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Contact: info (at) trainaidsa.com
Gallery
James Davies (U.K.)
I hope that this helps anybody looking to fit interior lighting. I have no association with TrainsAidsA (I wish I was on commission!) other than the fact I have tried pretty much all of the different lighting kits on the market and their's are the best I have come across so far.
Pictures are from my layout which is a work in progress hence the lack of ballast, catenary and general professionalism at present !!!
Fleischmann HO Modus Coaches DCC
Fitted with TRAINAIDSA's S12WW: Warm White 12v LED Lighting Strip.
Each coach has 2 strips connected together. These have been fitted with a resistor (Sorry I do not know how to work out the values of resistors - It was pure trial and error however the ones I have used have the following code - red stripe, black stripe, black stripe, brown stripe, brown stripe).
One thing that has always niggled me is flickering lights so to stop this I have through wired the coaches using Roco Current Conducting Couplers (Part Number 40345) so that the coaches pick up from all 32 wheels. It can get expensive but personally I think it is worth the cost.
I did originally have Fleischmann lighting kits but as anybody who has ever used these will know they only have one bulb in the centre of the coach and it doesn't look very good considering how expensive the lighting kits are. I have however used the origanal Fleischmann Pickups on the wheels and whilst not perfect it's easier than building new ones.
Sachsenmodell HO Double Decker Coaches DCC
Fitted with TRAINAIDSA's S12WW: Warm White 12v LED Lighting Strip.
Each coach has two and a half strips on the top deck and one and a half strips on the bottom deck. These have been fitted with a resistor as above, it was pure trial and error. To stop flickering here also, I have through wired the coaches using Roco Current Conducting Couplers (Part Number 40345) so that the coaches pick up from 24 wheels on the 5 coach set. (The Roco couplings can be seen in one of the close up photos of the bogie).
Only the driving trailer came fitted with pick ups so I built some new ones on 2 other coaches using PCB board and phospher bronze strip. (TIP - Use the smallest diameter available as mine have a habit of sqeaking and need replacing when I get round to it!)
With my first attempt I had problems with voltage drop due to the fact it is a 5 coach set. The end cars were bright but the centre car was signifcantly dimmer.
In my second attempt I fitted pickups to cars 1, 3 and 5 to eliminate this. (Though somebody with better knowledge of electric circuits must have a simpler solution!) I also had problems fitting the wires running through the train as there is no space between the bottom of the seats on the lower deck and the floor of the coach. My rather basic solution so far has been to run the wires under the bottom of the coach and hold in place with masking tape! Well it works and due to the low floor of the car you cannot see the tape! I am sure there are so serious modellers out the horrified at the thought but it works for me.
One small problem with lighting coaches is the need to detail the interior.
A word of warning... 5 Double Deck coaches need an awful lot of HO scale people to stop it looking like an empty coaching stock working! Trust me as I have spent a small fortune and they still look empty. However it's a small problem in comparison to the complete transformation of your day time layout into a night time heaven! The great thing about night time running is it hides all manner of modelling mistakes!
Roco DB 423 EMU DCC
Fitted with TRAINAIDSA's Fx - 12v Flexible LED Lighting Strip.
I have not used a resistor as the windows are tinted and having seen the prototypes in Germany the interior lights are quite bright on the real ones!!!
The lighting strips have been cut to 9 LED lengths in the end cars and 6 LED lengths in both the centre cars.
Roco have provided solder points to attach the wires near the decoder sockets and then wires have been soldered from the solder points on the lighting strips between the cars. The instruction booklet with the Roco model explains where to attach the wires.
(Please note that interior lighting in German is Innenbeluchtung)
Contact:
If you have questions for James Davies, please write to us and we will try and get a feedback, Messages for him should be sent to:
"model_train_hobby (at) yahoo.com" with Subject: Question for James Davies (U.K.).