GGD Headend car lighting question

You could contact SS/3rd Rail and see if they would sell you a strip for coach.   That is the easy fix.   the hard fix is to may your own strip aand use the same mounting holes on the roof.

The strip in my combine lights the passenger compartment and not the baggage compartment, which I thought was OK.

The circuit board has a rectifier in it so you could simply add an LED with a 810 ohm half watt resistor tapping off the existing board.  Glue the LED to the roof with a dab of silicone. 

Dale H

Does yours light all the way to the rear of the coach portion? This one does not, the rear third is dark, there is no led strip there. Looks like it stops at the rectifier? Thank you Dale, will look into that solution also. It really became noticable once passengers were glued into the dark area. Looks like a scene from Risky business back there.

If this car is a streamliner you can remove the ends by removing two screws at the end of the metal underframe. The light strip slides in a track. You could verify none of the bulbs are burned out or just slide the strip to the passenger section.

Pete

I have some heavyweight coaches, a headend set, and 2 pullmans.   The pullmans are the first run 12-1 and the second run 8-1-2.    The only car in the whole bunch that has LED lights is the 8-1-2 pullman.   All the others have incandescent lights.    These are all heavy weights.

So you could could add lights to the strip, but I would use the same kind your cars have.    I did not check the voltage on the light strip, they may be 1.5v bulbs.  

The 3rd rail lighting strip design was posted a while back here on the old Forum. Assuming they did not change their design, It is basically a bridge rectifier and LEDs wired in parallel with a resistor to each one. It is not constant voltage,so for conventional operators like myself,it is not the best circuit to use.

A few different ways to circuit LEDs in passenger cars and cabooses are shown here if you wish to make your own,the method used depends on if you run command or conventional.

http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/Bl...tegoryMain?catId=426

Dale H

I assume that Dale has newer cars than I do.   I have coaches and head end sets from the first runs.   My cars definitely had incandescant bulb lighting.   I replaced them with my own LED lighting.  

Apparently their designs have changed over the years. My streamline cars from 5 years ago use a bridge rectifier and regulator (LM337 adjustable) to control voltage to incandescent bulbs. I thnk, given the lighting strip is used in both 2 rail DC and 3 rail AC that bridge rectifier/regulator will work in either application.

Pete

I do not have the cars but GGD published a circuit and sells the LED lighting strips also. I even asked on the post,no regulator,the KISS principle as it was described.

My Older 3rd rail powered units have a 7806 regulator,heat sinked  and light bulbs. 

Dale H

Here is a link to the strip GGD sells. Dont see a regulator

http://www.goldengatedepot.com/images/ggd-led.jpg

Dale H

Dale, I am referring to what is supplied in their cars, not the separate sale accessory you are looking at. Over the years the cars were wired in many different configurations. The OP has a factory wired car.

Pete

Probably 1/3 of the  combine WAS usually dark.