Cheap LED lighting in MTH passenger cars - But is it too cheap? Model train lighting on a budget

[@tinytowntrainstv]

Bright lights are a good thing. We can't have passengers tripping, falling and suing the railroad! Okay, so there aren't any passengers, but now you are prepared in case there are any in the future! Well done, Dave! T4

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! Always have to keep the best interest of any potential fares in mind! No one likes a poorly lit public space!

[@tinytowntrainstv]

@@dagryffynhobby Yes...and NO SMOKING...except in the locomotive (and sometimes the caboose...if you have a lot of money to burn!)! lol T4

[@Boscoed1]

Dave, thanks for posting this 'how to." I couldn't figure out how to open a RailKing passenger car (Blu Comet) after removing the 4 screws on the bottom. You showed me hot that's done! Now, I can add LED lighting and passengers with help from my Grandson...👍

[@dagryffynhobby]

Great! Glad the video helped.

[@baldypalmsrailroad]

Nice add to the passenger cars Dave, to control the flicker you can add a small capacitor across the LED strips. A 100uF should do the trick. You could add a pot to trim the brightness a bit if you wanted to . We’ll done . 👍🚂

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks for the tips! I might have to at least try adding the capacitors.

[@MESA-East-Model-RR]

Great result! Ive done this on a few cars and it is an easy and economical way to add lighting.

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! It worked better than I thought it would. I’m looking at doing my postwar 2500 series cars next but I want to do it differently. Not sure how yet.

[@northpennvalleysteamrailroad]

The work you do to not only your layout but your trains is incredible! The LEDs in the passenger cars look awesome! Great video 👍

[@dagryffynhobby]

Well thank you very much, I appreciate it.

[@petergulotta8183]

Another nice job Dave, There’s nothing wrong with cheap!

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks. As long as it works!

[@josephholtrop5535]

This channels great. Always something to learn from him. And he’s super helpful. Even if you’re not going to use his tips now, you’ll have the info for a later project.

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thank you very much. I happy to help any time 👍 thanks for watching

[@ozarkmidlandsouthernrailway]

The cars look good , Dave. Another job well done! Bill B.

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks Bill 👍

[@joeystrains.9316]

Looks great 👍. The more we save, the more trains we can buy, that's my policy 😁

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks and I totally agree!

[@noelsanjuan6969]

Love the led lights I was going to do the same thing to my 611 j class passenger cars thank you for showing how to install the led have a good day

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! If my video helps than that makes me happy. There are certainly different ways to do it. Also adding a small connector isn’t a bad idea either in case the cars need to come apart at some point. Let me know how it turns out!

[@JDWorkshop-wn9tt]

Just subscribed. I’ve been watching your channel recently. Good stuff! I want to play with LED mods but, don’t know where to start. Good info here! I was watching the 8300 steam set episode and, I too have that as my first set probably 1974. I got back in through my own kids interest years back. Post war, MPC, some pre-war, and some modern my kids have.

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks for subscribing. Same starter set, that’s great. I wish my kids got into the trains with me, but oh well, can’t win them all. I’m enjoying myself, so that’s what’s important I guess. My advice for the LEDs is just buy some cheap ones and start playing. It’s almost impossible to damage the old engines by fiddling with them , one of my favorite things about them, no electronics to fry. Welcome aboard!

[@thomasking2021]

Dave, lights look pretty good. Too bright is distracting. Nice work.

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thank you! I still can’t decide if these are too bright or not. At the moment I’m just going to run and enjoy them.

[@thomasking2021]

Hope to see you at York.

[@timstrainroom8007]

That was good to see. They don’t look too bright. Maybe better to go ahead and detail the insides with figures. The lighting looks good in my opinion. I working on getting the pics I mentioned to you done but I’ve been under the weather for the last couple of weeks so I’m behind getting things done. I’m just about caught up though. Have to throw down some track to run the units to send the pictures off. Take care Dave and as always, thanks for another fine video. Tim.

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! Once in started watching the cars it became clear that they needed people and more detail inside. Maybe if I get bored this winter… Sorry to hear you have been sick, hope you feel better soon.

[@Coreyt1976]

Great video Dave. The lights look good!

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! 👍

[@FLRailroaddog]

Great job Dave I did the same method to my passenger and subway sets. Thanks for another great video👍

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! It’s amazing what a little light can do.

[@NixCrossing]

The cars look great! If you want to turn down the brightness, try that paint trick I do. Add a drop of yellow paint on the stranded LEDs. 🚂💨 awesome video as always!

[@dagryffynhobby]

I like that! Easy and inexpensive!

[@stever.5092]

Lights look great! Have fun at York! Not going to make it this time. Are you going to post a vid?

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! I’ll try to put something together from York, but I’ll be by myself so it might not be much.

[@franciscoppola7368]

They look good. I did the same thing with most of my passenger cars and cabooses. I used the same strip lighting butl the softer white….I like yours a little better

[@tomrogers5516]

The lighting LED strips do make the lighting look more realistic than the older lighting, Dave. Saves on power, too. You could add people to the interior if you want to (I'm sure you know that) and it doesn't mean you have to have a lot of them. I think you took one of my past comments a little negatively, but I really thought that you've already fixed most of the terrain in place. Didn't know that it was still quite movable for access. My bad. Anyway, it's a common saying that a model train layout is never really done, it's always in progress!

