I have been wanting to light the fire for the Hobo on the roof of the Polar Express. I had already added snow for the train so the Hobo is fixed does not rotate. I pushed in the 4 window tabs to slide the roof off. Then carefully cut off the fake fire and drilled out a hole large enough to fit my fire and wires through. I used the Evans designs U5F Fire kit, 3 LED bulbs that blink orange, and 1 red LED from the U13 pack. I stuffed these inside a couple of layers of orange semi transparent candy wrappers and stuffed this up through my hole and connected the wires to the power leads for the bulbs in the passenger car. Take a look at the photos, the lights flicker on and off, in real life the red bulb shows up better then it looks in the photo.
Evans has many different light kits with LED's they have tiny built in resistors and capacitors and bridge rectifiers on each bulb or lighting set. So they will work from about 7 to 19 volts on AC or DC power and are compatible with DCC, TMCC and DCS. Thus you can use them on conventional applications where the voltage varies the light output is about the same for the range. I have replaced lights in a large # of engines, yard spot lights etc. They sell all colors but Warm white works best for headlights and lighting up the marker lights in 3 different sizes of bulbs. For headlights in old Lionel conventional and Williams engines have just cut off the leads from the headlight bulb and removed it found an Evans LED that slips into the hole on the inside of the headlight lens, and positioned white LED bulbs on the light input rods for the marker lights then covered in tape to hold in place and keep light from bleeding out under the engines. Very bright lights work great, cuts power used and little heat. You can order direct from Evans or ask your local train shop to bring them in. Our local store sells out soon after each order comes, in they have been so popular with local hobbyists of all scales.
For the snow on the roof of the Polar Express as is seen throughout the movie, I picked up some snow mix from a craft store. Michaels and the like they have an easy mix of white stuff that will set hard and some texture can be worked into it. I just spread it over the roof's and sprinkled with some fine silver glitter to give it a little shine. Works well and gives your train a more realistic finished look.
Click on photos for a larger view.
