WOW LED conversion is involved. Have any of you all considered replacing the lights regular bulbs with mini Christmas 12v (or two or three 6v in series) light bulbs which should will draw less current than the standard train light bulbs but be dimmer?
regular bulbs
18 v #1447 screw bulb draws 2.7 watts
14v #53 Bayonet bulbs draw 2.8 watts
18 v #432 screw bulb draws 4.5 watts compared too
BUT a Mini 12 volt or 6v Christmas light draw .48 watts
Mini Christmas lights used to be easy to buy at Walmart, drug stores etc. 10 years ago but are now hard to find. Mini Christmas lights are available at https://www.hardtofinditems.com/cart.php but 12v bulbs were out of stock today.
They are easy to use if you obtain, by buying or from trash strings, of mini lights of any size bulbs ( strings with 10 bulbs have 12v bulbs and strings with 20 bulbs have 6v bulbs which can be a plus if most bulbs still are good, strings with 35 bulbs have 3v bulbs which can work in series of 4 to give 12volts or 5 to give 15volts) . Cut the strings up to obtain wire and sockets to use for installation as singles, doubles or triple in passenger cars and as building lights on the layout. Match the bulbs voltage to that of the voltage source by according to the bulb voltage (6v or 12v), the need for number of lights needed to cover the car or building and use the bulbs in series of one, two or three to make the sum of bulb voltages match the source voltage.
To install in a Lionel 2400 series passenger car, just remove the old light bulbs, leaving the old sockets. Then solder or crimp clamp one end of the wire and sockets in series, to the terminal from the truck power pickup and the other end to a car ground. Attach the sockets and wires to the roof of the car with two sided tape or some silicone caulking or Aliens Clear glue or E6000 glue.
Charlie
