Recently purchased a set of K Line interurban street cars and the dummy car lights with or without the between car harness connected. What is the purpose of the between car harness?
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I imagine one purpose would be for directional lighting and to also share the power rollers for reliable running.
GRJ is correct. K-Line had made 18" conventional PE interurbans, but these look like the later 15" cars. Mine are factory TMCC equipped and are good runners.
Mine derailed with a pick up roller sitting on the outside rail at the San Diego 3-Railers layout. The short fried the boards, so I sent the cars to K-Line for repair. They replaced the boards free of charge, even though I reminded them that they were out of warranty, and the boards had not failed because of defect. Great service, yes? 
Got mine out. They are indeed TMCC with horn, bell, and some sort of traction motor sound. That plug is a real bear to remove, so I pick up and store the cars as a connected unit. Too bad they didn't find a recording of the distinctive PE "oooo-mp" horn I heard so often in my youth.
If you look at the connector, there is a locking tab on it that you have to depress, then they come apart pretty easily.
I made two more to make a 4 car set a while back. I'm pretty sure they are just for the headlight and the marker lights (to change from red to green). I don't remember them connecting to power. The 4 wires would be two for the headlight, and two for the marker light which use diodes to determine which one is on based on the power to the motor in the powered engine. On the dummy unit, the track power just goes to power the internal lights.
If you want, I can take apart one of the ones I made to have the 4 car consist to confirm. Just let me know.
BTH, ere is the part number for the dummy harness from Lionel if you are looking for one: cs-6201264020-p
Discovered theconnector is for directional lighting when the train reverses. Thanks for the help!
