Joe Fugate's HO Siskiyou Line Model Railroad

This photo clearly shows the 15/25 watt bulbs mounted every 2 feet along the valance. This is Coos Bay yard, which is the lower deck of the mushroomed part of the layout. You are looking at the underside of the upper deck in this location. That's Roseburg above you, facing the opposite direction, of course.

For parts of the layout benchwork 12" wide or less, I use 15 watt bulbs spaced every 2 feet. For benchwork between 12" and 24" wide, I alternate 15 watt and 25 watt bulbs (one 15w, then one 25w, one 15w, one 25w and so on). For benchwork 24" wide or more (like this location), I use all 25 watt bulbs. I find the lighting levels provided by using the wattages like this works very well. It's also worth noting that all these photos were taken with a digital camera using available light. Deliberately taking photos showing the lights like this causes the layout itself to look abnormally dark. For some more accurate views from the aisle showing how it really looks to the eye, click here.

Also, note that the bottom edge of the valance at this location is a mere 13" above the track level. Mentally you would think 13" deck separation would be too close, but in actual practice the scene looks great -- and should look even better once all the scenery and structures are put in place.

Here's a look behind the valance across the aisle from Coos Bay. This area has the 15 watt/25 watt mix. That's a 25 watt bulb closest to the top of the picture, then a 15 watt bulb next, and lastly a 25 watt bulb all the way to the middle left.

If you would like to see how this scene looks to the eye, click here.

This shows close up what the Leviton porcelain lamp sockets I use look like. The ridged colar twists off to reveal the wiring screws. These fixtures cost about $3 each at a home improvement store. Here's a link to an online source.

I just use 14 guage wire to connect the sockets together. On the last socket in the series, I cut the female end off an extension cord and wired it to the socket. Then all I have to do is plug the other end of the cord into a dimmer controlled outlet to get dimmable lights! Works like a charm.

The light in this photo is off -- I unscrewed the bulb so I could take the photo without the glare washing out the image.

Once again, here's the "back of the valance" view of a scene. This scene is just to the left of the scene at the top of this web page.

The benchwork at this location is on the narrow side: perhaps 7" wide over the tunnel portal, and 18" wide in the foreground. The benchwork is pie-shaped. Although the camera perspective exagerates the pie-shape of the benchwork here, the valance structure at the top of the photo clearly shows the pie shape -- wide in the foreground and narrow over the tunnel.

Also the bright lights make the scenery look less well lit than it really looks to the eye when viewing the scene from the aisle. If you want a better idea of how the scene really looks from the aisle, take a look at this photo.

To build the extra deep valance, I fastened an L-girder made out of two 1x2s to the wall upside down (right at the top edge of the backdrop), then I fastened a similar L-girder to the ceiling in line with the front edge of the valance. Next I attached 1x2 "joists and verticals" to these L-griders to box in the valance area over the layout. Finally, I attached a long 1x2 to the front corner of the 1x2 joists just above the bottom edge of the valance. To this long 1x2, I mounted the light sockets. Once all the lights are in, I face the entire valance area from the ceiling to a few inches below the lights with hardboard painted flat black.

The diagram at the right shows how this was done. Click on the diagram to see a larger image.

Page last updated on September 17, 2005
E-mail:  siskiyou@railfan.net