LED Structure Lighting

1 December is a great time to light up the structures on your layout. LED Christmas lights are available everywhere. This box of 100 was about $4 and contains 100 3mm LEDs.

2 Each LED housing is held in with a retaining clip (arrow). Flip the clip open and pull the entire LED/housing free. Solder wires to the LED. On these, the LED lead next to the retainer clip is the (+) lead. Add a resistor appropriate for your voltage. I use a 5 volt supply, and 330 ohms works well.

3 Drill a 1/4” hole in the layout and poke the wires down until the LED housing is flush. To avoid seeing a point-source LED through the structure windows, make a diffuser from a strip of plastic cut from a milk bottle.

4 Diffuser set in place

5 Testing the LED

6 Set your structure on top.