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Location & Lighting

The last major change was where the James River Branch would live. I abandoned the plan to build it into a coffee table because I wanted to enjoy the layout close to eye level, rather than have to crouch down on the floor for a good view (I came to this realization one day as I was photographing Version I). So the original coffee table would remain where it was, and the new layout would occupy a shelf in my office.

This opened up some new opportunities. For one thing: light. To me, layouts look their best under a lot of light—more than many modelers seem to want to use, and significantly more than a typical living room would provide. So the first thing I did was install multiple compact fluorescent under-cabinet fixtures on the underside of the shelf above the layout.

Subsequently I found it necessary to add more lighting. With the front edge of the layout extending slightly beyond the edge of the shelf, foreground objects did not receive enough light, so on 14 December 2008 I installed an additional fluorescent unit that projects out from the shelf above on brackets.

However, compact fluorescent units have a tendency to fail rather quickly—indeed, one unit was already starting to go after only nine months of intermittent use—and there's no guarantee that replacement lamps will have the same color temperature. So, on 28 March 2009 I replaced everything with new LED-type under-cabinet units. These high-intensity lights deliver a beautiful neutral white light, produce no heat, and consume only 5.5 watts per unit. Rated for 50,000 hours of operation, they should not need to be replaced in my lifetime.

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One wall of my workshop is a set of floor-to-ceiling shelves.

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Nine under-cabinet fluorescent lighting units are mounted to the shelf above.

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An auxiliary four-foot unit was added to improve front edge illumination.

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Eventually all of the fluorescent lighting was replaced with LED-type units.

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