The diagram below shows the distribution of the 4-foot fluorescent lights installed for this layout. The plan was to have even lighting throughout the layout with no harsh shadows anywhere. The overall idea was to have a shadowbox effect in the layout room. There will be no other lighting in the room beside these fluorescent light bulbs.

April 13th, 2003

Now that the rooms have been remodeled, it is time to start work on the railroad-specific tasks. The first task is to build cabinets that will hang from the ceiling, holding the fluorescent light fixtures and the layout's valances. I started with several 4' by 8' 3/4-inch sheets of cabinet-grade plywood.

These were ripped into long boards from which the cabinets will be made.

April 17th, 2003

Four parts glued together with biscuits make up one side of the cabinet. As shown in this photo, the five sides that make up a single overhead lighting cabinet.

Here's one of those cabinets being glued together, again using biscuits.

One such cabinet is now installed in the layout room. It is screwed into the ceiling joists and into the wall studs, where available. Also installed is one of the 4-foot fluorescent light fixtures.

May 8th, 2003

These cabinets went all around the room over the areas to be covered with the railroad. The next photo shows these cabinets installed in the main room, and the photo after that is of the second room. It took several weeks of free time to build and install all the cabinets.

July 14th, 2003

After all the wiring was done, I installed standard single-bulb 4-foot fluorescent light bulbs. These were Philips low-mercury "Daylight" bulbs. When I flipped the switch to turn the lights on, I was greeted by the harmonious buzzing of 19 light fixtures at around 60Hz, with a distinctly blue tint to the "Daylight" bulbs. Not quite what we were looking for, and, considering the amount work and money put in, quite disappointing...

After days of searching on the Internet, I finally settled on Natural Full Spectrum Lighting. They manufacture and sell electronic ballasts that are quiet. Their fluorescent light bulbs are full-spectrum with a CRI of 91 (an index that shows how close the colors reflected off of subjects match colors that would be seen on that subject in broad daylight; scale: 0-100). I ordered and installed the fluorescent light bulbs product number VL-06430, and the Workhorse 7 ballast (shown here).

A costly investment, but each of the ballasts provides support for up to 4 single-bulb 40W light fixtures. Because of their length (about 17 inches), I had to come up with some creative ways to install them, while still keeping them within the right distance of the light fixtures they support (although the leads can be up to 18 feet for these ballasts). From the photo you can see a black (hot) and white (neutral) set of wires which serve as the input to the ballast. With the Workhorse 7 there are one yellow and four red wires coming out at the other end. The yellow serves as the common lead between the up-to-four light fixtures, and the red serves as the hot wire to the fixtures. There is no specific connection for a ground on the case of the ballast, but I created one, because that is too important to ignore.

The light bulbs have arrived. They were carefully packaged and all worked great. Update: even though these features are expensive, I am currently using these light bulbs and ballasts in my new S-scale layout (over 7 years later). They will remain in use for as long as they last.

This photo shows the light bulbs installed in the first part of the model railroad room. After installation and a test run on four fixtures, the ballasts are absolutely quiet. Not a peep, hum, or buzz to be heard. What a blessing! As an added bonus, these ballasts turn the lights on instantaneously; no start-up flicker that we're used to with fluorescents. Conclusion: The room is very bright. After being in the room for a few minutes, it feels like real daylight. They really work!

August 14th, 2003

I found a plastic material to act as the diffuser panels. I only bought one to experiment. They are rather expensive, considering the size of our project. I never did buy any more for the rest of the layout.