Layout Lighting Design

[SteamingWales]

Hello. Hopefully this is the right place to ask this.

 

I'm currently building a small layout and need to think about lighting and how best to achieve this with the current structure (below photo is of one half)

 

My thought is simply running LED strips along the top supports but will this be enough?

 

Also any recommendations for actual lights would be much appreciated

 

TIA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Johnster]

At the risk of not so much giving you advice but of airing my personal opinions on the subject…

 

LED strips on the underside of the top bracing will be fine, but assuming the model is intended to represent a UK, possibly Welsh location, if it were me I’d want to limit the proportion of light shining directly down from above.  Wales is in the 50s in terms of latitude, and even in what passes for high summer here (to be fair I’m writing this on the Patio on a lounger wivamuggatea under brilliant sunshine and a clear blue sky, albeit in a shady corner), the sun is low enough in the sky to side-light objects even at midday, and to cast shadows.  It ain’t the tropics!
 

I like to have a light source coming from the viewing side of the layout, and have achieved this fairly satisfactorily at Cwmdimbath using LED anglepoise clamp-on strip lighting, £25 per lamp at Hobbycraft or Amazon.  These have 3 power levels and can be switched to cool or warm light, or mixed.  I can suggest weather conditions and even morning/evening light to an extent, and the lamps are easily repositioned or even removed from the layout for other uses if needed, although that rarely happens in practice.   I have them at about 4foot intervals along the front of the scenic area.  They are clamped to the front of the layout as I don’t like bright undiffused LEDs in my eyes. 
 

Particularly with steam engines, you need side lighting to get a decent view of the motion in action, and if you model GW coaches with white roofs, too much direct overhead lighting results in a lot of unrealistic glare from them.  
 

It’s not perfect, but the layout is in the bedroom of our flat and space has to be used with regard to the needs of The Squeeze, whose tolerance of it I prefer not to risk compromising.  A better solution would be an overhead goalpost type of frame above and behind the operator positions, with spotlights, but there’s no room, and my solution is an acceptable compromise that works well enough for me
 

On your layout, vertically mounted strips on the corner posts may achieve a similar effect. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by The Johnster

[Jeff Smith]

I agree with most of what The Johnster said.  I initially lit my P4 GWR layout (15" wide) with centrally suspended fluorescent strips but quickly realized that lightning from above was all wrong.  Lighting from above the front of the layout is better but tends to cause shadows on the backscene.  This can be minimised by having trees or structures close to the backscene.  On a bright sunny day the light is single point, the sun, so shadows are sharp, a single wide angle spot shining from a corner would simulate this but also would sharpen any backscene shadows.  My current lighting for both my layouts uses low voltage under-cabinet LED strips the full length of the layouts mounted behind a valence.  The lighting has three settings, dull white, bright white and medium warm.  It represents a diffuse or cloudy day minimising the shadows.  See my link below - shadows I think caused by light from a window.....

Edited May 30, 2023 by Jeff Smith
Added info