I noticed you guys have been replacing filament lamps with leds which I can see makes sense for a number of reasons. I was just wandering, are there any models in the wonderland where you are not entirely happy with the quality of the light emitted by leds? Or maybe there are still times when lamps such as those 1mm glass bulbs are more convenient to work with? i.e. light spread or even just fitting requirements?

I personally still think there are plenty of scenarios where bulbs look more natural / more realistic than led's. I guess this is much easier to manage for the amateur with a small layout though

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Olly.

Well, replacing the filament lamps with LEDs has two main reasons:
1 - LEDs are far more economic on the power bill than lamps are beacuse they use a lot less power than lamps.
2- maintenance -- LEDs virtually live a lifetime whilst lamps "only" live 20,000 to 25,000 hours.

These reasons are of course not *that* relevant on a small home layout wher you don't have some 300,000 light sources to feed with juice but the maintenance aspect made me switch to LEDS even on my small modules (4 x 2 feet). These little beasties are so robust and withstand even the roughest handling.

Drawback: for some special lighting effects in tight spaces, you need to spend a bit of money as these tiny LEDs are quite heavy on the budget.

Conclusion: I think, a "sound" mixture of LEDs and lamps make the best sense on a home layout.

Erhard

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US-Modules in N eMail: erhard(at)minirails(dot)de