[@dagryffynhobby]

The LEDs definitely add a more realistic lighting effect than the old incandescent. I don’t recall taking anything negatively, I appreciate every comment I get. It’s hard to tell sometimes I guess what the persons intent is behind their words, but it’s all good my friend.

[@Maxmellow94]

That’s a good brightness what did you use to wrap around the wires heat stamp or electrical tape ?

[@dagryffynhobby]

I really can’t remember! That and the adhesive didn’t hold up and the light strips fell. I plan to rewire these again for another cheap lighting experiment soon.

[@rune4422]

with the lightening and the passengers having vanished you now have a ghost train ( adding dinnerware and other passage items would enhance the ambiance ) Happy Halloween

[@dagryffynhobby]

Idea! Halloween train, could get gory, either a ghost train like you said or something like a slasher movie, don’t know that my kids will like it though. What would I use to simulate blood splashed on the inside of the windows 👻

[@mgronk49]

My question with these conversions is you went directly from AC track power to the DC strip LED's. Does that cause the issues of flickering? I see that there are some lighting conversions that include rectifers and some like yours that don't use them. It looks to me that all the LED strips are 12V DC and track power can be 18V to 20V AC. I'm puzzled over that. Would you clarify please?

[@dagryffynhobby]

I just went for cheap and easy to see if it would work and if so, how well. My theory is that I rarely run anything above 14v, and the 12v led will illuminate with a lot less, so it should be ok. Long term it may shorten the life of the LEDs, but since they were cheap, I don’t care. That being said, there is definitely some pulsing or rapid flickering with this method. It’s really only obvious if you closely watch the cars. So the kits with the rectifiers will most likely give you a better consistent light and is probably better long term for the LEDs. My personal preference is to go the cheap route for maybe $1 a car instead of the kits. But that’s not for everyone. Hope this helps!

[@scpvrr]

Dave, thanks for another great video. I, like you, am very frugal in my hobby. My wife watched your foam forming videos, and is now inspired how to landscape our layout. Nothing like a shared hobby.

[@dagryffynhobby]

It’s hip to be frugal. Or something like that. Glad she liked the foam videos! I just discovered yet another technique that I’ll try to share soon.

[@gregleuze6657]

I know it is off topic but are you going to York TCA show this week?

[@dagryffynhobby]

Planning to be there Saturday

[@Rich-en8rn]

Nice job on the lights. Please tell me what kind of lights you used and where to purchase them. Thanks!

[@dagryffynhobby]

Thanks! I use evemodel lights from Amazon. Just search for led for model trains and a nice selection should come ip

[@johnblair8146]

Cheap is GOOOOOOD!!!!!!

[@dagryffynhobby]

Yes it is!

[@sumnerrutledge8332]

I put peop Le in my cars as well as leds looks neat you should try it good look

[@eddielopez1323]

how would you dim the led to a liking?? Great video!

[@dagryffynhobby]

I have no idea! Lol. I’m sure there is a good way. Easiest would be to put less LEDs in the car or maybe color over the LEDs with a marker. But a resistor to reduce the power might work, I’m not sure.

[@krtrains123]

@@dagryffynhobby a resister would lower the voltage and dim the light

[@ZillaJr2005]

A little story of mine, my Lionel Polar Express cars use LED strips, but I recently found out a few minutes ago that when they derail and are still on the tracks, the LED strips short circuit and the copper burns through the board housing, which I’m pretty sure is the fire hazard… Now I’m kinda scared to run these cars despite the lights still working…

[@dagryffynhobby]

Burned contacts are a problem. The more they burn, the more the resistance goes up, the hotter they get. If you want to run them without fixing the lights, maybe remove the pickups off the trucks so the lights don’t get power

[@inscoredbz]

What type of specs do i need to look for, in tge LEDs for these to run on track power? Im just using a Lionel zw275r transformer, so i don't have constant voltage. Any advice would be appreciated from anyone.

[@dagryffynhobby]

This video is the most cheap basic way to do it. Does it work? Yes. Is the result great? Not really. You can search for model train LEDs on Amazon and evemodel LEDs should come up that will work. Running LEDs off of ac power will cause the LEDs to pulse quickly, but they do work. You can use an AC/DC step down buck converter (also on Amazon) to convert the variable AC track power to a constant DC voltage for the LEDs. Only problem with this method is you have to put one of these converters in each car. The upside is it’s all basic wiring, a soldering iron and the parts mentioned and you can do it.

[@inscoredbz]

@@dagryffynhobbyI'll look up that converter. I've seen micro bridge rectifiers used, but that doesn't limit power to them.

[@inscoredbz]

I just noticed what engine you was using, so you weren't using constant power either. I think that's just fine for what I'm doing. I might add a bridge rectifier and not worry about anything else.

[@dagryffynhobby]

@@inscoredbz yeah try it out and see what you think and go from there.

[@benjamindminor1983]

In real life Vista Domes don’t have lights in the upper level.

[@dagryffynhobby]

I know. Fortunately this isn’t real! 😆

[@conductorjohnmthtrains2239]

I use Evans design, 18v leds w built in resisters$10 4 led strand perfect for passenger cars . How much did that strip roll of leds cost ? Just curious

[@dagryffynhobby]

Yeah this was too cheap, at just about $1 a car, it could use something better. I do not recall how much the roll was, but it want much and I still have most of it left.