Hi all...this great forum has been marvelously useful to me. So thank you all and thanks to OGR Magazine!
I am working on an 18x17 foot island-style layout (O gauge, 3 rail using a mix of Gargraves and Ross). It's the Leaky Basement Railway. I want to have day and night scenes so I am trying to wire accordingly so that I can control the different scenery lighting as desired. I rigged the overhead track lights up to a big Variac so I can dim them easily and keep an evenly-lit layout at almost any light level.
My question is whether there is a good thread here somewhere on wiring things for day and night? If so, can someone supply the name of that thread?
The reason I ask the question is that as I wire the layout, I have multiple power buses and was wondering which should be on during DAY versus NIGHT? Here's where I am so far:
COMMON TO BOTH DAY AND NIGHT
Track power, Signals power and switch machine power
DAY SETTINGS
1. Variac Up, 2) public spaces lighting off, 3) Structure exterior lighting off, 4) Structure interior lighting ON?, 5) Miller billboards off
NIGHT SETTINGS
1) Variac at low setting (lights low), 2) Public spaces lighting ON, 3) Building exterior lighting ON, 4) Building interior lighting ON, 5) Miller billboards ON.
How does that sound? What have I missed? Should structure INTERIOR lights be ON during the day? (I am thinking YES but maybe not). Any ideas appreciated.
All the best during the current mess.
Don
