has any one got lights from Raido Shack add to your lay out?
want to add light in the Caboose…
About the only thing I purchase from Radio Shack are batteries when they have a sale on them. Anything else I need I purchase from places like allelectronics.com. If I should happen to need something from RS I usually have to go to three of four stores to find what I want.
Steve,
I usually get mine from Miniatronics. They have incandescents and LEDs in a variety of diameters, amperage and voltages. Until recently, the Hobbytown in my area used to carry a good assortment of Miniatronics products at their store. Since they downsized, the selection is pretty meager.
Tom
Radio Shacks are fairly useless for real electronics, now. I sometimes stop because it is convenient, but they usually don’t have what I need, so I end up going online anyway.
There are three Radio Shack stores in my immediate vicinity, and none of them carry anything like you need for lighting a caboose.
As others have said, go to a hobby shop or online and purchase bulbs or LEDs from Micro-Mark, All Electronics, Miniatronics, or other such source.
I think you’re going to be very disappointed even if you can find the components to light a caboose using track power – the slightest dirt on your wheels or track will cause a lot of flickering. Battery power will be the only way to have non-flickering lights. And the light inside a real caboose was very dim – so dim that you could barely tell it had any lights at all because the crewmembers needed to be able to see in the dark outside the caboose.
Sounds like Radio Shack is just as bad in the US as it is here in Canada (now called ‘The Source’ up here). Very little stock - very high prices.
If you are going to add lighting to a caboose you may want to look at these marker lights as well (if they suit your era).
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/755-64
If you are not going to use batteries then you might consider adding some extra weight to the caboose to keep it tighter on the tracks. If you want to get really fancy maybe someone on the forums could explain how to incorporate a capacitor into the circuit to maintain power during momentary interuptions.
I have used radio shack for street and lamppost lights.rambo1…
Thank you gentlemen for “the leads” to Miniatronics and All Electronics. Radio Shack has morphed into an electronics plug n’ play boutique – A far cry from its heritage. Miniatronics says it best: “electronics for the hobbyist.”
I have done some projects from the book by CTT " Easy Electronics Projects For Toy Trains" and was able to get all my parts from Radio Shack. I have built some Block Signals and built block circuits using the outside rail and a relay to control the signal. I have bought all the stuff needed at radio shack.