Running With the Lights Out

we don't always run with the lights out. but we most of the time run with them dimmed.  check them out 11 to 4 tues - fri or 11 to 5 sat -sun pacific time.

see link below.

My trainroom is 2 sections of a 3 car garage and yes, the best time for me to run trains is after dark with all garage doors open,

I live in Texas where the weather is good most of the year.

Brent

Some of us are running with OUR lights out !!!    Seriously though, I know what you mean.

I run with lights out alot just see the lights in the engine and caboose and signals. They look great when in the dark.

I don't always run passenger trains, but when I do, I run without lights on. Stay thirsty, oops, I'm meant, Stay with your trains my friends!!

I like running may UP passenger train with only  loco and car lights, and lights off the layout.  SWEET!  And if you run with reduced lights, one does not have to worry about details!

I loved running my trains with the lights off when I was a kid. I loved seeing the trains and layout lights as the only light. Now I'm a senior citizen but I still love turning the room lights down and seeing all the light from the layout. I guess I'm still a kid at heart. I'm glad you rediscovered this simple pleasure, Jay.

We visited the Minatur Wunderland site in Hamburg a couple of years ago.  It is something like 15k feet of HO scale with outstanding models and motion.  Every few 15-20 minutes they gradually change from daylight to night and the night scenes are fantastic.  If you haven't seen any videos of it, they are really good.  http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/

One of the reasons I love to replace the standard incandescent headlights with an LED is the great look in the dark.  The LED is focused down the track like a real headlight and really adds to the realism of nighttime running.

One of the simple pleasures in life is to turn out all the lights and run trains.  Even before you fire 'em up, just the glow from the red/green bulbs on the O22 switch controllers, the red/green switch lanterns, the hum of the 494 beacons, all the lights in the houses and street lamps, and 260 bumpers is to be treasured.

SJS

I began running my trains with all of the room lights off when I was just a young colt way back in the 50s and I never stopped.  My layout looks like a glimmering jewel in the night; probably because all of its defects are hidden.

Yes! Me too, a great pleasure!

Brent,

   Man you are bringing back some memories for me, I use to do the same thing in Slidell, La, when we were 1st building the NASA Space Shuttle.  I would come home to Slidell about 12:00 AM, after 2nd Shuft at the Michoud NASA Plant in East NO, open the Tripple Garage door, Crank up & run the big layout, with all the house lights out.  Just an incredible time, my neighbors would all start showing up, and of course my wife would break out the food and drinks.   Lights out except for the Train Layout, it was a great time.

PCRR/Dave

Any time I happen to run my layout in the evening, at some point I turn the room lights off.  I have several hundred lights on the layout; streetlights, flood lights, signs or interior lights.  Might as well enjoy them, too, for all the work that went into installing them.  And, as forpassenger trains, I know that the suppliers use too bright a lighting, but I like it.  It does kind of bring back memories of when I was a kid and trains were more popular.  It was a real treat to see a passenger train steaming along through the night with all of it's windows lit up.

Paul Fischer

Good thread.

When I do the lights out thing, I really like to see the smoke from the various locos.  Has anyone noticed or developed any good lighting effects for smoke?  The best smoke highlighter on my layout appears to be the lionel 195 / 6-14092. I have regular bulbs in it but have wondered what LEDs would do?  The 395 types don't put out enough light to illuminate the smoke at 14v.  (even right next to the track)  I guess I could change the stock bulbs to a lower voltage, I think the bulbs in them are rated 18v.

Any good ideas to illuminate smoke in a few regions of the track?

You mean like these, taken from multiple years of Christmas Layouts ?

Well, I guess that's enough for one day !

- walt

Walt,

   Great pictures of the lights out layouts!

PCRR/Dave

Walt, wonderful work!!  Love running in the dark with the lights off.

(Makes it easier to prevent those rear end collisions. Sometimes...)

I'll admit I do like running my passenger trains with the lights off.

I put LEDs in one of my aluminum OK Engines coaches and with the lights out they give off a bluish tint, I think mainly because the seats are a blue color and the light is bouncing off them onto the aluminum interior.  I have a car with gray seats I need to try them in to see if it makes a difference.

I have LED headlights in all my steam and I'm surprised at how bright they are.

Definitely fun to do.  Hoping that when I build my basement layout I can get lights (LEDs? - anyone know of ready-made systems that do this?) that can do a realistic day-to night transition. Would love a faint, deep blue light - just enough to see where you're going as well as the scenery, but dim enough for the train's lights to cut through. 

If I am down at the club and I am the only person running trains when their is no public visitors, I will run so the only thing I see is the train, lighted cars and the lighted buildings. 

I often run my trains in the dark or in a dimly lit room as well as a under normal lighting conditions and still get a thrill about night time operations as a change up just like when I was a kid.

We did it one Wednesday night. The trains running in pitch darkness (other than building lights and signals) was nice, but it was too dark for us to see anything else. We've been evaluating putting in solar lights to light up the aisles.

Serenska posted:

One of the simple pleasures in life is to turn out all the lights and run trains.  Even before you fire 'em up, just the glow from the red/green bulbs on the O22 switch controllers, the red/green switch lanterns, the hum of the 494 beacons, all the lights in the houses and street lamps, and 260 bumpers is to be treasured.

SJS

Amen to that!!!

graz posted:

view my layout at http://home.comcast.net/~graz6/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

 

Graz:

That link didn't work for me.  Would you please check and re-post?

SJS

Sorry guys. I just realized that my old website is no longer a live site.

I'll try to get that resolved.

AGHRMatt posted:

We did it one Wednesday night. The trains running in pitch darkness (other than building lights and signals) was nice, but it was too dark for us to see anything else. We've been evaluating putting in solar lights to light up the aisles.

Matt,

Have you looked into the ones with downward facing shades meant for decks? Seems like they might be just what you need.