City Lights Up

One of the primary reasons I wanted to build this layout for was the urban scene; the trains to me are part of the overall artwork, and urban scenery is something that has always drawn me. But structures themselves do not make a city, it needs life. And life needs LIGHT!

One Light Powered

And Man, what a pain THAT was! 

The leads are not quite long enough to work with under the layout, when you have almost three inches of foam base under the city. It meant removing the structure base, extending the wires on the bench, and carefully threading them, the slightly larger extensions, AND heat-shrink tubing through the original hole with the aid of a Capri-Sun straw, and putting it all back together. 

This does explain the wet glue under the structure, and lamp. 

Thankfully I had an epiphany on connecting the others, and the guy that sells these says he can add longer leads, which will make it VERY much easier... 

Three Lights Lit

I managed to power all three currently installed street lights despite the close quarters; I used a piece of copper-cladded perforated board, and soldered the lamp leads to this, as well as the feeder wires. It was a lot lest aggravation to be sure!

For now I will figure out how many of these I will need to do a good portion of the city, and take the maker up on the offer to provide longer leads. I will also need to consider the street surface; at the minute it looks too shiny, except for after a rain storm.

Overhead View - Three Lights Lit

All three lights when viewed from above. In these shots I was using a nine-volt battery, as I will be running a separate 12-volt power supply for the scenic lighting, as to not overwhelm the turnout power, or get brown outs when changing routes!

Twenty-one more to go, and hopefully get some interior lighting installed and connected at the same time.