Help wiring LED's. Im building/assembling a kasiners Passenger car kit from about 1949 and want to add LED's. But want to power it through the third rail.

You need a resistor and  you need DC not AC.   I think most 3 rail systems are AC but not sure.

I recommend starting with a 3000 OHM resistor (3k) and see how bright they are.   If too bright get highter - 10, if too dim go lower to 1.5k.     trial and error.  

For the DC, get a bridge rectifier.    Wire the leads from the track to the "AC" poles and wire the lead to LED to the + and - poles.    The long lead on the LED goes to the + pole on the bridge.   Trial and error here will hurt anything.    MAKE sure the resistor is next to the LED on either pole.

Radio shack used to sell all this stuff.    Now heed to find on line maybe - or All Electronhics

No problem at all using LED's.  If you're using more than one LED, you can wire them to protect each other and just add a resistor to run them from track power.  You can also wire a bunch of LED's in series and only use one resistor for the lot.

How many LED's are you using?

Many, many folks here, myself included, use LED strip lights, not individual LEDs, to light passenger cars.   For those running DCS/TMCC/Legacy with 18V in the track, 12V strips are preferred.  For conventional operators, 5V strips are preferred.

Here is an example of 12V, 5 meter strip of 300 LEDs for $2.54 w/ free shipping:

https://www.aliexpress.com/ite...b159-fb7be67657bb-15

Simply cut-off the length needed for a particular car.

Power from the track runs through a regulator like @gunrunnerjohn provides via Hennings Trains (just click on the link in his signature above) or from a LM 2596 AC/DC buck converter available on eBay.

Good luck with your project, especially the brass vista dome fabrication.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

No problem at all using LED's.  If you're using more than one LED, you can wire them to protect each other and just add a resistor to run them from track power.  You can also wire a bunch of LED's in series and only use one resistor for the lot.

How many LED's are you using?

OMG thanks so much for all the responses! I’m thinking about 2 on the long side 3 in the vista dome and 1 on the small side but not sure yet if I should add one more to each

I was wondering about the vintage of those Kasiner kits.  I have an unmade observation car kit sitting on a shelf for longer than I can remember.

A number of threads on lighting passenger cars with LED's.

Passenger car LED lighting (Again)

LED conversion kit for MTH passenger cars

LED Lighting Upgrade for MTH Full Dome Car

MTH Amtrak Superliner LED Upgrade in Pictures

Passenger Car Lighting Experiment

@RJR posted:

I was wondering about the vintage of those Kasiner kits.  I have an unmade observation car kit sitting on a shelf for longer than I can remember.

Here’s a link to the history of there products.  https://oscalekings.org/WP/wp-.../01/KASINER-Cars.pdf

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

A number of threads on lighting passenger cars with LED's.

Passenger car LED lighting (Again)

LED conversion kit for MTH passenger cars

LED Lighting Upgrade for MTH Full Dome Car

MTH Amtrak Superliner LED Upgrade in Pictures

Passenger Car Lighting Experiment

Thanks will take a look. 🤑🤩🥳

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

A number of threads on lighting passenger cars with LED's.

Passenger car LED lighting (Again)

LED conversion kit for MTH passenger cars

LED Lighting Upgrade for MTH Full Dome Car

MTH Amtrak Superliner LED Upgrade in Pictures

Passenger Car Lighting Experiment

Thanks! I took a look at those links and was wondering if I used 6 of those white LED's what resistor do you think I would need?

For A/C power, I'd recommend connecting the six white LED's in groups of two back to back with the LED polarity crossed for each pair.  A 330 ohm or higher value 1/4W resistor will complete the requirements if you're supplying 18 VAC power to the string.

Hello thank you for your response I’m sorry I responded sooner. I purchased what you recommended and wired it like you the way you instructed. They won’t work. I’ve tried them with my wheels and directly with the transformer and nothing was happening. Here’s a picture of my wiring. I know it’s not the prettiest. The two wires I circled are just for testing. Thanks again for all the help.

Those are not "back to back".  This is how I'd wire LED to go directly from track power.  Note that you only need one "group", but I added a second group to indicate how it can be expanded.