New Year and Lighting

[millcstl]

Happy New Year everyone!

Would anyone have any reccomendations for lighting Rivarossi/IHC passenger cars? Maybe I've missed it but I haven't found anything for this specific aplication in Walthers. I have mounted a 1.5 volt battery and 9 v batteries but they take up a lot of room and are hard to disguise. What about a source for track power trucks that would replace the stock trucks? Those and some sort of constant lighting unit might work?
Hope everyone stays healthy tonight.
Scott ;)

[7600EM_1]

Mill,
Good question! This can be hard to do with full interiors! HOWEVER, if done right, you can add a voltage regulator inderneath the car that has wipers on the wheels treads running a wire to it, and then the wire up to the lights in the car! As long as the voltage doesn't drop to drastically it can be done this way. And being the voltage regular disapates heat you can run a bolt from it to the steel weight plate added to the car for weight to act as a heat sink to disapate it. BUT not to worry, depending on the lighting, say what? 3 bulbs per car. thats 3 regulators, at whatever voltage bulb you have, the heat won't be to superficial to the plastic so..... Not to mention 12 volt CD is next to harmless so...won't generate a lot of heat.... I'm sure someone knows of a wiring configuration for this...

I've even used an N cell battery, with the leads comming from the wire from the axle/wheel wipers for Athearn cars and ran the bulb wires inline and in the cars. and this worked. Its almost like a batery backup and will burn a few seconds after the power has been shut off, and even so, to store them you can add a switch to the under side of the car to keep the lights from running the batery dead while in storage!

[cthippo]

If you run DCC you can put a full wave bridge rectifier across the wipers and take thwe outputs to a capicitor and then to the lights through a Voltage regulator or resistors. The advantage of the DCC for this application is there is plenty of current there and it won't change polarity or do other obnoxios things. The reason for the Cap is to maintain current to the lights across dirty wheels and track. Otherwise the flickering effect is worse than not having any lights at all! One further comment, on real trains at night you can't see the lights usually!

[millcstl]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm on standard block control so the DCC idea won't work for now, but will work with the axel wipe outlined. Don't want bright lighting but I'm working in an era (1939) before much window tinting. so you could see some light from the cars in some sections.
Thanks again,
Scott

[Mark_Athay]

If you're running DCC you don't need the bridge rectifier and the capacitor to light the cars, light bulbs don't care if it's AC or DC feeding them.

If you plan on rolling your own lighting system, here are some suggestions. I did my own Overton passenger cars in HO for around the Christmas tree last year. I now have 5 of them cruising around the tree. Plan on 1/2 hour per car to roll your own. It's a fairly tedious project, but satisfying.

1. Use Intermountain wheelsets. They have metal axles and one wheel is tied solid to the axle with the other wheel insulated from the axle. A MUST for lighted cars.

2. Use some thin brass to make the wipers. I cut mine into an "H" pattern and placed it between the truck and the car. I also cut a washer of sorts out of the same brass with a tail on it for a wire to attach to to place under the truck attachment screw. I left one of the "tails" from the wipers intact and soldered it to the "washer", thus sandwiching the truck between the "H" wiper and the washer. The truck is free to rotate 360 degrees and electrical pickup is assured.

3. Use grain of wheat bulbs. I bought 250 12-volt bulbs a time cheap. If you operate your system at scale speeds, you'll be running at something less than 12 volts and they'll last forever. To drop the voltage for lower voltage bulbs you can use a resistor. For a cheap voltage regulator you can use a resistor and a zener diode.

4. Watch out for the light bleeding through the car. Cars are a bit translucent, and it looks funny to have them glow instead of the light shining through. Dark paint can block the light transmission.

5. Make light baffles to soften the light. Putting plain white paper over the bulbs will soften the light and add a more natural hue to it.

I hope this helps.

Mark in Utah