Lionel 6-16851 Sunoco tank lighting?

OK, great ....

It hit me to see what voltage is getting over to this item. The output of the Z4000 14 volt accessory is 12.7 right at the transformer. By the time it gets over to the tank after all the other items, it's only 9.x!

 I did try a test last night disconnecting other items to see if this got brighter. I just forgot to use the tester to see what power it's getting.

So I will connect it directly to a transformer and see what it looks like. Thanks for the help. 

I use the "14V" accessory output from a Z-1000 brick to operate a couple of the Lionel tanks and yes, they are dim and quite yellow but I'm good with it. I don't like being blinded by bright night lighting. I have eliminated my green track switch indicators because too bright at night.

OK, it looks like they are designed to just glow?

with just under ten volts AC as wired:

with around 17 volts AC: (they are a little dimmer in person. you can see the filaments)

Ooops! Thanks Lew!

Hi Engineer Joe: I also have a Sunoco Tank. The light on the tank has a short and will not work.  I placed a spot light on the tank to give it a light. Maybe this winter I will take it off the layout and look for a fix.

Gary 🚂

I didn't tear into mine yet. If I do, I will share how it's wired when/if I convert it to LEDs. I assume that they are all wired in parallel. 

Maybe they are some stock (lower voltage) Lionel bulb and are wired in series- parallel?

Yes, they are wired in parallel. 

How about temporarily hooking up the tank lights to one of the Z4K's track output connections (instead of the accessory output) and putting a meter on the connection at the lights and push the handle up slowly until you get the desired lighting effect - making sure the wires don't get too hot and then finding a power source that puts out the same voltage as shown on the meter when it gets to just the right brightness for you.

FWIW, I travel by a tank farm in East Boston and the lights on the tanks are not what I would call "bright" - prototypically, just bright enough so low flying aircraft can see them (not too far from Logan). However, for our train purposes, we probably want the lights a little brighter to show off the tank and the name on the side.

This is what they look like in daytime light:

I took a couple pics under low-light conditions and the Lionel storage tanks lights aren't a whole lot different than MTH interior lighting:

Seems they like around 17 volts AC better for me. I don't mind them dim. Just not so much that they look different than other structures they're next to. I have the MTH tank car unloading platform tied together with the tank. I think I need to have each on it's own power. The MTH is very bright at 17 volts. I could lower that one to get them at a more even brightness.

 When I convert to LEDs, I add an adjustable dimmer control to them. So in this case, I could fine tune each structure's lighting.

Joe why don't you use adjustable power supply to feed your led's adjustable to 3 volts or less then all your led's be the same setting you can buy them from Henning's trains GJR sells them there !

i have bought some and they work great!

Alan