Dramatic Lighting For The Model Railroad | Boomer Diorama ~ # 221 

Boomer, amazing lighting effects. Lights really do give you another dimension to your layout. Night is part of the real world. Thank you for sharing, just so inspirational. Cheers, and stay safe, Michael

I started my layout planning built around lighting. I used to tell new people at the railroad that I've spent most of my career backing up in the dark so it was important to me gathering ideas to make night moves and vignettes as visually important as daytime.

Dusty did an amazing job on this. If I only saw the the part where train pulled up to the warehouse, I’d think the scene was real world. You must love working for that cat, you seem to have picked up a good deal of knowledge from him.

Wow. The subtle lightning is beautiful.

The lighting looks fantastic! Great job. Well done! CHEERS

Thanks for the recent updates and variety... looks great!

All you need is to add real sound as you do so well. Perfect.

The brewery lighting is just as we imagined it would be, fantastic!

Very nice Boomer , it totally pulls the scene together for night ops and videos . Cheers Boomer , another great milestone for river road , thanks for sharing.

The lighting looks GREAT! ..........................and the "Moonlight Sonata sets the scene! Thanks for sharing all of your all of your great ideas with us!

Would love to see an episode on the shadow box lighting. Looks good with the blue moon light effect

Loved this video!!! Happy Sunday & Cheers to a fresh start and a year filled with exciting adventures Like 👍 Have a great 2024 🥰 BIG LIKE

Thank you for another interesting video. The lighting makes for a pleasing scene.

Fantastic ambiance Boomer. The lighting really adds a different mood to everything and of course 382 looks great in original colours. Brings me back to my childhood riding my bike over to see her working Scott Road Hill. Cheers!

Your lighting looks fantastic! I love the way you leads us through the various projects you've done all of which have quite a realistic look.

From a former pro photog that knows how rough lighting can be, your's looks great!!

That's nice Lights bring out good detail

I had the pleasure of visiting a layout that was incredibly well detailed and built with night operations in mind, and when they switched to nighttime, I nearly cried at how beautiful it was. I haven't used the Just Plug system as I thought I could easily roll my own lighting setup, but I think I'm leaning towards adopting the saying, "If it's good enough for Boomer, it's good enough for me." Sometimes it's just not worth the effort to spend all that time recreating the wheel on something you can just pick up at the store; I'd honestly rather spend my time running trains. =)

+1 on setting up lighting. I work from my train room (well, it is officially my home office but...) and having multiple lighting options allow me to concentrate better, changing the mood of the room, etc.

As ever, wonderful work.

Thanks. I think you did a great job on the night lighting- a lot in focus and appropriate (inconsequential) parts out of focus. Also, as someone else said, Moonlight Sonata really works.

Let there be light ! Looks great

Excellent. . .Thank You for sharing your skills.

Always loved the lighting my father used to light up cabooses with GOW bulbs…..50 years ago

Great video as always!! Thanks Boomer!!

Nice job Boomer, that is soooo cool and incentive enough for me to follow your lead.

Very nicely done and adds a whole other dimension to your layout. I won't say that I love lighting more than model railroading, but would be very sad without it. I had a city scene diorama with close to 200 lights. My end of day wind down routine was to just sit and look at it for some 20 minutes before bedtime.

Fabulous effect, forgot about the green lenses, gives the scene a cool eerieness.

That's a real nice touch.

Another great video! Scene is incredible!

Hey Boomer A timely video , I have been contemplating some lights on my layout as well. Just got to bite the bullet and get it done. Cheers from Ontario Bob

Dusty said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Inspirational as always, Boomer. Thank you for imparting your knowledge.

Very, very nice! BTW, most excellent choice of background music!

Well done as usual. Always look forward to your next adventure.

Boomer looks great love it ❤ and and the cat Dusty . You inspire me to model that way. Thanks Todd

Love me some Dusty!!

The Mad Mad World of Boomer !! Well done and thought out lighting bring any layout or diorama to a whole new level. Well done sir 👍🏽👍🏽

Just gorgeous, the lighting really makes that scene look dreamlike on camera - no doubt it's even more stunning without the filtering effect of the camera. There's something dreamlike about seeing the world in miniature anyway, perhaps our mind's eye doing what it does best. It's sheer joy to see you bring so many years of doing this for stage and screen to your layout. It's a constant inspiration to me to bring more artistic endeavour into my own little part of the railway world. As much as people say Beethoven's Op27 no2 in C# minor is boring, I still love it. As a young girl I started training as a concert pianist before graduating from the Conservatorium, but life and studying for a job as an engineer in the 'real world' got in the way after my dad passed away while I was a teen. Sad though that might perhaps be, he left me with his love of US railways - hence my little piece of the Minnesota Commercial.

Great lighting Boomer! Love the lenses. Excellent use of the flats. I don't see them used enough on layouts. Thanks for sharing.👍😀

I love the lights! I use WS JustPlug too. I made a cool sign, printed on photo paper, and backlit for a roadhouse band, LIVE MUSIC THIS SAT! Still trying to figure out how to do modern era industrial steel pole-mounted lighting. Thanks Boomer!

