Skip to main content

Reply to "Lionel LED strip lights in passenger cars out"

The switches for these lights are certainly not robust and I would not be surprised to find one of them failing as a result of a power spike. But for all six of them to go at once is really strange.

The only point that occurs to me is which 21" cars are these - the first run of 21" ABS cars or later? The first run cars take a very long time for the capacitors to power up sufficiently to get the lights to full brightness. The second/later runs work faster/better in my experience. How long are you waiting to see if any of the lights illuminate?

P.S. I think Lionel made changes in the power system for these lights between the first and later runs of the 21" ABS cars. When I had a problem with one of my first run cars (no lights at all - a StationSounds dining car), I took the shell off and rigged up a temporary connection direct between the light bars power lead and the track. They worked and the problem turned out to be the main board in the car, which had shorted due to a screw being driven through the main power supply from the trucks on factory assembly. Possibly not your problem if you don't have such a car but it should establish whether the LEDs are working at all.

The later 21" cars have a combination switch/PCB board shown below. It might just pass power from the trucks through the switch to the LED boards but I have found that some of them are not adequately insulated from the frame.

394125012

Attachments

Images (1)
  • 394125012
Last edited by Hancock52

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
×