LED passenger car lighting

HEY  GRJ ,

Hennings didn't have 6 pair of the 20110 boards for me. 😣

I have TOO many more cabooses and passenger cars to light up......... also it appears TOO much time on my hands . 🚂

Try again, they just got 25 sets.

Used 3 LEDs for each caboose with clear Tamiya Orange painted on each to tone down interior light.

Passenger cars had full strip from the kits with no paint .  Half of the strip facing down and half facing the ceiling area.

Not exactly lifelike or purist in nature but I've been very pleased with the effect given all the different building and signal light temperatures.  

Thanks for keeping me away from all the other regular things this railroad has to have done John.  This LED lighting thing is new and interestingesides beneficial .

 I'm trying to figure how to use the 25 sets for stars over the layout John.  😂🤣😁

We can fix you up with 50 sets if that's not enough.

Your modules will do two cars. Do you sell the connectors from car to car

Thanks, Tstark

HEY JOHN ,

I might be in trouble here. 

Judy is great about the model railroad stuff but I never know if that would change.🤔

PS. She did just mention  that she expects her Polar Express to be well lit at Christmas time. 😁

tstark posted:

Your modules will do two cars. Do you sell the connectors from car to car

Thanks, Tstark

You get two modules per kit, one for each car.

John H nailed it, they're really intended to do one car.

Dallas Joseph posted:

HEY JOHN ,

I might be in trouble here. 

Judy is great about the model railroad stuff but I never know if that would change.🤔

PS. She did just mention  that she expects her Polar Express to be well lit at Christmas time. 😁

The Polar Express passenger cars (non-scale size) were the first ones I converted to LED lighting.  The same light intensity throughout the car and no more blinking made the effort well worth it.  

I've converted about 50 of my passenger cars to LED, only another 50-60 to go.  It really is worth the effort, the even, adjustable, and non-blinking lighting is great.  Add to that the fact that no more circuit breakers tripping when two long passenger hit the same power district, and the picture is complete.   Another bonus is less roller erosion due to current, very little current flowing through them now.

That is a very interesting thing about the less current erosion John.  The use of these LEDs is becoming more of a benefit than first imagined.

The lower power consumption is one of the major reasons many folks switch to LED lighting.  Personally, I like it for all the other positive attributes.  Typically, an 18" passenger car will draw from 1/4A to 1/3A of power, double deck cars can easily exceed 1/2A.  An LED equipped 18" passenger car draws from 20ma to 45ma if you go really bright.  Most of my 18" cars are set between 20 and 25 milliamps, or less than 10% of the original power draw using the factory incandescent bulbs.  You'll also never melt your shell with LED lighting.

HEY  GREG ,

From a couple years ago when she got her Polar Express. Judy made the buildings with yarn from an old pattern book. We worked together to make our house in the forground .

The spot lighting in the photos were individual LEDs.  

Since the expansion has been going on ,the LED strip lighting was an idea for the snow areas .   I never thought about your idea of lighting the passenger cars with the LEDs.   (  now you have me thinking about how to install LEDs to that little Lionel hand truck with the elves )THANKS 😀...........now John's getting 50 more units out if we need them doesn't sound so far fetched !!!😁

John , on the 18 inch cars ,how many of the LEDs on the strip do you typically use ?

Either 21 or 24, whatever fits.  Sometimes the available roof area won't quite fit 24.

Dallas Joseph posted:

...   Actually I was wondering what would be the best way  to do two red markers and some low light insideof all these cabooses using LEDs ... 

Not clear if the issue of red LED markers was resolved.  If not, refer to this OGR thread which shows how to add 2 Red LEDs to a 12V white LED strip.  Following photo hijacked from earlier thread.  But you may need to save up your pennies as it will cost about 5 cents per car! 

Good point Stan.  I'm actually thinking of adding some text to my lighting products to show people how to add markers, drumheads, or rear facing lights on observation cars.  It's pretty simple, but I find I have to "tune" the resistor to get the proper balance of brightness in the added lighting.

Stan , is there any specific type of LED BULB that has to be used .  🤔  I'm  not very trained in these areas .                              I did a rudimentary marker set up in a couple of RK Pennsy E8 s'  by drilling small holes and installing grain of wheat bulbs with the wires cut off.  After getting started with John's LEDs I replaced the poor lighting with a single LED behind each marker  "  bulb  ".

John , you go guy  , keep this science going.

Stan, many years ago you posted a “how to” on markers lights using the 3 strip leds, cut apart, then soldered together for each red and the EOT light.  I have performed that mod, by reading and looking at your photos, but the link to the post(jcstudios, inc.) no longer works.  Do you still have those photos?  If so, could you post them so we can save them for our future use?  Thx in advance.