To Mr. "Hminsky". Question regarding lighting

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello Harold,

A poster stated that you have a method of lighting cars utilizing Kadee coupler springs.

Would you please tell us how you do it?

Thanks very much! [;)]

Peace and High Greens.

2

tony…i found his article on it…chuck http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/locomotives/wipers/

3

CW,

Thanks very much! Looks like it is a good idea worth doing. I have an Athearn New Haven bay window caboose that I’d like to put an interior in as well as light up.

Would be neat if it could work for passenger cars, though the trucks being longer does present a challenge

[:D][{(-_-)}][4:-)][tup]

4

tony
this works great, i’ve had them on my cabooses for two months now and they light them very well…i had to put in a capacitor to cut down on the flicker from dirty track …the only thing is that the question asked earlier was about lighting passenger cars…I got thinking about it and don’t know it it will work…it works great for barber and bettendorf trucks but passenger trucks are longer…don’t know if they will mount correctly to a passenger car truck…i’ll try to check it out tonight if i can get into the train room sometime…chuck

5

Finally! Something a KD spring might actually work for.

6

I’ll tell you one thing about Harold, he has to be the most inquisitive modeller on the planet. It does not matter what the subject is, Harold always seems to have tried the new and innovative ideas. My hat is off to Harold, a man from whom I get great inspiration!

7

Me too. I have scrutinized his web and have found a load of inovative ideas. I am working on the valence idea I hope today and on using vellum for diffusing shadows cast by overhead lighting.

8

What is the “Valence” idea?

9

Thank you for visiting the website everyone.

Tom is referring to my adaptation of a John Armstrong idea for directional lighting and the use of modulators. Yes, I credit my source of inspiration, more people should in the hobby. I have a lighting article at:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/4x8/lighting/

The plastic valance and the vellum modulators can be seen on the left.

Harold

10

Harold,

Thanks very much! Very cool ideas worth trying out. I’ve been scratching my head and wondering if there is a way to take your Kadee centering spring idea and apply it to passenger car trucks, such as Rivorossis.

Obviously the Kadees centering springs would be too small but I’ve seen very thin copper sheets available at some hobby stores and was thinking that perhaps something like a Kadee spring could be cut out from sheet copper.

Any thoughts or other ideas?

11

For a six wheel truck two pair could be done the same way and the third pair could be done with a KD spring cut in half.
For four wheel passenger trucks I would split the KD spring and solder a piece of brass between the pieces.
I used the KD springs because I have tried making small sheet metal wipers from phospher bronze with little success. After seeing the initial use of the KD springs on another forum, my idea came about.

Just a thought
Harold

12

Harold,

Thanks very much. Good ideas worth trying. My soldering skills for small objects are “challenged”, but I have a sister who can virtually solder with her eyes closed!

Thanks.

13

I bumped the link here so that clicking on it will work.