NCE Illuminator and Just Plug Lighting Features In "Springfield"

I've brought the "Springfield, MA" Amtrak station module to the point where all the former features of the temporary cassette have been relocated onto a module that matches full T-Trak specs. But as I mentioned in my last post, I installed an NCE Illuminator lighting decoder under the module surface that's set up to work with the Woodland Scenics Just Plug lighting system. The benefit is that I can run lighting in any module off the DCC bus, and on a layout as small as mine, the DCC bus in turn simply runs through the track and the Unijoiners from module to module.

This allows no extra wiring between modules, but each module is separately addressable. All you have to do to reconfigure the layout is disconnect the modules and reconnect them using the Unitrack Unijoiners, and the lighting goes with them. This is superior even to the stock Just Plug system from Woodland Scenics.

The first thing I wanted to try was using Woodland Scenics wall mount lights on the building flats in the background. I was inspired by this video from Woodland Scenics:

The video makes things seem a little bit easier than they actually are, possibly because I was working with the N scale version of the product. The hookup wires are quite difficult just to see, much less to cut, strip, and solder into a connection to the linker plug. I struggled with this for most of an afternoon, but it did all work the first time, just not entirely plug-and-play. Here's the first result, which I'm very happy with:

The NCE Illuminator has three available ports. The two wall mount lights together take up one port, as explained in the video. This left two ports for another feature. I decided that I wanted to add platform lights under the butterfly canopies of the Walthers Cornerstone platforms. I painted the canopy supports and edges oxide red to match the baggage elevators, as seen in the prototype photo in the last post. Eventually I'll brush paint the canopy top surfaces gray. Under the canopies, I mounted Just Plug cool white stick-on LEDs. I cut notches in the supports that allowed me to run the wires to the LEDs under the roof and to the platform ends:

Then I mounted the canopy-LED assemblies onto the platforms, which I'd previously painted, along with adding the yellow line decal stripes:

Then I assembled the completed platforms onto the module. Here's the result, after programming the NCE Illuminator:

But as I said, each Illuminator is separately addressable, provided you program it with an address. Following my system, this is Module 7, and the first Illuminator on each module is numbered 90, so this is accessory number 790. So I can call up Accessory 790 on my NCE Power Cab and turn it on (1) or off (2). Here it is turned off, but as you can see, power is still going to the track: