MTH items with Christmas Light Strings along the side how reliable? Do you like them? And what can you replace them with if they fail?

As you have stated, Evans Designs has the closes facsimile. It is my understanding that the driver boards were the biggest reliability factor aside from mishandling damage to the strings, at least in the CP Holiday Train cars.

www.mthpartsandsales.com lists parts [in]availability if you search "LED STRING"

I'm hoping MTH parts is going to stock the LED's someday.

I had a broken string wire due to an assembly error on a CP Holiday boxcar which I fixed.   The power supply on the Stage boxcar smoked.  I was able to purchase a new power supply from MTH.  Thank you Midge.

I have had them since the beginning and have had zero issues.

Not as robust to handling ('The claw, the claw!') as other traditional seasonal rail cars.

Ergo, if there will be interactive play with the younger generations...we're talking youngsters, kids, grandkids, crawlers-to-toddlers..., especially as the train races around the Christmas tree at floor level, the somewhat f-r-a-g-i-l-e LED strings could be a problem.

That's an opinion based on returns for repair (LHS) of this genre of cars when they first came out a few years ago.   

Otherwise, they're definitely eye-candy for that holiday train!

And, no...I've not seen commercially available equivalent strings (LED spacing, size, colors, etc.), but they'd sure be popular if someone offered them, I'm sure.

FWIW...

KD

When these first came out i told Mike we need to have a clear tube to protect the leds..... crickets... here we are. Its a service nightmare for MTH techs.

I'm really surprised that some enterprising company hasn't produced replacement strings.  It seems obvious there is a demand.  Maybe price point is keeping the product from being produced ?  Can it be a patent issue ?

the most common issue it the small power supply failure, but mth is restocking and will also stock the light strings just call mth and talk to Rick Foster, he will help you !

Alan

@shorling posted:

I'm really surprised that some enterprising company hasn't produced replacement strings.  It seems obvious there is a demand.  Maybe price point is keeping the product from being produced ?  Can it be a patent issue ?

Anyone producing such a product would have to have a significant volume in order for it to be remotely practical.  Truthfully, this is a pretty tiny market, and certainly reaching even a significant percentage of the people with the problem would be difficult without really expensive advertising.  When the Chinese make such products, they make tens of thousands to keep the prices down.

I'm virtually sure it couldn't be a patent issue, how do you patent a string of Christmas lights?

Actually, there is a whole patent section pertaining to Christmas lights :  Christmas Lights Patents (Class 315/185S)

IMHO, the MTH Christmas Light String cars look great and are an impressive addition to a layout. The only problem I had was with the Santa and Reindeer car with a total failure of the lights. I took the car apart and discovered one loose wire connection which was easily fixed. Rudolph's nose lights again!

The issue is whether or not to allow young kids to handle these particular cars. Frankly, I am reluctant because of the way the LED's are openly exposed. I have a separate 4' x 5' layout for kids and I'm very selective on what cars and engines I allow the young visitors to touch/lift/drop. (The old Lionel Scout is pretty childproof!)

I have a car from the Premier Canadian Pacific Lighted Box car that....the car..at first started smoking very bad. I shut it down, waited for it to cool down...than tried it again. Now it doesn't light up or smoke..but it trips the breaker. Does anyone know where I can get this car repaired ? Any suggestions ?

My Christmas trains the kids do not handle, but control through the remote the engine. I set up a huge model Christmas train village at our museum Christmas train event and 2 smaller displays each year. Would break the bank to buy lots of MTH lighted cars.

I did find at Walmart a 24 volt small Christmas light string would just need a full wave bridge rectifier to run it from the AC track voltage. But the string is 41 feet long with 500 bulbs with long leads on the back of each bulb. So not really practical but might take it apart and see if I could cut it into smaller lengths.

@dk122trains posted:

I have had them since the beginning and have had zero issues.

Me too........like Don, i’ve had no issues over the years with mine.......

Peter