# Any ideas for trackside lighting for my garden railway?



## lrparks (Nov 21, 2008)

Landscape lights are pretty expensive so wondereed what others are doing for outdoor light for their track.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

If you are asking about lighting buildings, buy the small solar powered ones, on sale for 3-5 bucks each... pull out the solar panel, the battery and the led lights. Put the panel on the roof and the led inside. 

If you are talking outdoor landscape lights, they ARE expensive, and the cheap ones are MORE expensive because they fall apart much sooner. Buy a quality light and they will last for years. 

Regards, Greg


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

I have Malibu garden lights high up on my yard fence facing down on to the RR, all with either blue filters or blue lamps. They give enough pale blue light to make it look like full moonlight. The buildings and any other aspects are highlighted from with in or behind.
Rod F.


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## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

I used the cheap solar powered LED's garden lights like Greg mentioned above. 
Unfortunatly I live in a country the sunlight is so weak almost half the year they don't charge up very well... 

So I took a 3,6 Volt adapter to power the LED's during the winter months and it works great (bypassing the solar electronica). The only thing is now I have to lay cables through the garden to connect them. 
I think I'm gonna place little switches in each lantern between the solar electronic and the adapter power, so I use the adapter during winter and the solar during summer time. 
But perhaps I dismantle it all and rebuild it to smaller, more true to scale lanterns. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is; those solar lights ar so cheap you can experiment easely what works best for you and your garden!


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

I've had good luck with my Malibu sets. Then I also tie into it's wire for building lights, now have some cars I've put LED's in that I will hook to a line. 
In my buildings, I usually use some 12 volt xmas bulbs, solder them to a plug, so I can easily unplug them in the fall when I put them away.


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm using a combination of the inexpensive solar stake lights as mentioned above and solar powered landscape lights that have a charging/power distribution pannel that feeds four lamphouses. I have two sets of those. The thing is, I bought them last fall when Costco and Target had them on clearance. I think I paid about $1.00 each for the stake lights and the landscape sets were on clearance for $25.00. This time of year everything will be full price, unfortunately.


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Jerry Barnes on 07 Mar 2010 08:58 AM 
I've had good luck with my Malibu sets. Then I also tie into it's wire for building lights, now have some cars I've put LED's in that I will hook to a line. 
In my buildings, I usually use some 12 volt xmas bulbs, solder them to a plug, so I can easily unplug them in the fall when I put them away. We don't have much luck with Solar light do to to many trees around our acer lot even tho we are in sunny Calif.

We're kind of like Jerry B idea... We use three heavy duty Malibu or type light transformers to light up our building lights (Xmas bulbs) and now added over 100 of 12 or 14 volt grain of wheat lamps around the layout.. but. I notice the lights are getting dimmer as I keep adding more buildings and like Jerry B. they are plug in on there pad or over head pole wiring plugs...
Think I well starting on changing out the Grain of wheat lamps in the building to LED's to put less strain on the Malibu transformers.. Reason I like the Malibu's is most of them have timers. This make it nice to set them up for 4 or 5 hr for some night runs or just to show up in the yard at night. Even the Hobo Camp fires look nice using a couple of blinking LEDs with a fixed LED. 

I do kind of like the Fence blue lights for moon lighting that Rod F. has.
Thats a neat idea..


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## Dr G (Jan 16, 2008)

Noel, 

Question on the Malibu transformers you are using--are they AC or DC? I thought they were AC (I have one but I don't know). If they are AC my understanding is they will not work with LED's? 

Can anyone comment--I was thinking of using LED's as well but wondered about the Yard light transformers. 

Matt


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Dr G on 10 Mar 2010 02:02 PM 
Noel, 

Question on the Malibu transformers you are using--are they AC or DC? I thought they were AC (I have one but I don't know). If they are AC my understanding is they will not work with LED's? 

Can anyone comment--I was thinking of using LED's as well but wondered about the Yard light transformers. 

