Anyone Make an operating ETD

MTH has the ETD truck with the ETD device mounted on it, it's a one-piece package.

I have used the Lionel ETD plastic part to build one with a blinking LED and a track power supply.  I also did one with just a pair of AA batteries in the car, the poor man's version.

I've looked on the MTH site but no ETD cars have part # features yet. Can you provide a part # for the truck. Thanks...

Google is your friend.  I searched mth trains etd truck and this came up as the first hit.

http://mthtrains.com/content/20-89013

Thanks!

Mth makes an ETD that comes with the truck as a unit  they come in a red,white or amber flashing LED they look great and they cost around 25.00 You can find them in E bay

good luck.you can also find them in most recent catalogs of MTH.

jorge

Sometimes...it's just a really neat toy!

I made my own using an Evans Design LED and mounted it through the door on the auto carrier making use of the "dummy" ETD Lionel included.

Has anyone rolled their own ETD?

MTH 20-89013

See the 4th post of the thread.

I have the yellow one & it doesn't seem as big.  MTH made them both

Ken M

Why not post the info here?

Here's the MTH ETD truck, mounted to a trainman boxcar.  Took a bit of dremeling at the base of the boxcar, but a pretty easy project.

If you make a do it yourself project, hope you post a thread about the project!

Jim

This real one looks to be about three feet tall, that would be 3/4" in 1:48 scale.  Below it is the Lionel model, not so far off in scale.

I will someone would make a nice one of these. I could use a dozen of them

The Lionel part is only a couple of bucks.  Replace the LED with a flashing LED and provide a battery inside, job done.  For the "deluxe" version, put a pickup on the car and add a diode, cap, and resistor to power the flashing LED.

What else would you need?

That link asks me for a password.

Oh I don't know, time maybe!

go to vendor website - 5 seconds

hit add to cart - 3 seconds

checkout with CC info 20 seconds

DONE!!

How would you handle it if I gave you an email?  If you have the data in a machinable form and can email it, I'll post it if you can't.

To All,

I appreciate your time. Please disregard my other offer of assistance.

Dear Charlie

Lovely video and nice neat work on making it work.

Dear John

Thanks for the basic design on rolling your own.

I just want to give a personal THANK YOU to everyone who gave me advice.

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting this many replies!

Dear Hebanator

An ETD is one of those honey do projects. Everyone wants to have a few on their freight cars but never asked or never got around to it.  Since you asked it took off like a wild fire.

  I found the first FRED I ever saw on the tracks near a road crossing. I thought it was dangerous garbage, and pulled over and retrieved it. Then noting it was a high tech device, I set it by the crossing gate. Before I could pull away a hi-rail truck pulled up I pointed he, waved, I went and asked what it was, and learned about the coming fate of cabooses.

It was smaller than the one in the photo. Yellow aluminum case resembling a large set of electric wench control buttons. Heavier than they look too.

 I don't have anything new to put one on, but think a better looking working one is due.

Apparently, they come in lots of varieties and capabilities.  I used one of the Lionel ones on a boxcar, and I have a couple of MTH and a factory Lionel car with the FRED on them.

Hi All

Just purchased some Freds from Evan and would like it work off of track power. Would a GRJ special be able to run this circuit or would I need something else?

The only one I see on Evan's site is a simple flashing LED with a battery box, and I don't see an O-scale version.  I'd look at something like the Lionel one I posted and put a blinking LED in that one.  As it happens, Lionel doesn't have those anymore, but a reasonable substitute should be fairly easy to kitbash.  If you want to power it with batteries, I'd use a couple of AA cells, for track power you could use my lighting module for power or simple a diode, capacitor, and resistor.

Hi john

I was thinking of doing a roll your own using Evan simple flashing Led with your GRJ special Led kit.  Doing ten of them at about $25.00 per pop (Lionel) is a little out of my budget right now. But your kit and the flashing Led from Evan is within my budget is less than $50 for all ten cars.

The downside on the MTH version is that the coupler becomes useless.  The car you install it on must always be the last car unless you remove the EOT truck and replace the original truck.  Assuming you can find it.  I forget where I put mine.

Ron

You'll also need a pickup roller on one of the car's trucks to power it with the lighting module.  How about a battery and a motion triggered timer to run it only when the car has moved recently?

I like it. The flashing would drive me nuts just sitting there.

A mercury or reed switch would save battery life over an I/R trigger.

Another sweet 555 project?

Could be as simple as a push button circuit that runs the flasher for several hours and then powers down.  A cap and a FET with a couple of passive components would do this.  When powered down, it would consume no more than battery leakage current and batteries should last for years.

HI Adriatic, GRJ and Ron045

Ron you are right about coupler at the end being useless if you try to hook up more freight at the end. I remember when I was a little boy in the 70's they had freight cars that light that where part of the freight car not a real true FRED. I was planning on drilling in the back of the car and installing the flashing LED to act like a FRED. It is a modification of MichRR714 idea for the FRED.

Dear GRJ

I ordered some push button on E-bay turn the FRED on and Off.  Do you have a circuit design for the "cap and a FET with a couple of passive components" If you do I would like to look at please.

Dear Ardritic

Nice and neat design for the 555.

I haven't spent the time to do a circuit and test it, but in concept it's pretty simple.  My plate is pretty full, so those things happen when they happen.