FLICKERING LIGHT ON CABOOSE

NO, but you can void it adding a capacitor.

Andre.

 

I am new to trouble shooting.  What size of capacitor and do you splice it in the line?  Sorry for the stupid question.

I'm gonna guess between 1K and 2K uF electrolytic capacitor. But you will also need some diodes or a bridge rectifier because that type of capacitor will only work with DC. In fact, may as well just convert the whole thing to LED lighting and add a resistor and white LED (or 2) where the bulb was.

Hi to all

3KuF 35v is right, using as Flash said a rectifier diode to convert it to DC place the capacitor in the DC side.So basically the capacitor keep voltage and in case the main voltage is interrupted the capacitor discharge keeping the light on for few seconds. Now Flash is right again if you are going to modify to DC is good idea to install LEDs.

BTW the caboose doesn't need a bright light most the caboose were illuminated with

oil lamp or very dime light.

Andre.

You can add a pickup to the other truck to have two.

 

But a flickering caboose light is SO classic toy train.  I would miss the flickering if I fixed it.

 

Charllie

Adding a capacitor, unless it's a REALLY big one, is a wasted effort for incandescent lighting.  If you want to stop the flickering, convert to LED and then add a more reasonable capacitor, 470uf to 1,000uf will be plenty.

I am on the rookie side of this, but I might suggest these as well:

 

1. Clean section of track, then run caboose there.  Still flickering?  If not, may be dirty track - so then clean all track.
2. Clean pick up.
3. Check tension on pick up.  If it sticks or does not immediately pop back when you push it, may need replacement of that spring.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.  The caboose and track are new.  I think I will look for instructions for adding leds.

 

From the number, it sounds like this is an older caboose.  I had a very nice scale size caboose from the early 90's that only had one truck with pickup rollers.  I replace both trucks with a set of Lionel's newer trucks with pickup rollers on both trucks.  The extra pickup solved 98% of the problem to the point I found the infrequent loss of power/light unobjectionable.  The other benefit was the newer trucks allowed the caboose to ride closer to the rail and thus look better.

 

Good luck and happy railroading,

Don

The caboose I believe is from 1986.  Hard to find a NYC woodside caboose with the wheels in the right place.  The reason I purchased this one.  I did not want to purchase a Railking and have to move the trucks.

 

 

LED lighting for caboose shown here

 

http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowThread?id=487&categoryId=

 

Dale H

I have a chessie ext. view caboose 6-19700 the light flickered alot it only had one truck with pickup roller. The trucks was no longer in stock for it so i found a newer caboose the trucks worked fine on it so both trucks had pickup rollers and it stopped the light flicker and also another piece of advice make sure paint is cleaned off where truck mounts to frame do to ground problems part no to truck i used 6006907095.

2200 or 4700uf. Put a small resistor in series to one of the capacitor leads to alleviate roller sparking. Having said that the LEDs are a better solution.

 

Dale H

Well, you need more than a capacitor for plain incandescent lighting, you'd need to rectify the power with a bridge as well.  Putting a non-polarized capacitor in there won't do the trick, you need DC for this task.

How in the world would a Wheatstone Bridge affect the flickering of the lights?   You're gonna' have to explain that one to me!

I said I thought it was.

been a long while since my college Physics Classes.

I don't remember why it was on their pamphlet may have been for the DC HO installation?

OK, you just blew me away with that one.   It's been a long time since school for me as well, but I still remember what the Wheatstone Bridge does.

I thought it connected the borough of Queens and The Bronx.

SkyHook,

 

I prefer the Throgs neck myself.

 

Joe

Well I don't.

How about letting us know.

It surely  wasn't a wheatstone bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_bridge

Maybe it was the capacitor circuit.

Anyway, since I don't have a flickering problem, really don't need to know

I really didn't want to have to go and get an electrical engineering degree to fix the problem.  A simple solution was asked for.......  As pointed out by 2 previous posters the caboose was lit by oil lamps and flickered.  Rather than to go back to college I think I will just live with the flickering. 

 

Maybe just an Associates Degree.

  

Bottom line?

 

Convert to LED lighting or use a bridge rectifier and a large electrolytic cap to drive the incandescent lighting.

Or maybe just add a second roller pickup to the caboose, as previously suggested. 

That seems the easiest.