Lighted Track Bumpers

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have a 2 track Walthers engine house and wanted to put bumpers at the track ends. Many of us have the old Atlas track bumpers or the similar Life Like ones. They look nice but I have read that they are “unrealistic” in appearance.

So…I took 2 atlas code 100 bumpers and removed the attached track also cutting off the excess plastic track at the front end of the bumper platform as well as narrowing the sides to fit within the track where they were going to be located. I smoothed the cuts with 400 wet/dry paper. There is a video on YouTube about lighting track bumpers using 560 ohm resistors and 3 MM leds of various sorts. I used 5mm flat top LEDs with an internal conical diffuser at the top and 1000 ohm resistors. I glued a 7/32 styrene tube in the rear hole at the top of the bumper, recessed 1/32 which enables the 5mm led to seat proud of the hole yet allowing for gluing in place. Each led lead is soldered to either rail and is lit by track current. I painted ( before soldering) the bumper safety yellow and printed a very small “caution” decal to place on either side of the bumper. The bumper was then glued to the track ties.

Now, that old unrealistic bumper looks a lot more credible!!!

Cedarwoodron

2

Cedarwoodron,

that sounds intringuinly cool!

Years back, on my former shelf layout, I used the 70’s era Atlas track bumpers and I think that I still may have them boxed up in my closet.

Can you post photos?

3

I’m sure there are prototype examples of lighted bumpers, but they still seem very Lionel-like to me. Inside an engine house, I would go for overhead lights and bumpers painted yellow or safety orange.

I had a subway station that I really couldn’t see into, so I used magnetic relays to light LEDs on the control panel when the subway train was at the end of the track. I used strips of soft foam to protect the end walls and the trains in case I over ran a bit.

4

I would love to see a photo of the finished result.

-Kevin