...?

Here are some pictures of my station lanterns. I used white LED's but I painted them transparent yellow again because the light was to white...











Paul

[quote="Paulus"]

Quote :

Here are some pictures of my station lanterns. I used white LED's but I painted them transparent yellow again because the light was to white...


Paul

Such a simple thing and why didn't I think of it!

Did you make the lanterns and the station?

Quote :

Did you make the lanterns and the station?

Yes sir!
I scratched the lanterns from pieces of styrene. The top is from balsa (with lots of layers white glue to "seal" it to protect from rain). The whole cap can be placed on a LED that is placed on a brass mount (the core of those stiff kind electric wire used in house electrics). One of the foots of the LED is soldered to the brass mount, the other foot is soldered to a thin electronics wire that runs in the building. Once you got it in the fingers it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to build 1 lantern.







The station is also home made It's made out of multiplex. I painted the walls ad the blown fine sand over the wet paint to get some structure. The stones are cutted pieces of styrene plastic glued on the walls. Same with the roof, these are pieces of plastic cheap placemats. But on later buildings I changed to Milliput to sculpt the stones and fine concrte mix for the roof. This gives a much nicer effect. Windows are build up from styrene strips.

Here's an "early stage" picture of it:



Although I like the building I think the roof is a bit to low (or the windows a bit too big perhaps). But further it's fine. The buildings are out all year long.

Paul

The great thing about new people coming on the forum is sharing different and often new ideas.

That's a tedious but rewarding job doing your lanterns but can easily save a lot of money.

That nice station building looks just right in it's proportions of size and I don't think the roof looks too low at all.
The only observation that I can see is that the windows (especially the upstairs) look a little too wide and too arched with the cuvature for a 'typical' BV.
But there were many variations all over the country and I'm sure there were some with big windows.

Pierre at Imagimonde makes the perfect station in my view but then he is a perfectionist!

I like the homemade lantern idea.Very good.Being the skinflint that I am,I'm inclined to make a visit the local poundland shop and dismantle a few of their outside lanterns.
Discreetly place the solar bits and reroute the LED.
I have a plan