LED Lights in Jackson Sharp Passenger Cars

[RkyGriz]

I decided to make a  couple videos and post it to youtube showing how bright these LED lights are in the dark. I've got a couple of ideas on how to fix this and I will make another video which I will also post to youtube after I complete the project to my satisfaction. I've decided to try painting the LED's in either translucent yellow, amber, or even orange. I'm also going to try converting the cars back to battery power and see how that works. Thoughts, gentlemen?
You can watch both of the videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFJwTUK3NvE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peZPa9AvF4s
Enjoy!
Later,
Andrew

[uscgtanker]

not having any of these cars my self and been scratch building rolling stock. are these lights exposed led or is there a little shade lens. translucent paint may work to darken the light but will eventually fad away. on my cars i found that yellow leds give enough light to illuminate the interior of the car but not blind the person looking in. when my newest project is wired up i will post a youtube video.

[uscgtanker]

as promised before on my last post here is a you tube video of my scratch bobber caboose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLxSKKKOBck

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Rather than going through all the trouble, why not just change your LED"s over to the "warm white" Led's and be done with it.  Warm white is very nice and does not have the bluish bright color, it looks great (very realistic) on older steam locos and it the passenger cars as well.

[RkyGriz]

That's a great idea , Bill. I'm going to be ordering enough LED's in warm white to at least do my 3 Bachmann D&RG cars and see how I like them and if I do, then I'll go ahead and redo the 3 Virginia & Truckee cars with the same type LED's. Do you prefer to mount them in the original, factory housings in the roof or to remove the housings and use strip LED's? THat's what I did with the Virginia & Truckee cars and the look great -except the color, that is, which of course is too white and bright. Thanks Bill !

[Loco Bill Canelos]

You are welcome.  I did it the old way soldering the resistors directly to the Led's and hot gluing the led's to the ceiling.  Not elegant but also not visible to the viewers.   I used warm white led's salvaged from christmas lights.  Since I run battery power I used the battery boxes already on the cars.  If I did it again I would use warm white in the strips.   I also did the same for a friend who had the cars with the track power pickups, but I added 9 volt lithium Ion batteries inside the cars  with a recharging port under the car at his request.  As far as I know that has worked very well for him.

Have fun,

Bill

[charon]

Rky, I watched your nighttime video.
I think the lights should be a little brighter!   
Chuck

[tom p]

Quite a few Ebays sites sell strip led lights. These come in warm white, are 12 volts dc and have their own adhesive to stick to the tops of the cars. They work on a 9volt battery and an on switch. or for my USATs, I have used track power. This requires a full bridge rectifier, 12v transistor and a small capacitor(to reduce blinking with poor pickup).

[jviss]

This reply of mine to a parallel topic describes strip lights I purchased on Amazon:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,30057.msg221455.html#msg221455

Here's the relevant text:

I, too, have plans for track powered lights in my coaches.  I'm using DCC.  This is not fully executed on all three cars yet.  I purchased full wave bridge rectifiers nearly identical to Kevin's suggestion, but mine are 100V 3A.  I got them on eBay at 5 for $1.99 plus shipping; I ordered 10 and got a shipping discount, so they came out to 74¢ each, delivered.

I then removed the factory lights and put in a 12" strip of LEDs inside the roof.  They are self-adhesive, cut-to-lenght LED strip lights, It's about one LED every 5/8".  They take 12V, but will run on less, down to about 5 or 6V, if I recall correctly.  They are available in warm white, cool white, and a rainbow of colors.  The ones I bought are described on Amazon thus:

"HitLights Warm White SMD3528 LED Light Strip - 300 LEDs, 16.4 Ft Roll, Cut to length - 3000K, 82 Lumens / 1.5 Watts per foot, Requires 12V DC"

$7.99 shipped (Amazon Prime, 2-day), so 2.7¢ per LED, including attachment and resistors. 

I had tried this out with some cool white strip LEDs I had, and it was way too bright, even running off the 9V batteries that are the standard power source for lights in my coaches.  So, I assumed I'd dim them with a resistor, the old trial and error method.  Then I stumbled across these remote control dimmers on Amazon, designed specifically for strip LEDs:

"Lerway Mini LED Controller Dimmer with RF Wireless Remote Control DC 5~24V 12A R106"

These take form 2 to 24V in, and allow dimming from off to full brightness with a keychain-like RF remote control.  One reviewer discusses getting multiple dimmers to respond to the same remote.  They are now $2.85 each!  I bought 3. 

So, for power, I purchased kits of brass tubes, springs, and brushes, which the Bachmann passenger trucks are set up to accept.  I have metal wheels to complete the conversion. 

I will put a capacitor on the rectifier output, but probably also a resistor first, to limit the inrush current when it's first powered up.  A discharged cap looks like a dead short to DC.  There's probably enough bulk resistance in the rectifier to do the job, but why take chances?

So, DCC, track-powered, remotely dimmed, warm-white LED strip lights.  This will work standing still, in reverse, etc.

One final point: the color.  According to John H. White, Jr., in his 1977 article on Pintsch lights in Technology and Culture, the light was "an intense, slightly blue-green flame."  I'm thinking a cool white might be the best match for this.  Pintsch gas lights were the dominant lighting source for the period of these cars, 1888 to 1928 or so.