Having a number of passenger cars by different manufacturers ranging from Kato, Atlas, Rivarrossi, Lima, Etc., I was looking around for a uniform sytem of car lighting that isn't a lot of fuss and I could use in all of the above referenced cars and I stumbled upon the Rapido Easy Peasy system. I found a lot of positive comments on the system, so are there any negatives? Are there any manufacturers cars these won't fit in? And is the light board able to be adjusted in length, ie: shortened as is the Kato light board?
I cut one up and grafted it back together with wire jumpers to light a Kato dome around the dome, that worked. But I couldn't make one short enough to fit a caboose - did Jim Hinds kit instead for that. Right now I've put them on two El Cap coaches, the business car, the original Kato Budd set (baggage, coach, diner, dome, 10-6 pullman, coach) and they look FANTASTIC. I've got an old MRC Pullman-Standard 10-6 pullman that I'm planning to do next.
Yah don't bother with Walthers' kit. TOO BRIGHT! Th EasyPeasy kit is quite aedequate and if you have (or paint) light colored interiors in the cars, it'll look even better.
The only problem I've had with them is they eat up batteries. I put them in car, but I also put them under the canapy of one of my stations. I only used them a couple of times, for short periods & they died fast.
I hate battery operated lighting systems for model trains. We are already using electricity from the track to run the engines... why the heck are we wasting money to run our passenger cars on batteries? Personally... I hate them only because of the batteries... otherwise they are fine. I really hate battery power... except maybe 'some' rechargeable battery items... NOT MODEL TRAINS. Has anyone modified these to run off of track power?
Easy Peasy is a very nice system. Its simple to install and its easy to use. It takes all of 3 mins to install per car, and I like to use the magnetic wand for holding and picking up screws. I almost wonder if you could use em as uncoupling wands... Like cal said the biggest problem is the battery, if you forget to turn em off, they will drain and be dead. You can buy the batteries enmass using that auction site or that large internet retailer and it will be cheaper. The lighting is much dimmer and is less at the battery end. I actually like the dimmer look, I hate having my cars glow like there is some nuclear waste hidden inside. The color is not quite right for some road's streamliners I heard, but its easily colored if you want. Its not much cheaper than Kato's system but its much easier to install in non kato cars. They fit perfectly in most of the MTL heavyweights, hence the mention in the MTL flyer. You do have to put the dimmer battery end on the observation end unless you want to cut partitions.
Thanks for the input folks. I do not intend to go with them as the sole lighting source for all my cars. I already have a couple of Kato cars that use track power and I was looking around to see if I could locate a source for the Atlas car lighting. I have some of them that are lit but they tend to be a dim light which is suitable for a sleeper and I'll probably switch out a few from the baggage to the pullmans. The other cars I probably will use this kit on. I'm not sure but these lights are either 1.5 or 3.0 volts power source. And that has me to thinking about a power car using a triple A battery and running fine wire between cars for passenger trains in which the consist would stay coupled. The wand would still be able to turn off the individual cars in the consist. I do wonder though about the draw on the power pack when running a number of passenger trains with all lit cars from track current. And if you are already running several multiple locomotive lash-ups, well....I'll leave this up to the electrical wizards to hash over about the pros and cons. I've already figured out that this kit would not work with the American Limited Core Kits and brass sides. Due to the type of assembly I don't see anyway to access to lighting kit once the car is together unless one figures out a way to brace the top sides and manage to leave the roof as a drop on.
