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I decided to do an experiment and try some really "warm" lighting in a set of Madison passenger cars.  I used a strip of yellow LED's that I had purchased some time back to do this, I decided to give it a go.  I think they look really good, much more like the shade of lighting that a prototype Madison would likely have.  I'm going to have these at York in the Henning's Trains booth as the demo for the lighting kits, drop by and take a look.  I also have a warm white upgrade that uses my standard LED strips.  I may have to consider adding the yellow option.

 

 

PRR Madison with Yellow LED

PRR Smooth Side with Warm White LED

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  • PRR Madison with Yellow LED
  • PRR Smooth Side with Warm White LED
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Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
John, what do you mean by a warm white upgrade that uses my standard LE?D strips"? I thought you were already using 3528 warm white led strips. So how does your warm white upgrade make warm white LEDs appear different from how your initial LEDCCLR made them appear? What's the benefit of buying the new upgrade vs. the LEDCCLRs you sold at last April York?
BTW, has anyone seen or know which color LED strips MTH is using in their elegant soon to be released reissued Premiere 64' woodsided passenger cars?

"...I also have a warm white upgrade that uses my standard LED strips.  I may have to consider adding the yellow option." 

 

 

PRR Madison with Yellow LED

PRR Smooth Side with Warm White LED

 

Last edited by ogaugeguy
Originally Posted by eddiem:

That yellow looks very "traditional", kinda nice!

 

Maybe I'll catch up with you at York this time, now that I know where you'll be hiding.  Hope this York's a good one for you!

Every York is a good one.   I'll look forward to seeing you there.  I'll also be at the OGR dinner and Legacy breakfast.

 

 

Originally Posted by Bob Delbridge:

John,

 

I've started looking at these Neopixel Digital LED strips by Adafruit:

 

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1376

 

But I haven't read enough to see if they can really be used in a passenger car.

 

I got a really nice small solder sucker from them a while back, great price and service!

You could probably use the three-color strips, I have a bunch of those.  I haven't done that yet, the plain yellow ones worked out really well, and obviously very simple to install.

 

 

Originally Posted by brwebster:

Much better, John!  Gets rid of that tanning bed ambiance.  The difference can be important if you're modeling a pre-fluorescent era.  I tone down the warm white LED's with yellow or red Sharpie's.

 

Thanks, I figured it was time I actually did a car with them to see what they looked like.

 

 

Originally Posted by ogaugeguy:

Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
John, what do you mean by a warm white upgrade that uses my standard LE?D strips"? I thought you were already using 3528 warm white led strips. So how does your warm white upgrade make warm white LEDs appear different from how your initial LEDCCLR made them appear? What's the benefit of buying the new upgrade vs. the LEDCCLRs you sold at last April York?
BTW, has anyone seen or know which color LED strips MTH is using in their elegant soon to be released reissued Premiere 64' woodsided passenger cars?

 

They are all warm-white.  All the kits I've made have been with the 3528 warm white LED strips.  I've actually had a couple of requests for the cool white, but not enough to justify making kits up.

 

The yellow is a new experiment.  I think these might be popular, they really do have a totally different look from the warm white strips.  For older prototypes, they look more "real".

 

The LED controller modules work with any strip, they're all the same.  Obviously, when I do cars, I just use the modules and cut the strips to fit as needed.

 

Those look really nice.  I am not a fan of LED's because of the "clinical" look of the white as others have described.  Any chance of a closer up side view so that we could see into the car itself?

 

Also, where is Henning's Trsins set up at York?  I would love to see these in person and would also like to meet you.

 

Thanks for posting,

Don

Last edited by DGJONES
Originally Posted by brwebster:

Much better, John!  Gets rid of that tanning bed ambiance.  The difference can be important if you're modeling a pre-fluorescent era.  I tone down the warm white LED's with yellow or red Sharpie's.

 

Bruce

 

 

I use red and yellow felt tip markers as well. You can tint to suit.

 

Warm white:

Warm_White

Warm White with red tint. Coating is very thin.

 

Warm_tint

 

Pete

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  • Warm_tint
Last edited by Norton

John, am wondering which might be more prototypical for the kerosene lighting used in wood-sided passenger cars of the 1880's - 1920's - amber or yellow? Also how does dimming those yellow LEDs affect the hue they cast? Are both cars you're showing at full brightness, half, what setting?

As I previously noted, looking forward to seeing what color LED strips MTH uses in their elegant soon to be released reissued Premiere 64' wood-sided passenger cars? 

 

BTW, John,in your cars, do you separate each group of three LEDs with a  space between them much as the overhead light fixtures were spaced in those period passenger cars or do you run a continuous LED strip from one end of the car to its opposite end?

Originally Posted by Pine Creek Railroad:

Guns,

   Both look great, I do have one question for ya, sense the new LED bulbs are now available, and easy to change out with the old stuff, I use them most of the time.

You re-engineer with the full mini string, with all the rework why.  I know the new LED bulbs are a might expensive, but they do work great.

PCRR/DAve

The LED replacement bulbs suffer from the same issue as the stock bulbs, that being light hotspots in most installations.  Also, the replacement bulbs don't cure the flickering, another thing that I detest.

 

 

Originally Posted by ogaugeguy:

John, am wondering which might be more prototypical for the kerosene lighting used in wood-sided passenger cars of the 1880's - 1920's - amber or yellow? Also how does dimming those yellow LEDs affect the hue they cast? Are both cars you're showing at full brightness, half, what setting?

