Further Illuminating The Garden Railway...
Hi all. Our regular readers will remember that we are currently going through a phase of illuminating our 00 Gauge Garden Railway. After serveral problems found in using so-called "Grain of Wheat" bulbs, we are currently fitting standard 12V Festoon bulbs to our buildings. This is done using standard wire, a block of wood and two small, metal brackets. This is to stop any melting of the plastic buildings/walls. These two shots (above & below) show our engine sheds which had to be illuminated a little differently to the others. This is because there was inadequate headroom (for the locomotives) when the wood & metal bracket approach was attempted. Therefore, the two bulbs (one Festoon+one mini-Playcraft) are hanging from the ceiling, soldered to two wires which are fitted to the shed walls. 
The playcraft bulb is fitted to the fore-section of the shed whilst the Festoon bulb is fitted into the extension section of the shed. As seen above, the illuminations are both visually and mechanically pleasing. In the shed, on specially laid out display tracks, Mogul No5328, Pannier No5775 and the static 'Pug' are seen "under the lights"! Today, we were testing the power given to the buildings from our transformers, which themselves are made by 'Clipper'. I only used one of the three circuits today as I only had one spare transformer handy. (Circuit No2 was used today. This circuit includes 5 buildings out of the total 15 which will be illuminated). Sutherland Signalbox, as it has been weatherproofed, was put in place of Ashford Signalbox for this test and is seen below. The bulbs would not fit in the "upstairs" compartment and therefore have been placed in the "lever room" and holes have been drilled in the ceiling of this room. The light can then make its way into the upstairs/signal room as well.
With 5 buildings on test, the Grantham area is seen below. A house, the Post Office and the Grocery Shop can be seen working well...
Finally, the 5th building was one of our semi-detached houses with new blinds/curtains fitted to shield the workings inside...
The illumination work will continue before our Grand Unveiling in December 2009. The buildings have yet to be rearranged and some still need to be further weather-proofed until they can withstand snow...if we get any this winter! Before that, we still have more buildings to put bulbs inside and even more wiring to do! We also need to get 2 extra transformers to power the buildings efficiently. So, we're not there yet, but we soon will be...Watch This Space! Thanks for reading folks. Good Evening.
Hi all. Our regular readers will remember that we are currently going through a phase of illuminating our 00 Gauge Garden Railway. After serveral problems found in using so-called "Grain of Wheat" bulbs, we are currently fitting standard 12V Festoon bulbs to our buildings. This is done using standard wire, a block of wood and two small, metal brackets. This is to stop any melting of the plastic buildings/walls. These two shots (above & below) show our engine sheds which had to be illuminated a little differently to the others. This is because there was inadequate headroom (for the locomotives) when the wood & metal bracket approach was attempted. Therefore, the two bulbs (one Festoon+one mini-Playcraft) are hanging from the ceiling, soldered to two wires which are fitted to the shed walls. 
The playcraft bulb is fitted to the fore-section of the shed whilst the Festoon bulb is fitted into the extension section of the shed. As seen above, the illuminations are both visually and mechanically pleasing. In the shed, on specially laid out display tracks, Mogul No5328, Pannier No5775 and the static 'Pug' are seen "under the lights"! Today, we were testing the power given to the buildings from our transformers, which themselves are made by 'Clipper'. I only used one of the three circuits today as I only had one spare transformer handy. (Circuit No2 was used today. This circuit includes 5 buildings out of the total 15 which will be illuminated). Sutherland Signalbox, as it has been weatherproofed, was put in place of Ashford Signalbox for this test and is seen below. The bulbs would not fit in the "upstairs" compartment and therefore have been placed in the "lever room" and holes have been drilled in the ceiling of this room. The light can then make its way into the upstairs/signal room as well.
With 5 buildings on test, the Grantham area is seen below. A house, the Post Office and the Grocery Shop can be seen working well...
Finally, the 5th building was one of our semi-detached houses with new blinds/curtains fitted to shield the workings inside...
The illumination work will continue before our Grand Unveiling in December 2009. The buildings have yet to be rearranged and some still need to be further weather-proofed until they can withstand snow...if we get any this winter! Before that, we still have more buildings to put bulbs inside and even more wiring to do! We also need to get 2 extra transformers to power the buildings efficiently. So, we're not there yet, but we soon will be...Watch This Space! Thanks for reading folks. Good Evening.
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