Still More Just Plug Retrofits

Here's another building that I finished and detailed over 30 years ago, a Design Preservation Models B Moore Catalog Showroom but just installed the Just Plug lighting this past week. Again, I had to disassemble this partly to install the light diffusing window film:

Moving a bit to the right, this shot shows the effect of lighted buildings from the rear:

And here you can see the progress of JustPlug installs along Adams St, the next block south of Lake St. The West Printing building is a City Classics Grant St building. I can date the original kit construction from before 1989, because I copied the paint scheme from a building in Watsonville, CA that was destroyed in an earthquake that year.

The building to the right of West Printing is a Magnuson Models Wise Supply kit that I painted following the paint scheme of the Katy Building in Dallas. I still need to examine it to see if it's a potential candidate for a Just Plug install.

Not long ago I saw a post on Facebook where another modeler called the Just Plug system the best ever advance in model structure lighting, and said it was in some ways "addictive", because with each building you install it in, you want to do more. I completely agree. In my case, it brings decades-old kits to life.

While the overall cost isn't cheap for a whole layout, the components are typically in the $10-20 range, among the less expensive items you can pick up on a visit to the local train store, and you buy them in installments over a pretty long period. I would put the cost of installing a single stick-on LED in a building like these, including the cost of a port in a light hub, the LED, part of a light diffusing window film kit, and an extension cable if needed, at under $20, less than what an entry-level freight car can cost.