I agree, put a drop of black paint on them to tone it down

I do.

In my caboose barely you can see the light, just during night session, as the real one.

and, if it flickering because the bad contact even better.

Andre.

I disconnect the interior light/lights as well as the smoke unit (if installed), thus only the rear marker lights work.

You can stick a diode in series with the light supply, that cuts the voltage in half and usually results in a much lower light output.

 

From each roller place a diode (1n4001 or similar) in proper direction in series to the bulbs. This will dim the light bulbs about half and use little power as waste heat. Using 2 opposing diode will protect the wire connecting the rollers in a derailment. You could also just use one if you dont want the added protection.

 

You can also accomplish the same thing with a bridge rectifier. See the last 2 diagrams in this link. Ignore the rest if using bulbs,all you need is the bridge

 

LINKK

 

 

Ditto for the smoke unit if it has one. For that you could use 3 amp diodes or the single 4 amp bridge rectifier described in the previous link. The bridge rectifier costs about 50 cents. You only need one for the car whether it has a smoke unit or not.

 

Dropping voltage with diodes is explained here

 

LINK

 

Dale H

Gut the caboose of the factory lights, install LED strips, LED markers, and then use 1 of GunRunnerJohns lighting boards. Then you can turn the lights way down and they wont flicker I've done it to a few already.

 

 You can turn them down a lot further than show here

 

 

LED strip stuck to the roof and Johns Board taped to the floor.

 

 

Painted everything black to hide all the wires.

 

 

If you're gonna open it to fix lights, why not convert them to LEDs while you're in there. If you run with the lights on, they better not flicker

I resisted the urge to push the LED lighting.

 

Don't ya just love it! Engines designed to run on constant 18 volts sold with a caboose where the bulb brightness is near blinding at 12 volts. $70-$90 dollars for a caboose and then you have to disassemble it to correct the light?

Another item to add to the "charm" of 3 rail when 2 rail folks drop in 

Resistance is futile, go with the urge!

I tried to resist, but now that I've done it, I can't help it. That factory lighting has to go...in all of them, and it's so easy to do. If they shell has to come off, it's only gonna come off once.... well I hope only once  

There are quite a few bulbs available that are considerably dimmer. They are for specialty applications. Your local Grainger Supply carries are can order them. They are not cheap. Sometimes costing up to $3.00 ea in boxes of one dozen. 

If you're going to spend that kind of money on bulbs, why not do the LED upgrade and get superior, flicker free, and adjustable lighting in the bargain?

GRJ,

 

How much is your solution? 

i remember when riding in the caboose we would leave a light on one end of the car or ride in the dark and use our lantern to move about the car, The lights would be on when we changed crews . so.....where was i going with this..oh yeah....on my cars i disconnect one of the lights to achieve the effect as i remember it..conrail john

The modules sell on the Henning's Trains site for $7.95/ea. They give you adjustable lighting and flicker-free performance. The LED's are dirt cheap, depending on how you want to go. The LED strips are around $5/ea nowadays on eBay, that's for a 5 meter (16 foot) strip of 300, enough LED's to do a lot of damage.

 

Will changing the lights hurt the resale value, since it wont be original anymore?




       

Why so worried about the resale value?  Are you running them or selling them?

GRJ,

 

Can you provide a direct link to the product from Henning's?

 

I searched, but can not find the $7.95 module you mentioned.

 

Thanks in advance. 

Here you go, but I got the price wrong, they are $8.95/ea.

 

http://henningstrains.lightspe...-2-pcs-jwanda/dp/255

 

I'm old-school and always run with a caboose.  I'm going to get some of these and I am pretty sure that once the boys in our train club see these they will be buying as well. 

 

Thanks gunrunnerjohn. 

I have run into a couple of cabooses where the marker lights run through a separate board and have not been able to keep them running.  Am wondering whether to simply run that board before or after John's kit for the LEDs.  

I run my markers off John's board, but I also put a 2k resistor on each LED. Works great.

Jim its about a $10 project. I have lots of scraps of LED strips from other projects. The conversion is well with the time and $$$.

I normally replace the markers with LED's and run them all from the regulated power source.

 

Since many times the marker lights are far too bright from the factory, I generally run them in series and use a 1,000 ohm (or larger) resistor to "tone them down" to a pleasant intensity in relation to the interior lights.  I simply connect that circuit to the output of the regulator board in parallel with the interior LED lighting.

John the hennings sight you pasted says the module are $17.99 each?

Alan

Remedial Reading 101, the price is for two modules.

 

20110 LED Lighting Regulator, 2 Pcs.

If your caboose happens to use bayonet-style bulbs, and you can't find a plug-and-play constant-brightness LED replacement, you can still use the LED-strip method and the Hennings boards by fabricating a simple adapter.  Using a sacrificial bulb base from a burned-out bulb, just bring the 2 wires out.  Yes, it may seem kludgy but you don't have to cut/splice/mess with the "factory wiring".  You can later revert to the original factory bulbs

 

The question of the day is, why would you go to all that trouble!

 

I pulled the rollers and the lights out of all my cabs but 1 (markers only), how many real caboose photos have you seen where the interior is all lit up like a Christmas tree?  The poor crew would be snow blind in there

Just like cab lights in the engines.... crews dont run with those lights on and we dont drive cars with the dome light on. Its just a toy train thing.

That's why both my Super-Chuffer and my new diesel board have the option of turning off the cab lights when the locomotive is moving.