@IRON HORSE posted:Thanks for the response, John! I never considered actual heat damage by bulb while running at 18 volts! I have a newer Lionel smoking caboose -- wonder if the roof could melt on that? Also, I wonder what year MTH and others changed their passenger cars to LED? Is there an easy way to determine what passenger cars use LED versus incandescent? At 18 volts, is there a risk I could melt the roofs of passenger cars? What about searchlight cars and rotary snowplows? I will take your advice and read up....
Mike
Mike, yes the smoke unit will heat up enough to melt the plastic around the stack. As far as checking for leds in a car you should be able to hold a small mirror below the windows with the car on the track and look up to the roof inside to see bulbs or leds. Perhaps a track on your layout is near the edge of the layour and you can get low enough to look up to the roof inside. Or turn the car on it's side on your bench so that you can see the roof inside the car. Then hook some wires to the trucks. If I don't like the color of the light coming from a car I just assume that leds are inside. I dip my leds in "Great Glass" a clear paint designed for simulating stained glass to adjust the color. "Great Glass available at the craft stores, Hobby Lobby, Micheal's etc. Someone on the forum recently mentioned that Tamiya has a clear orange which does a good job also. Finding a color which your eyes accept as incandescent takes some experimentation. Incandescent was the order of the day for all the passenger trains I ever rode on or stood next to the tracks in the evening. I have been playing around with bare leds and tinting for about three years and yet to nail the color I just resigned myself to close enough. j
