O gauge Christmas Lights

Go to Costco and look at their Christmas building.  You will be floored by the micro-mini flashing, color-changing and running multi-colored LED Christmas lights.

The lights on my Railking CP Dash-8 are spaced about 5/8" (1.5 mm) apart

GregR posted:

The lights on my Railking CP Dash-8 are spaced about 5/8" (1.5 mm) apart

Thank you.

40 LED's over 13 feet would be 4" apart, way too large a spacing for the cars.

The other option you have if a box car, or hoppers is to drill holes the size of the bulbs where you want the bulbs and just leave the extra wire free inside this will look a lot neater then dealing with wiring down the side of the car and trying to glue it on.  Another option is to look at EL lighted wire, there many different colors or changing colors. I did this with a train using instant glue to hold it on.

Here is a site I found with a quick search. http://www.elwirepros.com/

If you're drilling holes, you'd be better off with a string of 3mm LED's that you could poke through the holes, it would create a very neat package.  The little nubs on those leads would be problematic for such mounting.

I fooled around with EL wire, but it drove the TMCC signal crazy, so I abandoned it for use on rolling stock.

After looking at all of your replies. I believe this would be took much trouble to do. Like I said in my first post, It was a hair brained idea. I believe the only good way to do this is to use Fiber Optics and a light source.

Thank you all for your replies.

Well, I'd have to disagree Chris.  I think it would be a ton easier to do with either 3mm LED's or even the 2mm post LED's.  Having a lot of lights using fiber would be a plumber's nightmare, and I've attempted something similar.  That's sure not what comes to mind if I wanted to do this task.

Oh I realize that. I have a couple of fiber optic lighted ceramic houses, and yes, They are a plumbers nightmare. I'm not in any hurry to do this project, it was just an idea. I still have to finish my SP Daylight conversion and a multitude of projects the boss wants done (she has a list as long as your arm). She wanted to move and I basically said "no", but in a lot more words.

Years back Department 56 made strings of Xmas LEDS - I’ve used them on my MTH and Lionel houses before either ever did them as production pieces. They were great as they could be powered by battery or 12v wall plug. The battery box would fit nicely in a box car and the string was long enough to surround the car. 

Seems like someone here had a thread about making a Christmas train a few years ago? Does anyone remember that or who it was? I think this was a few years before MTH came out with their Christmas trains.

I believe they used the 'drilling holes' method. Maybe made a template or something for the box cars? I don't recall what if anything they did with the engine or what type of lights they used. 

Might help the OP if anyone can remember the thread or the forum member doing the work? I am just drawing a blank on most of this...

This is not the one, pretty old, but some info here: Lighting a train - Christmas lights like the Canadian Pacific

Here's another one, also not the one I was thinking of: Building a CP Holiday Train - Added pics

Sorry, I can not find what I was thinking of? Maybe memory has completely failed on this one, or I was just dreaming?

If I were to approach this project, my approach would be a skinny PCB with the LED's all mounted, then I'd drill holes to match in the car.  Doing it with individual connections for multiple cars just seems like way too much work!

Google Fairy Lights.  Very easy to work with, found at Walgreens this time of year... takes 3-4 AA batts but measures 4.5v at the PCB.  

So last year I bored some holes in this caboose and used the blinking end lights for red and green leds all around the caboose.  Hooked red to one side and green to the other.  Problem was, didn’t work.  Green would not light, only red.  Pulled all the green out and dubbed it a failed experiment.  Don’t know why the green wouldn’t light.  Edit:  other than the fact I didn’t know what I was doing anyway.  

Easy one Ted.  Green LED's require more voltage than red LED's to light.  If you wire them in parallel, the red will light and starve the green ones.

The correct way to do that is wire each string separately.

RTR, I recall that Keith of famous, modified, scale PE cars had started a project to put lights on some of his freight cars, not sure if it was to model CP or not.  He was using fiber optics as I recall, had LEDs with color wheels etc.

Thanks, I was thinking the poster's name was Kieth, but wasn't so sure until I read your post. I think you are correct. I didn't remember the fiber optics, but maybe that is what the holes were for. I do recall is was an interesting project. I wonder if the thread is still here somewhere? Maybe I'll try another search. At least the old memory is still partially intact. 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

If I were to approach this project, my approach would be a skinny PCB with the LED's all mounted, then I'd drill holes to match in the car.  Doing it with individual connections for multiple cars just seems like way too much work!

