Branchline passenger car kit

I like to use the white LEDs and mount them in the clerestory (if the car has one obviously) or along the top of the ceiling. Two brass rods anchored at the end bulkheads and connected to the trucks serve as the buss to which I can attach any number of LEDs that I consider necessary. I use DCC and build a very small rectifier and voltage regulator to hold the voltage at the proper value for the LEDs. Not all of them use the same voltage so you will need to try to standardize on one type that is relatively inexpensive. LEDs have the highly desirable feature of not generating measurable heat in plastic cars, something that was always a major concern previously.

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I light with track power, so I usually use "fuse holders" (two clips for standard AGC fuses mounted to a piece of phenolic board) and "tubular" bulbs from Radio shack. The clips are glued to the underside of the roof and keep the bulb far enough away that heating is not a problem.

Walthers actually used to sell a "kit" to do this, but buying the individual pieces at RS is a lot cheaper.

Don

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Jim927 wrote:

First we have to pick up power from the track. Best for this is metal trucks and metal wheels which let the metal wheels transfer the juice to the truck thru a low friction rolling joint. Second best is axle wipers in plastic trucks. Axle wipers are superior to wheel wipers because the drag of axle wipers is less than wheel wipers. Wiper drag can be a real problem. I did a lighted caboose with wheel wipers once. When coupled onto a coal train, the extra drag of the wipers was so bad that the locomotive (a heavy Bowser I-1 "hippo") could not pull the train up the hill. Plastic wheeled cars can be re equipped with metal wheels with some checking around to obtain a metal wheel that fits the trucks. Phosphor bronze is springy and makes a good wiper. Shim brass is not springy enough. Hardware stores sell phosphor bronze weatherstrip that makes good wipers. Walthers makes a nice light kit for their new passenger cars. The kit is a plastic bar that fits into the car ceilings. It carries three bulbs and some constant brightness electronics and sells for something like $8. I have been able to fit the Walther's light kit into IHC streamliners with little trouble. It gives a nice even light over a wide variation of track voltage. The white LED's are bright, but the color of the light is very blue and does not look much like an incandescent lamp. LEDs are polarized, and need the same polarity to work. Incandescent lamps don't care about polarity and the color of the light is right, so for a simple car light rig I would go with 12 volt bulbs. For a fancier constant brightness circuit I would go with a standard voltage regulator chip fed from a full wave bridge rectifier. There are some humongous capacitors out there, like 1 FARAD. These will hold enough juice to keep the car lights on for 20 seconds after track power is removed. They completely solve the flicker problem. The caps are electrically fussy. They are polarized and good for only 5 volts. So you need a full wave bridge and a 5 volt regulator to to charge them, and a 1.5 volt regulator to drive 1.5 volt lamps. LEDs need a 330 ohm current limiting resistor.

David Starr