April 24 Building Lighting

I use brass tubing and rods for my lighting connectors on my layout.  That makes it easy to remove buildings for maintenance or remodeling.  I also use them on my vehicles.   The building below is an example of my home brew connectors.  They plug into power as they drop in place.

This is my Diesel Maintenance shop.  It has 9 overhead 12 volt grain of wheat lamps in the engine portion and 1 in the machine shop.  There is 1 GOW above each walk-in door also.

The picture below shows a bottom view of the building with the .030" brass rods that are the male connector for the lights.  To help align the brass rods so that they will slide easily into the brass tubing one rod is ¼" longer than the other. 

This is a view of the Diesel Shop floor with the building removed.  My home brew connectors are next to the right corner of the floor in the cork sub-base.

The picture below shows the 1/16" brass tubing female connectors in the cork sub-base.

The picture below shows the building with the brass rods sliding into the brass tubing making connection to the 9 volt wiring going back to to a mini-toggle switch on my control panel. I operate all my lighting at reduced voltage for longer lamp life and a more realistic look.

I have individual switches on my control panel to turn the lighting on and off on my layout. 

I have an advantage by using the brass tubing and rods for my vehicle connectors, with the vehicles removed from the roads the connectors are vary hard to see.  I have 41 vehicles with operating headlights, 21 of those have operating taillights too.  Large trucks and buses also have running lights.  I installed 50 vehicle connectors on my roadways so that I can move them around easily and still have the headlights and taillights operational.