That just might be what happened to the poster I was thinking of too. Ron L above was thinking fiber optics and he has jolted my memory a bit. I think he is right about that. I was thinking he started out with LEDs though? Maybe that was as you say, too much work? Maybe I'll find the thread...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg9ejjkoT-U

 video of swinging bell by Keith 

Wmcwood, that is part of what I remember! Thanks! 

RTR, Jogging my memory.  The original poster was username CandO (Keith).  He later switched username to "Michigan and Ohio Valley Lines".  I only found one reference to his CP Holiday Train stating he had set it aside because of some medical issue with the flashing lights.  He doesn't seem to be active on this forum now.  I'm still in awe of his Polar Express scale heavyweight mods.

I bought these LED strings last year. Battery powered.

I did this last year.  Not sure if I posted it or not.  They are those mini-lights, cost $8.  Has a three position switch, which I thought I was going to fit inside the boxcar.  Not only would it not fit through the door, you couldn't get to the switch if it did!

No way I was drilling any holes in those cars.  They all have a raised running board, so I was able to string the lamps on top and secure them with two stiff wire loops per car.  They had to be loose to allow for curves and normal train running.  The battery box sticking out of the first car, surprisingly posed no problem and made it easy to switch from off, to constant on, to blinking.

The effect was cool for the holidays, but I soon tired of the messy look and tossed the whole thing.

Jerry

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Easy one Ted.  Green LED's require more voltage than red LED's to light.  If you wire them in parallel, the red will light and starve the green ones.

The correct way to do that is wire each string separately.

I assume that what you're saying, Gunrunnerjohn, helps explain the dilemma Bill noted below in a forum post about his MTH Holiday LED-equipped boxcar.

I just put car 30-7094A on the track to test along with a post war steamer powered by a Lionel CW-80. The lights were fine for a couple of minutes, then glowed brighter for a second. The blue and green LED lights stopped working, but the red and yellow lights are continueto work.

Truthfully, I'd have to see how they're wired to know for sure.

I will say one thing.  I worked on an MTH subway car set with green and red markers, and they had stupidly wired them in parallel from the factory.  You guessed it, most of the cars didn't have working green lights!   I rewired them all with balancing resistors so that all the markers worked.

As always you have me in awe of your ability, Gunrunnerjohn. You is definitely da man for sure. MTH and Lionel would benefit immensely from having you, or at least someone with your knowledge of electronics and O gauge trains, as a QC overseer for the products coming out of their overseas manufacturing facilities. In fact, ALL their customers would benefit from that.

This is what I used for a Christmas project. Drilled holes mounted them from the back. For the chasing lights you must retain the circuit board for them to work.

Lemax 74336 Red Green Yellow always on 4.5 vdc
Lemax 54385 Red and Green chasing lights 3 vdc

Do you search on the net you will find them.

ogaugeguy posted:

As always you have me in awe of your ability, Gunrunnerjohn. You is definitely da man for sure. MTH and Lionel would benefit immensely from having you, or at least someone with your knowledge of electronics and O gauge trains, as a QC overseer for the products coming out of their overseas manufacturing facilities. In fact, ALL their customers would benefit from that.

Some folks would contend that having any QC would be of benefit.

FrankfordJunction posted:

RTR, Jogging my memory.  The original poster was username CandO (Keith).  He later switched username to "Michigan and Ohio Valley Lines".  I only found one reference to his CP Holiday Train stating he had set it aside because of some medical issue with the flashing lights.  He doesn't seem to be active on this forum now.  I'm still in awe of his Polar Express scale heavyweight mods.

I think that is exactly the one I was thinking of. The username does ring a bell with me as well as the C & O name. Sure hope he is OK and just needed a break, rather than something going wrong health wise or other etc.

Did you try Evan Designs? They have LED string lights that have 1" spacing. I'm actually looking into a similar project myself to light the MTH CP  Holiday Train observation cars.

looks like he hasn't made a video in some time either (4 yrs ago)

Last time I heard, Keith was having some medical issues, hope all is well with him.

I saw Lemax has thin wire leds in multi color. They are called Lemax super bright 24

Spacing is just under 2" apart.  not perfect but better!