Lights for ceramic buildings

I light my D56 buildings with 12 VDC.  I use candelabra based LEDs screwed into the building cords.  I route the D56 plugs under the table through drilled holes and plug them into 12 VDC supplied power strips.

Dept 56 makes their own power strip that you can run their lighted buildings with and some of their operating accessories. Although I can’t remember the name of it right now guess I am having a senior moment at this time.

if he only has a few buildings why doesn't he just replace the C7 incandescent bulbs with C7 LED bulbs.

https://www.feit.com/product/l...ight_lightsbpc7-led/

3000k so they should be a warm color.

They are around $2.50 each, but should last for years.

John

I guess I do not understand.  The LED bulbs mentioned call for 120 volts.  Will they also run off 12 VDC?

Thanks,

Don

@DGJONES posted:

I guess I do not understand.  The LED bulbs mentioned call for 120 volts.  Will they also run off 12 VDC?

Thanks,

Don

No.  Those run on 120 volts, but draw far less power.  It would be a drop in solution to save energy (if that is his goal).  Is this a seasonal setup?

John

Don there is marine lighting that would work but you would have to change socket and the bulbs are expensive due to the number of required LEDs. We redid the boat lighting a few years ago and used them.

” Few” is relative of course depending on what “a lot” means. If 5-6, he might want to try it.

Try calling Town and Country. If anyone knows, they should. Dave at Evan Designs also might know.

The C7 replacement works well but not 12 volt.

Bill

Evans Designs,  I used led's  all run on 12v.  Started with Bright white and did not like the color it put off.  I then placed some cool white's and it was much better.   I now have a mixture of both.  I have Lemax buildings and they have a hole on the back I cut out plastic circles and painted them to match the building.  On dept 56 I believe their holes are on the bottom.   I did orientate the leds in the building and hot glued them in place.  It works great.  I have a 3v system and 12v system for led'd and you power an awful lot of led's on them.

Matt

https://evandesigns.com/produc...eds-for-transformers  These universal make it real simple.

I have used peel and stick on LED lights for several similar structures, including ceramic Lemax Christmas village items.  The ones I have run on 12-18 v AC, but you can get a DC variety as well.  Very convenient.  Available in a variety of package sizes (4, 20), from a variety of sources, including Lionel. Here's one source: https://www.legacystation.com/...rxJSOHBoCExwQAvD_BwE.

Hope this helps.

Michael

Thanks for all the replies and ideas.

I wound up using Woodland scenics Just Plug Leds.  I liked them because they are flat and have adjustable intensity.  I removed the bulb and cut the cord from the light holder clip that comes with the building.  I used a 3/8 inch square piece of wood about five inches long.  I trimmed one end so that if would fit snugly where the bulb normally screwed into and placed three LED's - one on the front side and one on each side of the stick and inserted the clip back into the building. There was plenty of extra rom around the clip for the LED leads to extend fro the bottom of the building. I wound up with much better and more even lighting of the building and by adjusting the intensity, achieved the look I was hoping for.

There are several other building on the layout that I plan to do the same thing with.

Happy railroading,

Don

Man, couldn’t have found a more timely thread.  I have several D56 buildings I plan to use on my layout and was pondering the same thing about lighting.  I have a supply of Woodland Scenics plugs and lights and will try them.  Glad they work out.

Another option ...

Dept 56 makes a low voltage lighting system -- CITY LIGHTS #56 53500. It includes a wall plug, inline transformer to 3V, a distribution strip with 12 jacks, 12 light cords of varying lengths each one with a mating plug to the strip, and bulb sockets that accept a low voltage bulb (they are different from the 110v bulb).  Works great.

I have 35 Dept 56 lighted porcelain buildings on my train layout with 3v power to bulbs provided by three distribution strips.  The low voltage bulbs illuminate the buildings just as well as the 110v AC bulbs.  The low voltage system was introduced in 2005.

NOTE: Animated Dept 56 buildings require a 110v AC light cord and bulb; 110v is needed to energize the animation.  I have several of those on the layout.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

Thanks Mike.  I wasn’t aware of that option.  I’ll look them up on their web site and see if they will work for me.  I have several buildings too, but wasn’t sure I was going to use them on my new layout.  But in any case, it would be nice for alternative lighting at Christmas anyway.

In the DIY category, for three buildings, I used some component leds cut from a 5 meter roll on the xmas layout.  Power comes from either a 12vdc wall wart or transformer set at 10vdc through a buck converter.  Works great.

I have a number of ceramic buildings on the layout and use the roll LEDs with sticky backs but add contact cement for a better bond. Adjust brightness with a buck converter. I put either 3 or 6 in each building and as many as 12 buildings per buck converter.

The strips aree12 v dc.

Ray