I have some older passenger cars(Reading King Coal set of six) that the wires to the lights keep coming off; either at the base of the light socket or at the center roller. When this happens it shorts out the whole track it is on.
What I have done to a couple of the cars is to re-solder the connection but it happens again after a few months.
The newest repair I did to these was to install a 4.7 MF capacitor and replace the light socket with one the has terminals on the outside of it and soldered slightly heavier wires to it, today, I will have to see how well this takes. So far I have a little better constant lighting in the passenger car that I did today.
Lee F.
Dear PR,
Danger !
Do not connect an electrolytic capacitor to AC voltage. It could heat up and explode on you.
You would need a diode bridge (to convert your AC track voltage to DC voltage) to use a capacitor in a "flicker reducing" circuit.
A more complicated circuit with much larger capacitors or rechargeable batteries would be needed for "constant lighting".
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Thanks for the warning about using capacitors that way.
What I am using is called 'radial leads' rated at 4.7 MF @ 100 volts.
Lee F.