Any idea how to add a Christmas tree lighted ornament to a O-gauge flat car? Thanks Mac
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Could you be more specific? Do you want to use track power? Is it AC or DC? Picture? Led or incandescent?
Are the lights/ornaments 1:48 or 1:1 scale? Or some other size?
Mike
For what it's worth, I used to cut up the cheap garage sale strings of lights, 110v, put them in my buildings and run them
off a transformer I used for accessories. Worked fine, just experiment.
@John H posted:Could you be more specific? Do you want to use track power? Is it AC or DC? Picture? Led or incandescent?
Would like to use track power but I am not opposed to using battery.
The scale of the ornament is about 1:32 but fits on a sub-scale O flat car. The ornament has lights on it that plug into an incandescent traditional mini-light Xmas light string set. The socket is rated at 2.5 amps.
Photo please to provide more information of what is being discussed. Also, voltage required is a big issue, not current. Track power may be too much if this came off a light string and will quickly burn out the bulb.
Dale
Not gonna be easy. Sounds like it runs on 110 house voltage. You need trucks with pickup rollers, voltage regulator, diode possibly, and maybe resistor. Again, Led or incandescent, picture, and electrical tag if there is one.
Macds
You have not provided enough information or made a clear description of what light or ornament you have.
How about posting some pictures of the light or ornament?
If it is part of incandescent traditional mini-light Xmas light set you have to figure out what voltage the bulbs are. 12v for 10 bulb sets, 6v. for 20 bulb set, 3 v for 35 , bulb sets, etc. The number of bulbs times the voltage of a bulb equals 120 vac. for each string of bulbs.
If the bulb is 12v you can run it off track voltage, if it is 6 volts you can run it if you put it in series with another 6 v bulb.
But we are all just guessing what you have.
Charlie
This COULD be a great idea and a starting point for other projects, but as others have said, more information is needed. A lot of the electrical work can be sidestepped by using a searchlight car instead of a flatcar and modifying it to remove the searchlight and replace it with the ornament. But very important questions about voltage requirements need to be answered first.
Dale
