LED passenger car lighting

Here is one solution, if you don't mind a little soldering.

Here is another, if you can match your bulb.

HEY John,                                                                                                     Thanks for the rapid response.                                            If you have used the  " one solution " , is there a not too complicated soldering job to the boards needed.  I have experience soldering wires together or to tracks but I've never tried anything with boards .

If it is something I think I can get done what kind of LEDs would you suggest ?    I looked over the bulbs in " Here is another "  and I'm  about as confused as any novice can be.

Is ' Gunrunnerjohn associated with Hennings?

Some of the cabooses I have do have LEDs for marker lights I think.  The Railking passenger cars just have two plug in incandescents each.

John is indeed associated with Hennings, as JW&A. The soldering involves attaching the track pickup wires to the "AC in" holes on the board and  wires to the light strip on DC out. He also has a no soldering kit that includes the light strips. There are thousands of strip light rolls on the favorite site; look for 3528 warm white non waterproof 12v strip light.

There may not be led replacement bulbs for the push in style; I have replaced all mine with the strips.

There are many threads on doing passenger car lighting with the strips and various regulator solutions, both home-rolled and off-the-shelf solutions.  I came up with the LED lighting regulator board to make the job of LED lighting a passenger car easy.

 LED Lighting Regulator

The module gives you DCS compatibility, flicker free operation, adjustable intensity, and of course, low power operation.  You can get 5 meter reels of LED's in amber, warm white, or bright white, for $3-4 from a host of places.  One reel will do eleven 18" passenger cars or ten 21" passenger cars.  Obviously, shorter cars work as well, you just get more cars from one reel of LED's.

As mentioned, I also packaged a solder-free kit, obviously it costs more for each car as I had to do the packaging.

 Passenger Car LED Lighting Kit

For anyone that can do basic soldering, the modules are a much more cost effective solution.

John - can I use the module on 18V DC from LionChief walwarts?  

What's the dimensions on the module?  I couldn't find it on the site.

The board is 1 1/16" by 1/2". by 3/4" high. You can bend a tab to get the height to about 5/8". I have hidden them in the vestibule or bathroom of cars.

OK  GRJ , 

If I would get 3 of your lighting kits I would be able to get at least 6 passenger cars lit for now.  I could get the other ones done later. 

The small size of your modules seem like this is the most efficient system to get into the small areas of these cars using track power.

How do I order these from you ?

Old Newbie posted:

John - can I use the module on 18V DC from LionChief walwarts?  

Sure, it runs on AC or DC up to around 22 volts.

Dallas Joseph posted:

OK  GRJ , 

If I would get 3 of your lighting kits I would be able to get at least 6 passenger cars lit for now.  I could get the other ones done later. 

The small size of your modules seem like this is the most efficient system to get into the small areas of these cars using track power.

How do I order these from you ?

 JWA Passenger Car LED Lighting Kit

John H posted:

The board is 1 1/16" by 1/2". by 3/4" high. You can bend a tab to get the height to about 5/8". I have hidden them in the vestibule or bathroom of cars.

Most of the time, I stick it on the roof of the car with the tab bent over.  Unless you hold the car upside down, you can't see it.  If there is a location like vestibule or bathroom with no windows, I put it there.

Are there bathrooms with windows?

You bet, lots of my passenger cars have a window in the bathrooms.

Hey JH, 

There are indeed windows in the bathrooms.     With a little playing around with some translucent wax paper or similar product in the bathroom windows , I think it would only be appropriate to have the shades pulled down.  🤓🤤

These modules with LED lighting are the best method to light your cars available!! There is literally no electrical draw for LEDs, plus they look so much better--- no comparison in my opinion!! John's modules are very easy to install, plus they are straight forward to use. 

HEY  Jeff and JH and GJR

Thank you very much for the positive reinforcement  for my somewhat confused direction .....especially with this issue.

I just called Hennings and melted my plastic a wee bit for three LED kits to travel to central Pa.  🏍

The use of Scotch Brand Magic Mending tape is an easy way to produce a frosted window, or otherwise defuse the light.

Eric 

Here's a video of my cars- I custom painted these K-Line Superliners in Phase VI with all LED lighting and tinted windows- I used auto tint cling film from an auto parts store to tint these at 40%. I am very pleased with using LEDs for sure.. and while you have the cars apart, add some additional passengers-

A beautiful train, Jeff.

LED strips are so much better than bulbs:  no flicker; no hot spots; long-life; and virtually zero current load, especially compared to OEM PW trains which are most of my conversions.

What are people using to mount the board to roof?  I was thinking a few dabs of clear silicone, something removable.

thx, Don