Power contacts on a japanese mfr. parking garage

[gkoproske]

We built a nifty parking garage kit that resulted in quite a beefy cube of a structure.  Since it lives on an NTRAK module, it by necessity has to come off into a tub between shows.  It has two artificial street lights on the top level, and we now have nice ones with LEDs to go in their place. 

The dilemma is that, first the LED light poles are 12 volts.  That eliminates embedding a battery in the parking garage.  Since it is rather unwieldy I don't really want the module owner to have to connect wires together with mini sockets as that would take at least 3 hands.  What I am imagining is some sort of set of contacts, one side embedded in the module top, and their mates embedded in the bottom of the garage structure.  The power supply is mounted underneath the module.  But what would such a foolproof contact method and materials be, whereby all you do is plop the thing down and connectivity is made?  I've not done this before.  I've seen HO home layout guys do this type of thing with swinging access gates which have door hinges. 

Any concrete or even wild a$$ ideas are welcome.  I'm rebuilding this module for him and I'm in the home stretch.

Regards,
Glenn K.
Mississippi Valley N Scalers, StL
See you in Evanston

[haasmarc]

Magnets.

https://modelrailwayengineer.com/light-up-with-magnets-how-to-easily-and-flexibly-illuminate-your-buildings/#google_vignette

[nkalanaga]

Or an old-fashioned phono plug.  Put the socket on the layout, the plug on the floor of the building, and literally plug it in.

[peteski]

Phono plug is a good idea.
Or use one of many 2-pin connectors available out there. Just glue the female connector flush in the layout surface under the garage, then the male part woudl be installed in the garage on a short (few inches) length of flexible wires. Like decoder wire.  That is assuming that is assuming that the garage doesnt' have solid floor right against the layout.  The wires should be long enough to be able to plug the connectors together while holding the building, then lower the building down with the wires being hidden under it.  I don't see why 3 hands would be needed for this. Just hold the garage with the dangling connector wit one hand, take the male part of the dangling connector in the other hand and plug it into the female part glued flush in the layout, then lower the garage down.

Or just cut open a hole in the layout under the garage and mount the female part under the layout.  Then the length of wire with the male connector will just drop through the hole, so you can go under the layout and plug the connectors together.

As it has been said, there are many ways to do this.  All you need is just some imagination.

[cec209]

Have you tried a 9 volt battery (with resistor in the circuit) to see if/how that would light the LED?

[peteski]

Have you tried a 9 volt battery (with resistor in the circuit) to see if/how that would light the LED?

If battery is preferred, a 9V battery will work well with the street lamps designed for 12V operation (assume they have serial-resistors already in the circuit).  The light will be slightly dimmer, but in my experience with low-priced LED-lit street lamps or vehicles, the included resisotrs still make them glow too brightly to be prototypical. So at 9V they will be more realistic.