Matt Hi Matt. On our live Fri. night shows I 've show how to use them on A/C tranformers... Kiind of think of them using 1/2 wave with a Resis.... LED's, If want more protection on the LEDs, use a bridge ahead of them..They will work fine eiither way...
Each one has to have a resistor in series with each LED. I've been using 560 ohms-1/4 watt. and use shink tubing over them and up to the LED. My transformers are 10 and 12 volts A/C.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

if you have that much voltage, you can also use more LEDs in series with smaller resistors, and of course you use less current. 

Regards, Greg


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Malibu's put out DC, you do plug them into AC.


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 10 Mar 2010 02:53 PM 
if you have that much voltage, you can also use more LEDs in series with smaller resistors, and of course you use less current. 

Regards, Greg 

I put some in series on my Ho. and lost one LED for some reason. and had a hard time finding the bad one. It like a string of Xmas lights, one goes out and they all are out.. I used them on a Series of Tri-ax LEDs. do so small for over color light for my Ho Country park and like i said on heck of a time finding the bad one. If you are going to series them I suggest you use them in one building and not using in more than one build in a series cir. One goes out and your town is down.. laf. Like Greg E. suggested in one building for a few light that is fine to save on current. Boy after you put out over 100 or so Grain of wheat lamps out on the layout, the LEDs are the way to go now. 

Jerry B. 

I went out and ck'ed my Malibu transformer and all of mine must be older ones.. There kind of large and not like the 6 light sets I seen at Home Depot.. All of mine are 10V. and 12V. A/C out with timers. But I do have one that is 14 volts D/C for the long walk way and to the old pool area. We also have all out side lighing and Transformer on GFI's. Maybe the Malibu labels on the A/C I have are from South of the Border.... laf.


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

Depending on just what you want as far as lighting, the solar work and cost nothing to light, but I have never felt the light they give off enough so I have had my Malibu lights in my train yard and around my house for almost 10 years and only replacing the plastic lenses as that grow yellow with time.

I have heard that Malibu only has 7000 of the plastic 2 tier lights left and when they are gone they will never be made again. 
I have also found that "enchanted garden" brand still sell the plastic 2 tier lights, and seem to be better made then the Malibu. Also if you go online you can get the 4 watt bulbs for $.50 or less rather then paying the $5-7 for a pack of 4 bulbs that the stores want.

Running the wires for the lights is not hard to do, BUT DO NOT USE THE WIRE BLOCK CONNECTIONS that come with the lights OR you will be chasing down lights that do not work from time to time, TOSS THEM AWAY EMEDIATELY!. Rather connect the wires together with big yellow wire nuts, and you do not have to weather seal the wires as I have never done that and have had to change things around from time to time and the nuts unscrew right off. Not sealing them hurts nothing!

I prefur the bright light that the 4 watt bulbs give off and you can also use higher wattage if you want. I have also found that the "enchanted garden" brand 10 watt spot lights to be far more superior to the Malibu lights of the same kind.

So if you want the dull solar lighting, and that is a suttle effect, then that is the way to go but if you really want to light things up go with the Malibu or Enchanted garden wired lights..just make sure you get a big enough transformer to power approperately and with room to expand with added lights.

Again I have had my lights in my yard for 10 years and the only bad thing was getting rid of the wiring blocks I used that came with the lights to splice the wires together....that has been a periodic challenge!

Both brand of lights, if you cannot find them can be purchased on Ebay. I have seen the 2 tier plastic lights in groups of 20 for approx. $60-125.

Bubba


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By lrparks on 06 Mar 2010 09:43 PM 
Landscape lights are pretty expensive so wondereed what others are doing for outdoor light for their track.


