Lionel Northeastern Caboose LED retrofit

Briefly, here is what I do:

If the L E D's require a bridge rectifier, then I place a "flicker free" module made by GRJ and sold thru Hennings Trains between the power feeds and the lights.

If you use light products such as made by Evans Designs which feature a bridge rectifier as part of the light kit, then they simply connect directly to the power feeds.  I cannot say enough good about both circuit products mentioned in this reply.  Both make modeling remarkably easier.

This does not answer your question directly but gives guidance in retrofitting your caboose with any lighting.

There’s a good chance I don’t understand your question. I’ve done a lot of incandescent to LED upgrades. When doing that to lights that receive power from a connector to a circuit board there’s another issue if you try to just use those power wires. The circuitry is such that if it doesn’t detect enough of a power draw it doesn’t send power (that’s my layman explanation). I did such an upgrade to a GP-9 and the flashing LED on top wouldn’t light. I posted a question on it and @gunrunnerjohn provided a solution.  You should like at my couple of posts starting here just before the solution to see if my problem may fit your situation.

Without seeing the other side of that lighting board, it's hard to say.  However, I've done a lot of cabooses and even more passenger cars using my LED Lighting Regulator boards and a strip of LED's.

@gunrunnerjohn,

So if you put in your lighting board with the power coming from the power going into the incandescent bulb, will you still need a a .01uf 50V ceramic cap in order to 'trigger' the light?

The only time you need the .01uf cap is for powering LED's from the outputs of the TMCC or early Legacy R2LC/R4LC lighting outputs.  For powering them from track voltage, you just run power into the lighting module AC power inputs.

I have done and am currently doing LED retrofits on cabooses and passenger cars exclusively using @gunrunnerjohn's LED regulator and amazon LED strips. I recommend reading the post linked above as it explains their usage. His directions are very easy to follow.

Well as it turns out the car was already fitted with the LED lighting strip, would have known that if Lionel actually has an expoloded parts diagram on the 6-83### Northeastern cabooses. Turns out this thread was completely useless, oh well