caboose lights flicker question

I've never had a "caboose flicker" problem with any modern era caboose i.e., any caboose made in the last ten years or so. Most have dual pickups and flickering seldom occurs even over switches.

 

Obviously older cabooses with one pickup are far more susceptible, make sure you track and rollers are clean, this may help.

 

Do a forum search, I believe there may have been a thread on how modify the wiring to help.

I would think the lights in the interior of a caboose wouldn't even be on while the train is moving at night.  I was thinking of removing the lights on my cabooses so they remain dark at night, just keeping the marker lights on.  

Along with cleaning the center rollers, clean the outside sets of wheels and check the contact areas of the pick-up wiring.

 

Lee Fritz

For bulletproof lighting in the caboose, I'd probably consider LED lighting with a nice big capacitor to kill the flicker.  The lighting will be as steady as a rock.

Hard to imagine no lights at all, so those guys sit there for hours in pitch black?

Absolutely! For the same reason the Engineer and Conductor keep the cab interior lights OFF in their locomotive cab at night; so that they can see better in the dark!

Yep. A wooden caboose would have kerosene lamps , usually 2 at the conductor desk. at night one would be on set to low,.

 

Our CN steel cabooses had battery operated lights at different locations.

 

Didn't answer your question  about flickering lights.....

No different then us driving our cars at night.  Turn on the dome light and it gets much harder to see though the windshield.  

The WD 40 trick will solve this problem. It happens as a result of poor conductivity between the electrical pickups (both collectors and outside rail wheels) and the constant voltage PCB.. Mike

One would assume that the guy(s) in the caboose aren't driving the train, I suspect they have some clerical duties to perform, other than staring out the window 100% of the time. In any case, I have no direct experience, and since I haven't seen a caboose come by on a consist in a long time, I probably won't get a chance to check it out first-hand.

Since there were at least two crew members in every caboose, i.e. Conductor & Rear Brakeman, at least ONE of them had better be looking forward watching over their train. Watching the track to the rear was also done, in order to notice if a car wheel happened to    drop on the ties, the resulting track damage would be seen by the caboose crew.

 

Plus, there wasn't really THAT much paperwork for the conductor to do on through freight trains. Locals would have all kinds of waybills and switch lists to take care of, so the Conductor would have his desk light on, while the Head Brakeman was up in the cupola or in the appropriate side bay window, depending on left or right hand curves.

I wonder if those old kerosene lights lit the track enough to see anything on the track.

 

Maybe we need random sequencing lights that come on occasionally like the caboose is really occupied.

I did what John suggested.  Replace all incondescent lamps with led's with capacitor and resistor.  I like my trains to have lights and watching them run at night.  Very cool.  I remember watching "real" freight trains go by when I was a kid and the caboose was illuminated at night.  They were playing poker I bet.

 

TEX

Steve

here is a post on caboose lighting,the way I do it. If a capacitor is used it is flicker free.

 

www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowT...=487&categoryId=

 

Dale H

Flicker free caboose lighting: I am converting all my conventionally lighted cabooses to LEDs with "constant intensity" and a "backup" battery.  I use the regular pickups on the trucks for power along with a custom resistor diode circuit and rely on the "backup" battery only to provide power when power is turned off on the tracks.  That way the caboose stays lighted even when the train is stopped (track not powered) or the pickups come across a dirty portion of track. I use a 9 volt backup battery which I hide in the ceiling of the caboose. I also use a diode to block "track voltage" to the battery since I use non-rechargeable 9-volt battery type.

Instead of a non-rechargeable battery, I'd use a 5V supercap, you'll get plenty of light from LED lighting which can last at least several minutes with a 1F supercap.  I abhor solutions that have primary batteries if I can avoid it.

 

Bridge rectifier, filter cap, 5.5V regulator and a diode to block reverse current flow back to the regulator.  This gives you 5V, and you can use the appropriate dropping resistor to power the LED(s).  Since I light 18" passenger cars with 20ma total on LED strips, I have to believe that you can light a couple of LED's in a caboose for some time with this approach.

 

I just hooked up three white LED's in parallel with a 100 ohm series dropping resistor to a 5.5V 1F supercap, charged it up to full charge and I'm waiting for it to discharge.  After two minutes, the supercap is down to 3.5 volts and the LED's are still quite bright.

For fun, I converted one post war caboose to LEDs and made it flicker free awhile ago. It's just bright enough to me to simulate kerosine lamps in my imagination and it for sure won't flicker even when power is removed for several seconds all on one original pick-up roller.

 

 

For dim lighting, I could probably get 20-30 minutes out of the supercap.  I changed to one LED and a 330 ohm resistor with the 5V charge on the supercap, it's 15 minutes and counting, still have what appears to be full illumination.

Thanks for all the info on mods.  However, the second question I pose is after all these years, is this an option for mfts to consider on a high end caboose?  I know it will take all the fun out of it for us, but would be a nice option. 

Anything's an option for manufacturers to consider, that doesn't mean they're going to do it.

Great thread!  If the caboose has an off switch for interior lights, I turn them off, however the marker lights still flicker.  Great tips here for the remedy!  I like the warm yellow kerosene lamp look.  Thanks guys!

 

Stack

Ok I have to ask a dumb question.

 

I have a PW Bay window lighted caboose that with one pick-up.

 

If I replace the bulb with an L1T or similiar LED which has the built in diode, would it operate flicker free or would it operate at all?  Although my transformer can supply 18v to the track the most I would operate it at is about 15-16v.

 

I know I must not be understanding something here.

 

Hopefully the experts can set me straight.

 

Thanks

 

George

 

The "flicker free" is afforded by some sort of storage in the car, either a capacitor or battery.  Either of these would have to be supplied with DC, so there is some work involved.

 

The short answer is no, the bulb alone won't change the flicker.

Thank you gunnrunnerjohn.

 

I had a feeling it probably would not fix the flicker problem.

 

However, if one could live with the flicker issue would the LED bulb work well in the caboose or would further modifications be needed?

 

Thanks

 

George

The replacement bulbs should work, but the lighting may be more directed, LED's are more directional than incandescent bulbs.  I wouldn't bother for one bulb, my guess is the effect won't be as nice as the standard bulb.

 

Ahhh good point, thank you

If you just replace the flickering light bulb with a LED and diodes or "all in one" your flickering will be worse...That's right, worse!  The reason is the LED can flash on and off very fast and your eye will notice that more than a bulb which is actually burning and glowing on and off much more slowly (the flicker you are seeing now). 

 

As another poster pointed out, you need some energy "storage" like a capacitor to store energy for when there is a moment of no power and to smooth out the power feeding the LED.  The larger the cap, the more "storage" it will supply the LED.

 

You could also just add a pick up roller assembly or truck with roller to give you more contact with the center rail.

 

Paul, thank you.

 

What you said makes sense.  I think I will leave well enough alone.

 

George