Depends on what you want to light and what sort of look you want. If you just need light so you can run trains at night and have some taller trees around you I would install a few 35watt spots in the trees. Usually are a MR16 bulb and have a wide to a narrow bulb options. Also have some moon glow bulbs or filters if you want too. I use all Hadco and Unique lighing on my installs. I do this for a living. The Unique is a better made fixture and offers a better warranty. Lifetime. Try that with Malibu. Also all the lamps have a min. of 20 watt bulbs. Some 35 or 50watt depending on the application. There are path lighting fixtures that you can get taller stems for up to 2'- 5'

As for wiring never use any non sealed wirenuts. The wire is copper and corrodes within the 1st year. If you are in a wet enviorment or clay the wirenuts are even more important. When setting up you want 11-12v at the lamps. Wire accordingly. You can take 6 20watt lights with equal length wire to a central location then 1 main line back to the transformer. Otherwise you start with 12v at the 1st light and end up with 9v at the last one if you just


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Since my railroad runs around the perimeter of the yard, I've hung strings of party lamps along the fence for a bit of soft lighting. The buildings are in the process of being lit with LEDs from the solar powered walkway lights. I've been replacing the cool blue LED with two warm white LEDs (pulled from a string of Christmas lights), and the effect is very pleasing. I like the idea of using the cool blue LEDs as a simulation of moonlight. I'd thought about that with using strings of LEDs instead of the party lights, but I'm wondering if I can't turn the stock LED landscaping lights into something that looks like a railroad lantern which would shine down on the railroad from the fence posts. 

Hmm.... 

Later, 

K


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

I use the cheaper style landscape lights. They come in think 8 to a box. After season sales you can get them for $20 at lowes ect... They use the old style bullbs. I just run the wire throughout the layout (buried) I take the wire and bulbs out of the fixtures and place inside the buildings. They are set on a timer and so far have been working great. I like the old style bulbs because they have off a nice glow like a oil lamp would give.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

The one local Mal Wart had little solar lights for the princely sum of $1 each. A local True Value had some for $2 each. There were some really nice ones at both places for $5 each. You can also use the heads to light buildings, like Greg mentioned.The nice thing about them is you can move stuff around, or bring them indoors for repairs without disturbing any wiring.

The ones I have that get direct sun in the afternoon stay lit most of the night. The ones that have north facing panels for aesthetic reasons only stay on for about 3-4 hours. But then. Some folks go to bed earlier than others, don't they?


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

a local park has 110volt light fixtures within a concrete rock for shelter. real cool, just wonder what type fixture to use?


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## mgilger (Feb 22, 2008)

My wife waits until the fall time when the stores are putting all their garden lights on sale. She can usually pick up a box of 6-8 solar lights for around $10 or so. Several years ago she also picked up some that have 6-8 lights, and a single larger solar panel. The lights have long cables that run back to the centrally located solar panel. Now what I like about these is that after a few years they get interment and she pulls them up and puts down something else that she bought the previous year. I get the old one and refurbish them. I run the lights out and stick them inside of my buildings. So I now have a half dozen buildings that have internal lighting each evening. I'll have to try and take a picture some night and see if they show up. 


The lamps are like these:

http://www.amazon.com/Solar-LED-Lig...B004HN0PVU 

Mark
*http://mmg-garden-rr.webs.com*


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## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

Posted By East Broad Top on 13 Apr 2011 10:42 AM 
Since my railroad runs around the perimeter of the yard, I've hung strings of party lamps along the fence for a bit of soft lighting. The buildings are in the process of being lit with LEDs from the solar powered walkway lights. I've been replacing the cool blue LED with two warm white LEDs (pulled from a string of Christmas lights), and the effect is very pleasing. I like the idea of using the cool blue LEDs as a simulation of moonlight. I'd thought about that with using strings of LEDs instead of the party lights, but I'm wondering if I can't turn the stock LED landscaping lights into something that looks like a railroad lantern which would shine down on the railroad from the fence posts. 

Hmm.... 

Later, 

K 
I'm using solar and I don't care for anything really bright, as a matter of fact, I don't care for the new solars that are everywhere (walmart, target, lowes, HD, etc); they seem to be making them with white light these days. I have older solar from a number of years ago that have a more pleasing yellowish incandescent look to them that is much more soothing. I'm eventually going to find a way to replace the lights with the golden glow ones but right now I'm up to my eyeballs with projects

Dave V


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