Amtrak 85' Passenger Coach

[jimk4490]

Hello,
Are the 85' passenger coaches too long for an 18" radius curve? If so are there any other good lighted passenger coaches you would recommend? My old Tyco PA RR lighted passenger coach from the 1960's has a short in it and I'd like to replace it, but I really would like a lighted coach. Can I add lighting easily to another type of coach? Thanks. Jim

[Robertj668]

Jim
If you mean the Bachmann 85' Amtrak Passenger Cars like #13106.  The Yes they do run just fine.  However they do look a little odd when the run on that radius.  The car tends to over hang a little bit.  When they are moving they look fine but when they are standing still they look a little silly. 

Right now mine are put away till I get my railroad built.  I think I can find then easy enough and take a picture of them if you like.

What passenger cars are you interested in? What road name. What era?  I love passenger cars.  I have the Bachmann Heavy Weight Cars which are lighted. Unfortunately they are no longer in production.  But you can find them on eBay.

I think its the Walther's  brand can have a simple light kit installed.

Rapido trains has light kits that are really cool. They are battery powered and turn off and on easily.  Why I like the battery option is that is my Amtrak & Heavyweight lights flicker occasionally when running always on my switches.  There are way to fix this I will let someone else explain that as I am not an expert on that but it has to do with part of the switch (the frog is what I think is what is called) not being powered.  I provided a link for you below.

http://www.rapidotrains.com/light_ho.html

Good luck

Robert




Robert

[ABC]

My Bachmann passenger cars cause me problems on 18" radius occasionally.

[RAM]

I wouldn't think that it would take much to rewire the tyco

[jward]

have you looked into the athearn passenger cars? they will run on 18" radius, and also have wheelsets with one metal wheel and one plastic one. these should be relatively simple to add lighting to. add pickup shoes to the metal wheels, and wire a lighting kit inside.


or.....

you could try to find the short in your tyco car and correct it. it could be as simple as one of the wheelsets put in backwards. if i am not mistaken, they have a metal tab that picks up electricity off the metal axles. one wheel on each axle should be metal, the other plastic. the metal wheels in each truck should all be on the same side, on the other truck, they should be on the opposite side. get one reversed, and you have a dead short.

[ABC]

I do not have the wheel sets handy but some cars have one side insulated and the other non-insulated.

[jimk4490]

Thanks everyone for your help. I have tried very carefully to find the short using a ohm meter and volt meter. I thought I was pretty smart about electrics but maybe not. My gosh, I have tried everything and I cannot seem to find what the problem is. I've even compared resistances from the working cars to the non working car. They appear to be about the same but are very sensitive to how hard you push the voltmeter leads onto the wheels of the car. I simply give up. I am going to try bringing it to a local RR club Tues night. The wheel arrangement is fine(ie the metal wheels of each truck are on the same side but the metal wheels of one truck are on the opposite side of the other). 35 years ago this car worked fine. Strange thing happened also this weekend, in that while running a nice TYCO GP20 that had been running very smoothly for me these last 6 weeks suddenly stopped (and died?). It still lights up but does not move. I tried taking it apart but I was risking cracking the outer shell. Yes, I love passenger cars ever since I was a kid. I especially like the lighted ones. So I will try your suggestion of that one brand you mentioned (Athenum?), and I'll add the lights myself. I love the Amtrak 85' cars but I'm afraid they are a little too long for my small layout.

[ABC]

So I will try your suggestion of that one brand you mentioned (Athenum?), and I'll add the lights myself.

I put one fluorescent light bulb in my coach, diner, and observation -and boy do they light up, I did not put a light in the baggage because it would take up too much power. Interiors are a work in progress.

[jimk4490]

Was it hard to add the flourescent light? Did it just require a little soldering or more than that?

[ABC]

One thing to remember when considering using fluorescent lights is that they take a lot of power, and you better have either a really powerful DC controller or a DCC controller with 10 amp booster, or you won't even be able to run them, especially if you are lighting 4 cars or more.
All I did was buy a set a wipers for each car, the cars came with metal wheel sets that had one side insulated/non-powered, and then soldered the wires to the wipers and the wires to the contacts on both sides of the light.
I might be able to get a picture for you, also with the wipers installed the cars are not as free rolling as they were previously.

[jimk4490]

Thanks ABC. If you can provide a picutre I'd appreciate it. You can send it to jimk4490@yahoo.com or post it. A picture is worth a thousand words.

[Robertj668]

This topic has inspired me to try the Rapido "Easy Peasy" Battery operated lights!
But I must wait till we go to and get back from Disney.

Robert

PS At EPCOT the have a nice outdoor "G" Scale railroad.  It look beautiful.  But they never really run more than one engine at a time.  But we do go in the winter time.  January to be exact.

[Cody J]

PS At EPCOT the have a nice outdoor "G" Scale railroad.  It look beautiful.  But they never really run more than one engine at a time.  But we do go in the winter time.  January to be exact.

I love their railroad, if that's what you want to call it. I do think it is stupid to only run one car behind an engine, but I did get to see it derail one time. And I thought Disney was flawless 

[ABC]

Thanks ABC. If you can provide a picutre I'd appreciate it. You can send it to jimk4490@yahoo.com or post it. A picture is worth a thousand words.

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