Dave, I used porcelain lampholders on my previous layout, which had morphed from all incandescent to a mix of CFL/incandescent over the years. I had a valance in front of the lights which were placed along the perimeter of the benchwork. From my experience, which included some experimentation, for reasonably even lighting, the maximum lamp spacing can be no more than the distance from the layout to the lamp. For example, if your layout is at 48" base elevation, and you have an 8' ceiling, you can go with a maximum of 4' spacing. Very deep scenes, such as those greater than 3' deep, may need some additional lighting. In that case, it was in a basement with an unfinished ceiling, so I just wired them with NM cable like you would a regular pullchain fixture at that time and followed the NEC (National Electrical Code) at the time. (I tore it all out when I moved about 10 years ago.) With 120 volt wiring, it is best to follow the NEC as a minimum.
Just in case you were wondering, my current layout uses fluorescent tubes. All the different CLF lighting colors weren't available when I installed the lighting, but I could get high CRI (color rendering index) tubes. Dave Heine Easton, PA -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ctxmf74 Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 12:03 AM To: [email protected] Subject: {S-Scale List} Layout lighting? Hi All, anyone have experience with CFL lights in porcelain lampholders mounted in a lighting valence? I'm thinking about mounting them about 1.5 to 2 feet apart and was wondering if that spacing sounds about right and also what is the best way to gang wire a run of them? ...DaveBranum ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