Snuck in that 6 axle surprise at the end! Good content as always.

Very nice, Boomer! Thanks for sharing!😀👍 - Dimitris

Awesome. Some of my favorite pics and videos I’ve taken are just using the structural lights on my layout.

The lighting looks fantastic, Boomer! And, the new yellow locomotive works perfectly. I love the color in that setting. Couldn't be better! And Dusty is doing a very fine job in promoting River Road! Cheers

Looks really great. I wasn't going to do lighting, but you have definitely given me something to think about when I get to that stage of the build. Thanks.

I also use the plug-and-play system. It may be more money, but it is easy to use. That looks great, Boomer.

Greetings From Colorful Colorado WJ. Perhaps Better said "Cold Colorado". It was -5f, -20.5C. Removing the Brewery created a whole new Diorama. It reminded me of a RR on the edge of a Mesa Cliff View of with open sky in the background. (ignoring the slip) My mother played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on her piano. I love that piece. The new Brewery lighting is incredible and I love the shot of the light reflecting off of the river' Hope you are well Your faithful student, John

Cool as always. 👍

I use magnet fishing magnets to hold big objects down like that barge to the board. One on each side provides locks to grip and is removable allowing the board to be used for tons more things without having to remove the post in post (Photoshop or whatever). This is assuming your model can fit one in. The step down would be those retrieval magnets at Harbor Freight that are about the side of a card deck. Beyond that, various MM diameter for everything. But I will admit, I have a problem and love it a ton. Even built on steel and painters mixing boards (again HF) that way everything on it can be magnetized to some degree. So yea....magnets. Never have to drill your work again.

Thanks!

BEAUTIFUL

Gorgeous! And thank you for atriculating so thoughtfully much of the thinking and processes behind this stuff.

“Plug and pray” has never been more relatable for me in the hobby 😂

Thanks

Looks beautiful Boomer. Nice to see a BC Hydro unit on there. Another great thing about smaller layouts. Doesn’t break the bank to change rolling stock and loco eras.

Beautiful!

Hi Boomer. Just a note. NCE makes a simple light control module called LiteIt. It can be powered and controlled via the DCC signal on your tracks. You may already know but just in case, there it is. Great video as usual. I hope you're keeping warm.. it's a bit cold up north. 😉

Dear Boomer, love it when a plan comes together! Simply awesome how those green filters slightly change the light aspect. Definitely looks like the large industrial flood lights. In awe for your 1/128” precision. Funny how you added Dusty put the ‘light’ in you!! Cheerio

Epic video, once more... I have been looking at lighting too, either Walthers, Atlas or WS, for a Wally's Warehouse kit I have...

Looking good. I haven't even thought about lights on my layout yet. Plentiful time for that. Always love the Beethovan! Great stuff thanks for sharing!

Awesome.

I use two switches, one for lights on during the day and one for night time lights. About 150 on my 17' long urban module so far. I use LEDs I wire with resistors, cheaper, and I'm happy doing that.

Wowzers!

How could anyone watch and not subscribe? The way the lights all bloom on camera is so cool...

liked the shot of the light hitting the water. I just started using lights on the buildings and well pleased with the results. I take it you will do the back section next?

What a lessons to learn, incredible.

Uh oh. Did River Road just get bit by the lighting bug? J/k I knew you have had some lighting plans for a while now. Yours lookks fantastic! I wired up my grain elevator a few years ago with a couple orange LEDs (to mimic those outdoor sodium lights) from the junk drawer. That little experiment turned into a few hundred LEDs and resistors all across the layout now. My goal is to not have to turn the train room's light on for night ops. Edit: and yes I agree! Lighting a model RR is a whole other world of fun challenges. One not often explored

Another winner! Is the dropping resistor build in to each module? I have been using 1K resistors at 16 volts, and it seems to work well. Give Dusty a little pat on his head......

It’s looks very nice

Boomer that’s just awesome 😊🎉

Amazing!!!!

Boomer, This look's really good. I take it each light plug's into the light hub seperatly? Could you daisy chain the lights and just use one plug? On a different subject in your modelling travels have you ever used "Tamiya" diorama texture paint? I'm off to watch it again. Cheers, Chris Perry.

Maestro

Like all of your hard work, IT LOOKS AMAZING! Quick question, have you ever used fiber optic for light that you wanted to all stay the same density, would that work in order to save on using so many expansion hubs??? Just curious and I’m not saying curiosity killed the cat, that would be terrible, LOL BTW, I love Dusty as your audience 👍🏻👍🏻😂

very nice

I like this post. I’ve been struggling with lights or no lights. This inspires me to do lights. It poses a challenge for block and crossing detectors. Photo cells vs IR detectors. What are your thoughts Boomer?

Thanks Boomer. I have a bunch of Just Plug lighting modules and LEDs. Very simple to use. Are you using non-Just Plug LEDs?

good vi

BC HYDRO 👍

Could you use a app like Helicon Focus? Or are those only for still photography?

i hate being poor and/or having no creative skills..

Stupid question. Did you finish the boat?

Thanks!