passenger car lighting

[bucky909]

Hi, I am in the "DARK" with my 12 new Bachmann Silver Series 85' Budd full dome passenger cars - #'s 13005, 13007, 13011, 13035. The two lights in each car are barely visible under full power.  I have been in contact with the Tech. section at Bachman and they indicate there is a design problem. Anybody have any suggestions or experience with this problem?  Thanks, bucky909

[Doneldon]

bucky-

Add an LED or two. Just wire them in parallel with the existing lights.

                                                                                               -- D

[bucky909]

I have tried that, but the main problem is getting proper lighting to the top level. The cars are glued together making it VERY difficult to get apart without breaking parts. Thanks, bucky909

[bucky909]

I have purchased an Amtrak 85' BUDD Silver Series High Dome Bachmann passenger car to practice on-replacing original lightbulbs with 3mm leds. Since the car is glued together, it was necessary to gently pry on the parts with a small flathead screwdriver. I was able to remove the top seting section but not without damaging or breaking a few side windows. I installed two 3mm leds, one at each end of the dome. Did a temp. rebuild of the car and tested it on track power- not good. Will continue to work with this project until I get it right. has anybody ran into a factory lighting problem with these Bachmann cars? Bucky909

[Doneldon]

bucky-

I wouldn't expect two 3mm LEDs to be enough for a full-length passenger car. The prefab, drop-in lighting systems have three LEDs and I think they are inadequate. I use five LEDs and that seems to be pretty good. Everything is illuminated and there aren't any hot spots. I smooth out the hot spots and the excess light by painting the LEDs cream color. I have a friend who swears by putting a strip of alluminum foil, shiny side up, on the floor between the seats,to spread out the light from three LEDs. I think five LEDs look better and it's really no more work to use five once the model is opened.

                                                                                                                                     -- D

[bucky909]

No progress on this project. Added more lights including reflective tin foil to ceiling, plus more broken parts.Still in the dark. bucky909

[banjomania]

Hi...I just got one of the 85'silver series Budd cars on EBAY and was wondering how to get it apart...You say it is glued together??Looks like Bachmann coul have thought that out better than that...I want to put one of the Easy Peasy lighting kits in it and add a few more leds..They use two watch batteries ...I was going to do away with that and run the wires to the outside bottom of the car for easy battery replacement...All of which will be simple...The only hard part is the removal of the body...Steve

[Len]

You could try the Miniatronics passenger car interior lighting kits. They have 7 LEDs, voltage regulator, and capacitor to prevent flickering. Each LED has it's own surface mount resistor, and the PC board is notched to allow removal of LED's for use in shorter cars. About $32 MSRP, but discounts can be found with a bit of looking. Safe to use up to 18V AC or DC, so fine for DCC layouts.

The 100-ICL-01 has white LEDs to simulate modern flourescent lights, the 100-YCL-01 has YellowGlo LEDs to simulate incandescent lights in older cars.

Getting the Bachmann cars open to install them is the real trick.

Len