LED lighting for passenger cars

Not sure if Hennings is there, but hard to beat Gunrunnerjohn’s kits. 

Yes, both Hennings and John will be at York. They share the same booth.

-Greg

Stop by the Henning's Booth in the Orange Hall (HH 06), we'll have both the regulators and the full lighting kits.  I'm packing them right now.

Lighting regulators are for folks that don't mind soldering, they're a really inexpensive way to get constant intensity flicker-free lighting in your cars using the commonly available 12V LED reels.

The full lighting kit is designed to provide everything needed to upgrade two passenger cars to LED lighting.

Thanks gunrunnerjohn. I will stop by your booth for some kits........Paul

Not to knock anybody's product or take business away from them, but other dealers have direct replacement bulbs for both bayonet and screw base if you're on a budget.

Paul, I bought mine from John at the Henning’s booth.  He explained the installation to me. 

artyoung posted:

Not to knock anybody's product or take business away from them, but other dealers have direct replacement bulbs for both bayonet and screw base if you're on a budget.

Have you ever looked at the difference in lighting when you have four or five direct replacement bulbs vs. the 24 LED's in an 18" car?  Also, the direct replacement bulbs don't offer flicker resistance, one of the big things I want in an LED upgrade.  Finally, you don't get the option of adjusting the intensity to your liking with a simple screwdriver adjustment with direct replacement bulbs.

The biggest part of the LED replacement is taking the car apart, so why not do the job right while you're in there?  In short, there are many options, not all of them are equal.

GRJ - will the LED lighting regulator work with DCC  (15v pulse width  modulated AC)?

Certainly should Ed, it'll work with AC or DC.  The first thing on the board is a full wave rectifier, so it'll take most any type of power.

Thanks John - I've ordered a pair and will install the first one in a brass model of PRR's Queen Mary obs/parlor car.  

Pleased to report that the LED driver exceeded my expectations in my first installation in a brass 2 rail model of PRR's Queen Mary parlor-obs.   I plan to install it in my 1980's vintage Sunset Broadway Limited.  LED strip lighting will replace grain of wheat incandescent lights driven by Keil Line rechargeable ni-cad battery circuit .

That’s great, Ed!  I look forward to putting my drivers and LEDs in my Western Maryland Heavyweights and streamline cars.

I got a box full of GRJ’s modules and they are fantastic.  I highly recommend them.

Same recommendation from me.

Thanks guys, I love to hear success stories.

John and I had extensive conversations and came up with a few things that made conversation of my Hiawatha set to LED’s in less that 10 minutes per car.

Thanks to our discussion and planning it will make converting my CCII ESE cars a snap.

Thanks John. 

K4s-RRA posted:

And then there are always alternatives depending on how much you want to do yourself.  There are kits for DIY and full replacements.  I like the RoyzTrains LED kits as I can adjust the brightness for the car application.  Brighter for diners, dimmer for sleepers, etc.  And full-brightness achieved around 8.5 VAC (or DC) allowing use of conventional operation as well as command control.  Competitive prices too.

My lighting regulators have the lights at full brightness at 9VAC, and they're driving up to 27 LED's on the strip.  You get very even lighting as the points of light are only .66" apart.  Of course, they have a dimmer and flicker control as well.  Finally, they also include a choke to insure 100% DCS compatibility.

One reason I went with the LED strips is flexibility.  For simple coaches, you can just install the strip and you're done.  However, for multi-level cars, dome cars, and observation cars, you can customize the fit as needed by simply extending wiring between the LED strip segments.

Well, I"m not sure I'd call it the same type of strip lighting.  They have a long PCB with fewer LED's, I found that having closer spaced LED's that each were not as bright gives much more even lighting.  I actually did lay out and get a prototype of a PCB, but it seemed it was easier to customize with the strips, so that's the way I went.  With the strips, you can cut them down for short 12" cars without any problem, or install them in 21" cars full length. 

I'm sure either approach yields a good conclusion, I just decided the way I went worked better for me.

K4s-RRA posted:

Thanks for responding, John.  So in essence Royz Trains offers the same type of strip lighting supply!  You obviously read a different response from  GRJ  than I did.

Dude, are you Roy of Royz Trains???

I ask because he's located in the same Michigan town--Grawn--and zip code as you.

Also, in your OGR profile you say you are retired and have interests custom lighting and engine modifications.

If anyone cares, you can verify this info by checking Royz' website:  https://royztrains.com/contact-us/

and k4s-RRA's profile on OGR.

So are you Roy?  Are you in business with Roy?  Is he just a buddy whose enterprise you wish to promote here?  What's the story?