New member, so please be gentle!
I have acquired some Walthers lighting kits and have begun to install. The very firs
The Walthers trucks are metal and have 2 screws on the top, this is the connection from the rails to the bottom of the car.
The bottom of the car has 4 rectangular holes just above the trucks. These are filled with metal strips that should contact the screws on the trucks. ON the end of the car with the power strip that contacts the lighting strip, the bottom of these contacts should be in contact with the strips that contact the trucks. The truck contact strips on the far end should contact the car weights. The other end of the weights should also contact the end of the leg on the strip that carries
I have installed ten of those kits in the Walthers Mainline cars and in the very beginning first install, I had the same problem. What is more than likely happening is that the light bar on the ceiling of the car is not making good contact with the two end strips…bending them up may work, but iffy. Some forum members used wire. I did not want wires. So I soldered two Kadee bronze knuckle springs to the light bar before I installed it on all ten cars and that worked like a charm. You can also solder a little glob of solder to the contact points on the light bar to make them stick out some also. The springs were an easier fix for Me. I used Silver bearing solder paste to hold the springs in place while soldering…no need to hold them…the paste did.
Also while You have the roof off, It is a great idea to also either paint the windows black where they meet the seam at the roof…even if the roof is tight, you will still get light bleed through at the seam. I used 1/2 automotive pin stripe tape and did the whole inside of the roof…seem’s like a lot of work…but the results were worth it. You can see where I put the tape in the second photo. They can be clicked on for a larger view.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Thank you both for your help. I ended up taking the car further apart, removing the car bottom as well as I could (there appears to be a glue spot holding the car bottom in place near the center of the car, but I was able to open up the end with the power connections). I could see that the little metal strips that form the contacts at the top with the light bar were completely missing the strips coming up from the trucks. I had to do some creative bending of the flimsy metal strips to get them to make contact with the contact strips in the bottom of the car. After bending the strips and carefully reassembling the car, the lights work! Who knows what issues I will encounter when I try the next car… Thanks again for the help!
Hi, and [#welcome]
You’re not alone in dealing with Walthers lighting kits. I’m surprized you got the roof off OK.
The Mainline cars have a different system than the Proto cars. Then, the dome cars are different yet that they have a two-piece light bar.
I’ve had my frustrations with those in the past. I would get everything working nicely then when I snap the roof back on the lights go out.
The bad part about the dome car is that the light bar has only four “pins” that engage in the little holes in the beige side walls. A dab of sticky glue here will help these from popping out when you snap the roof on (Goo, maybe).
Walthers_933-1083 by Edmund, on Flickr
Also, I used to get mixed up as to weather the light bar PC board was supposed to go on TOP of the small tabs ou UNDER it.
Turns out the best way is to have it on top, pressing down on the tabs, which should be bent upwards slightly to make better contact.
You can carefully pry the end off the car and check the two metal contact strips. They are only a friction-fit to the two metal “weights” sandwiched into the car floor.
Ignore the capacitor in the door here. You can see the two vertical strips on either side of the door. You can test them for continuity and make sure they are seated properly