Not long ago Eric sent in pics of his fabulously British layout.
Eric got lots of comments – but not about his engines, rolling stock or scenery. It seems he really hit a chord with you all with his lighting.
So have a look at this. He’s kindly sent in a video of his layout – and it shows the lighting off a treat.
And to all those sitting on the side lines, if that’s inspired you, this’ll get you off the starting blocks.
Thanks to Eric. Please do keep ’em coming folks.
Best
Al
imprised very much nice job done
You are shooting video and not running any trains? It’s like you are taken photos.
Looks great at night, once again excellent work. – Like the old East Yorkshire buses.
Nice one Eric
Steve R. UK
The lighting is very effective – that’s a lot of wiring but it sure is effective -excellent
I’ve always thought in terms of day and night, but now I just have to work on a dawn/dusk setting. I’ve never seen it before, but it does look really special. Thank you for inspiring me.
EXCELLENT SHOWS GREAT SKILL AND PATIENCE
The lighting, scenery and the rollling stock are all fantastic, and given me so many ideas, I just hope I can do half as good a job.
I’m setting my layout in rural Australia, with mostly Victorian and NSW locomotives and rolling stock.
keep up the good work, Eric and Al
Cheers
Ian Mac
How good is that – top layout
Very nice indeed, superb layout.
Willie
Excellent layout and lights. The trains are all of my favourites and liveries . BRILLIANT!
Awesome layout and is even more enhanced by the fantastic lighting scheme. As a ‘newby’ to the hobby, I can’t even imagine how much time, effort and skill was put into the model. Great stuff, Eric and well done.
Thank you for the comments folks. The layout has taken a lot of time and patience, wiring, I was in the electric trade for 33 years and so it’s natural but definitely fiddly work and even that takes planning with colour coded wires so I use the right voltage or controller, but some of those lighting wires are so thin and a pain to link up. Plan all you like but it never goes to plan as you will all know so just make it so it looks right, with all the lift off panels and trying to hide all the joins you can, takes ages too. Persevere and you will succeed. Good look with your own layouts.
Eric
Very good with your light, I am redoing my lighting trying to light every thing on my layout. I have seen a lot of things I can do better from your lighting layout. Thanks Eric, keep it coming please Dave in Savannah, Ga.
USA
Hello Eric,
Your layout looks fantastic. Couldn’t help but wonder, though, how you get access to all the layout. I don’t see indents or access hatches. Can you please show (or describe) the overall layout? Thanks!
Ralph in Eureka, Missouri. USA
The lighting is beautiful, but it ,in my opinion, would have been a lot better if Eric had some rolling stock rolling. All in all, very beautiful. Thank you Eric.
This is beautiful. How many years did it take you to do this. I am guessing you are at least 100 years old for it did not take over night. Thanks for showing us.
Hi Ralph, my layout boards, all six lift up for easy access and the centre park area is my access hatch, the joins are as well covered as I can make them and each board independently wired makes it easier to remove them.
The lights in the housing are actually three volt Christmas lights in strings of five lights per string and used via my control so the brightness can be lowered, one tip if you try this and join some then is to use a tester to make sure you have the polarity right or they won’t work, out of well over 100 lights I had only one string of five and one single light I had to adjust and thought I had done well. It’s well worth the effort and makes it more alive.
Good Luck enjoy modelling.
Eric
GREAT WORK ERIC… If you have time, please advise the size of your layout
and assuming it is HO. Thanks for all the inspiration. JE
To JE N gauge about 7ft wide by 4 foot 6 deep, or see yesterdays post for the plan. And the other answer is two years:-)
Eric
truly superb, wonderfully realistic the lighting is very convincing for an evening atmosphere and the scenery is first class.
Wow what a great job Eric thanks for showng
Eric, very good layout especially with the lighting.. Like the EYMS buses, is that a Hull corporation bus there as well? Mike P, Hull
Outstanding!
The magnificence of the top side of the layout belies the work that must have gone in to the underneath of this layout. Superb work Eric. And thanks for the night time showing. it is videos and photos of layouts like yours that inspire the rest of us modelers. Keep up the good work. Bernard from Oz
Plenty of lighting there Eric , nice job you have done , always think lighting brings a layout to life ..well done …Dave
Like the Scouts at the Scout Hut and fire! From a Scouter.
Great layout Eric! Would love to see you track plan. Very impressed. Cheers Rossco Adelaide, South Australia
I am very impressed of this layout it is great job you done,thank you so much.
Very nice…sometimes a little peace and quiet is comforting to see.
Great N gauge layout! I’m responding with a request. I’m planning two layouts in a 10′ x 10′ room. I want to build a Marklin layout joined with a regular US-built layout. I’ve read that you can blend the two using catenary. Anybody else trying this?
Also, I’m looking for a plan of the table/support structure for a layout depicted on pp. 138-148 of “Running Trains Digitally with the Central Station 3”. Marklin people say to look at back issues of Marklin Insider, all in German. Anyone have suggestions?
ERIC, If that isn’t realistic, I don’t know what is!! You’ve done a marvelous job!! Keep up your GREAT work. Thank you for sharing.
Well done Eric – great layout!
Brian, Wokingham
Well done. Like the way you have not lit every house as some people would not necessarily be home. Helps with the realism. Favourite has to be the Swcout bonfire. Again well done
Very well done 👏 ! Really like the layout look. Thanks for sharing 👍
The club I belong to was contemplating you utilizing a “fast clock” to control the lighting on our club layout. As the main lights in the room would be dimmed the lights in the structures on the layout would come up. Did you contemplate also utilizing this technique?
Great looking layout!!! Well Done!!!!!
Beautiful work Eric! The video gives us a much better idea of your total layout. Your lighting effect are fabulous. I hope my layout looks even half that good some day when I get to the point of adding lighting. Thank you for sharing this video and thanks to Al for providing this forum for all of us.
I am still working on my lighting; But it pretty kool.
A major work successfully completed.
Eric
Kudos! One person wrote “BRILLIANT!” and I agree. Since you are an electrician, would you please tell us how you can control the brightness? I recently saw here a well-done layout with muted lighting, which focused my eye on the trains. But then in the middle of the layout there was a gas station so brightly lit that it distracted from the rest of the layout. How can we control the lighting to please both the “brilliants” and the “muteds” amongst us? Do rheostats work with LEDs, for example? .
This is a terrific layout by any measure. I am curious though, why there were no trains in the station or sidings for the night that didn’t have lighting? Is it too difficult to do in N scale or is it not done like that in Australia or GB?
In the US, passenger or commuter trains are left lighted at night for cleaning crews to address at night. Just a curiosity point.
Just “Wow”.
WOW!!!! The lighting is nice, you put a lot of work into it. You should be PROUD. I want to do it with mine. Those are all LEDS? KUDOS
WOW, absolutely terrific.
Do the trains run?
Fantastic lighting. The street lights look kind of large. Are they meant for HO scale layouts?