I just recieved my Pennsy N-6 b cabin cars from Walthers and I’d like to be able to light the interior as well as have lit markers and I was wondering if there is a reliable way to pick up rail power through the trucks. There’s a bunch of other cabooses that I’d like to have lit as well.
I really don’t care for axel wipers because of the drag. Is there an aftermarket truck available that would have the bronze side frame strips that the axel bearing points fit into like some passenger car trucks have? These would be ideal.
The metal wheels have plastic axels so if I had to use a wiper it would have to be rubbing the back of the flange area…
You will have to fabricate or find electrical pickup wipers that can be fitted to the trucks. After doing this with one caboose, I have begun to put batteries with a small on/off switch inside them instead of trying to get power from the track.
I did one caboose with track pickups for the lights and used pickup wipers that rub on the axles, but I don’t remember where I got them from. Since I was going to be powering LEDs, I had to also insert a bridge rectifier and voltage regulator citcuit in the caboose, along with a 1 Farad memory retention capacitor that was intended to go into a VCR. I can take that caboose off of the track and the marker lights and interior LEDs will continue to glow for about 15 minutes before the capacitor is discharged.
It has a superior track electrical pickup that includes Metal wheels. 2. The lighting board puts out 3 v for LEDs. 3. The flashing tailight can be disconnected or left on.
I like to add 2 #807 1.5 v. TOMAR Adlake marker lanterns (in series) for looking prototpe.
I tried the miniatronics caboose lighting kit for my new Walthers PRR caboose. Installation went very nicely (including the wipers for the wheels, which didn’t seem like they would cause a problem, and which I was going to paint with Neolube if they showed). EXCEPT that the interior detail of the caboose interfered with the resistor assembly (if that’s the right word). I tried various ways of fitting it in but ended up wrecking the whole thing (not the caboose, just the miniatronics kit).
Presumably the Miniatronics kit is intended for empty cabooses. Does anyone know of similar kits that would work for the Walthers?
I’ve used them, but they create far more drag than axle/ wheel wipers. The JB truck PU along w/ the heavier JB wheelset works the best for me. That bronze"H" shaped axle wiper fits routes the power through the supplied truck/bolster screw for connection @ the floor above. Just need to make sure the wheel insulators are reversed on each thuck to allow each axle to power from each rail. (same as tender PU).
This was an old thread that got reserructed recently.
My solution for the truck pickup quandry was the Bowser kit #74060 that was made to fit their PRR N-5 and N-5c caboose. The bronze wipers in the kit snap easily into the truck sill and are easily soldered to. Then for DCC I wire the pickups to the AC side of a rectifier and then to a resistor and an LED. The kit comes with an incandescent lamp and metal wheelsets.
After purchasing several EOTs from Ring Engineering, I Emailed them suggesting they sell me just the power pickup trucks for caboose lighting. They said they would consider it. This is what they now have. I purchased several, and they work great! I have no connection with Ring Engineering. Just a happy customer!
For get about all the brass strips and such. This is the way you power your caboose. [(-D] [swg] [swg]
An MKT caboose on the katy trail in St. Charles Mo.
Enjoy
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