8. Light It Up
There are three lighting circuits: buildings, streetlights, and signals.
Building Lights
Illuminated buildings are indicated below, along with the number of LEDs in each building.
I was on the fence for quite a while about whether or not to light up any buildings. I'd been leaning toward no for the project's first year of life, as the structures were finished with no interior detailing and no provision for lighting. But then, when I rebooted the project in February 2021, I went fully toward yes. Not only that, I broke with the purist retro philosophy and went with LED illumination. Installing lights in finished buildings required removing the roofs, drilling lots of holes and, in some cases, installing a few walls and floors to control the light. Oh, and that's not a typo on the Newport passenger station—there really are 66 LEDs in the building.
Building Flats
The building flats are also illuminated; see that page to learn how.
Street/Utility Lighting
These lights are shown below as blue dots.
1. seven Chinese streetlights
2. the yard light
3. spotlights for the
freight crane
4. two gooseneck lights for Rock Falls passenger station
Signals
1. four three-light train signals
2. two grade crossings
3. navigation lights and signal for the rolling lift bridge
4. aircraft warning beacon on the chimney at the factory powerhouse
All Together Now...
Click for an enlargement.
