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Although posted in the OO section IMHO this applies equally to OO & HO (although some of the issues are the same in other scales/gauges).
Some people (myself included) like to illuminate their coaches - to me it adds another interest, although "if you illuminate you have to populate" & then maybe add more detail inside & start changing the colours of seats, floors partitions…………..
We then immediately hit possible compromise -
If using RTR coaches the "floor" is generally too high so we have to chop off passengers legs.
You cannot get 4 HO figures sitting abreast in four HO seats - you may squeeze 4 HO into an OO coach though but they look too cramped.
If you illuminate to a prototypical level you have further compromise -
You will hardly see the lights on at all in either 1930's stock with dim tungsten lighting or even 2000's stock with bright fluorescent & tinted windows, unless the ambient light is almost non-existent.
But how do you "scale" light - look at the different ways you can "scale" time, distance & speed ?
It is getting easier to illuminate - there are kits available from many sources including the ones Richard produces - cost & visually effective - the "golden white" LED's really are superb & the effect on analogue is good with the "Fliker-Free's) & even better on DCC. (Somewhere on the forum is a picture of a conversion that one of our members posted). Adding pickups can be fiddly but once you have worked out how to, it gets easier. You can of course pick up from the locomotive or other coaches & use conductive couplings.
On SL we will try to achieve a compromise so that you will be able to see that the lights are on, but not too bright. People notice the coach lights when the trains are just in the tunnels at either end - when you look into the tunnel mouths you will see nothing - just blackness & not the operators on the other side. Even just adding tail lights makes a difference. Some modellers may think it's a gimmick, but the public likes gimmicks - & with the exception of the specialized shows it's the paying public that pay for you to be there if showing a layout.
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Some people (myself included) like to illuminate their coaches - to me it adds another interest, although "if you illuminate you have to populate" & then maybe add more detail inside & start changing the colours of seats, floors partitions…………..
We then immediately hit possible compromise -
If using RTR coaches the "floor" is generally too high so we have to chop off passengers legs.
You cannot get 4 HO figures sitting abreast in four HO seats - you may squeeze 4 HO into an OO coach though but they look too cramped.
If you illuminate to a prototypical level you have further compromise -
You will hardly see the lights on at all in either 1930's stock with dim tungsten lighting or even 2000's stock with bright fluorescent & tinted windows, unless the ambient light is almost non-existent.
But how do you "scale" light - look at the different ways you can "scale" time, distance & speed ?
It is getting easier to illuminate - there are kits available from many sources including the ones Richard produces - cost & visually effective - the "golden white" LED's really are superb & the effect on analogue is good with the "Fliker-Free's) & even better on DCC. (Somewhere on the forum is a picture of a conversion that one of our members posted). Adding pickups can be fiddly but once you have worked out how to, it gets easier. You can of course pick up from the locomotive or other coaches & use conductive couplings.
On SL we will try to achieve a compromise so that you will be able to see that the lights are on, but not too bright. People notice the coach lights when the trains are just in the tunnels at either end - when you look into the tunnel mouths you will see nothing - just blackness & not the operators on the other side. Even just adding tail lights makes a difference. Some modellers may think it's a gimmick, but the public likes gimmicks - & with the exception of the specialized shows it's the paying public that pay for you to be there if showing a layout.
.