As I previously noted, looking forward to seeing what color LED strips MTH uses in their elegant soon to be released reissued Premiere 64' wood-sided passenger cars? 

 

BTW, John,in your cars, do you separate each group of three LEDs with a  space between them much as the overhead light fixtures were spaced in those period passenger cars or do you run a continuous LED strip from one end of the car to its opposite end?

It's hard to say what would be better, the amber or yellow.  I suspect either would look better than the white.  I don't separate the LED's, I run a continuous strip.  There's nothing to say you couldn't separate them into groups, it would just take more effort.  You just need to cut them at the 3-LED boundary and extend the connection with wires to the next LED group.

I might add John has replaced all my passenger cars (streamline and heavyweight). Not sure if it's is the up to date version, but it is still better than the old bulbs. You can see the better distribution of light in the coaches. Good work John, enjoy York. Can't wait to have my new layout up and running to enjoy them. As of now all is packed away since March.      Regards, Fred in New Hope

                                                    

Last edited by luvtrains

Thanks Fred.   What you have is the Warm White, the yellow is something I just got around to trying.  I like the warm white for more modern stuff, but stuff like Heavyweights and Woodside passenger cars would probably look better with the yellow.  I also like my passenger car lighting turned down more than many, my picture with the warm white above is too bright.  I just did that because I'll be in the Orange Hall with those, and the lights would wash out the effects if it was much lower in intensity.

 

 

 

Hi John,

I installed your light kit in my Polar Express Heavyweight cars and they made a dramatic improvement with regard to hue of the light and NO MORE FLICKERING!!  The kits are a great product.

 

I have the GGD Hi-Level cars, they are GREAT but the lights are stunningly horrible! It is a sacrilege that Scott would install such a poor lighting strip.  The lights are huge and protrude into the cabin area, they illuminate an intense blue and only 2/3 of the car is light, which in this case may not be terrible given the quality of light.

 

I was planning on purchasing your original kit from Hennings.  Would you agree that strip (color) would be the best choice for the era of the Hi-Level cars?

 

thanks

kevin

 

Last edited by T4TT
Originally Posted by T4TT:

Hey John,

Do you sell the strips from the 20100 Passenger Car LED Lighting Kit separately?  Since the EL Cap cars already have LEDs, I think all I would need to buy would be your strips...is that right?

 

thanks!

do a search with this "5M 16FT 3528 SMD 300 leds Strip Flexible LED light 60 LED"

 

you should have plenty to choose from.

Kevin you'll have to look at the GGD LED strips in the El Cap cars. The components are built into the strip I think. So you will have to disect and solder anyway, if you want to just add new LED strips. Those components are also set up for the few larger LEDs on that strip, so who knows how dim or bright it will be with new strips.

If I was going to redo the LEDs in mine, I would just put in a control module from GRJ, so I had the adjustability along with full length LED strips. Just sayin man..... if you're gonna open those bad boys up and put better lighting in them... go all out.
Originally Posted by T4TT:

Hey John,

Do you sell the strips from the 20100 Passenger Car LED Lighting Kit separately?  Since the EL Cap cars already have LEDs, I think all I would need to buy would be your strips...is that right?

 

thanks!

If you're willing to do a little soldering, follow the above advice and just buy the 5 meter rolls, that will do ten to twelve cars.  When I do these, I use my lighting power module and cut myself a piece of LED strip.  A few solder connections and I'm done.  The MTH Premier cars take about ten minutes each to upgrade the lighting.  It takes me far longer to add the passengers.

Originally Posted by Laidoffsick:
Kevin you'll have to look at the GGD LED strips in the El Cap cars. The components are built into the strip I think. So you will have to disect and solder anyway, if you want to just add new LED strips. Those components are also set up for the few larger LEDs on that strip, so who knows how dim or bright it will be with new strips.

If I was going to redo the LEDs in mine, I would just put in a control module from GRJ, so I had the adjustability along with full length LED strips. Just sayin man..... if you're gonna open those bad boys up and put better lighting in them... go all out.

I agree with above advice. If you have the GGD board shown below, I don't think there's anything practical to salvage from it.  The on-board "electronics" on the GGD board do not provide flicker protection or constant (plus adjustable) brightness.  I've seen activity for the GGD board on the Buy-Sell forum which is another reason to leave them intact.

 

As suggested, I'd use the electronics (what GRJ is calling the lighting power module) from the Henning's Train LED lighting module kit.

 

ggd-led

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  • ggd-led

WRT yellow/amber vs. warm-white keep in mind what you're looking at; is it the reflection of the LEDs off the seats/walls/fixtures of a detailed interior...or the un-reflected (direct) color of the LEDs themselves such as, say, through frosted silouhette-style windows.

 

In Engineer-Joe's pic from this Electrical thread, note the yellow in the end-of-car vestibule compartments even though the car uses a warm-white LED strip.

 

DSC_1203

So it seems a detailed interior with dark wooden benches/seats and drab or dark period clothing on passenger figures could be a factor in choosing LED color.  So this could be a your-mileage-may-vary situation.  In any event, credit goes to GRJ for undertaking this experiment!

 

Also, I noticed that you too can try this at home for not much money!  Less than $1 on eBay free shipping (351536107391) gets you a 1 meter strip of yellow LEDs - suitable for 2 or 3 cars.

 

 

yellow 1m strip 77 cents

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  • yellow 1m strip 77 cents

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