Big Boy number board light replacements

Peter, are you sure you haven’t accidentally turn them off?   Of course that would be too easy a fix.  It seems that 8 volt grain of rice bulb are the same as hen’s teeth.  How about prewired SMD LEDs?  They are smaller than the grain of rice bulb.  You can get 25 for $10 at Amazon.  You will need a resistor and a diode to knock 8 volts down to 3 volts.  There should be enough room in the smoke box to fit them.

I am not an expert on this, hopefully, someone who knows more can give you some specifics for the resistor size and diode.

I would replace with 12 volt Grain of rice bulbs. Lionel has several. The numberboards will be lit a little dimmer, which will make the bulbs last longer and easier to read the numbers, not being so bright and looks more prototypical.

OR, do what Chuck said.

I have my 6-11131 844 and I actually replaced the working bulbs with LEDs. I think I still have those grain of wheat bulbs. Send me a email and I’ll see if I can find them

@zhubl posted:

I have my 6-11131 844 and I actually replaced the working bulbs with LEDs. I think I still have those grain of wheat bulbs. Send me a email and I’ll see if I can find them

I'd actually be interested in upgrading the marker lights to LED also. Who makes the LEDs you used here in these photos, Evandesigns?

I wanna do LEDs for my same 844 model as yours.

These are the LEDs I got for the number boards https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F...oding=UTF8&psc=1

pretty sure I used 0603 size but can’t remember for sure

I also put them in the headlight housing with a LED head light when I added GRJ’s Super Chuffer with Rule 17 lighting. I wired 2 LEDs in series and used 1/2 wave dc from the track with a current limiting resistor can’t remember what size I just kept adjusting it until I liked the brightness

For many uses for the SMD LED's, I use the 3528 size LED's.  I put them in the wedge headlights for articulated steam, they work really well and light the number boards on the side of the light fixture.  I solder my fine wire to them and then use Liquid Tape to insulate it.  I stick the LED to the rear of the light housing with CA adhesive.  In order to do the mods, I remove the number boards and headlight lens, then I can easily clamp the LED down and glue it.  This is an option I add for Super-Chuffer installations that allows you to use the Rule-17 lighting feature.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

For many uses for the SMD LED's, I use the 3528 size LED's.  I put them in the wedge headlights for articulated steam, they work really well and light the number boards on the side of the light fixture.  I solder my fine wire to them and then use Liquid Tape to insulate it.  I stick the LED to the rear of the light housing with CA adhesive.  In order to do the mods, I remove the number boards and headlight lens, then I can easily clamp the LED down and glue it.  This is an option I add for Super-Chuffer installations that allows you to use the Rule-17 lighting feature. I got a set of EDGELC LEDs recommended earlier in this thread and they're rated for 3 volts. Seems running these at 18 volts would be way too much power.

John do you add a resistor? I got a set of the EDGELC LEDs recommended earlier in this thread and they're rated for 3 volts. Seems running these at 18 volts would be way too much power for the them. What would be a recommended resistor to use?

Of course you need a resistor and diode for LED's on 18 volts.  The diode protects against reverse polarity, and the resistor would be 470 ohms for 18 volts.

Now catching up on some projects in the train room including replacing the number board lights. I got the LED lights wired up with a 470 ohm resistor as recommended and installed. Here's the catch, when track power is applied the LED lights go on for less than a second and then shut off completely. All solder joints are firm and I tested the lights before installing them. Everything else with the locomotive works just fine.

Any further input on this would be appreciated and thanks again to all who have contributed for your help.

My first guess is a polarity issue. This is a known thing when TRIACs are in the control circuit, the firmware sending the gate trigger may not fire for a given polarity- conventional VS command.

Yep, checked a parts breakdown https://www.lionelsupport.com/...tive-Only-6101126001

And look there is the classic TRIAC outputs from an R4LC

If the lights are wired to a lighting output from the R2LC, remember that the frame ground is positive for the R2LC-C08 or later versions.