Passenger car lighting flicker

Dumbing down the advice here a bit, . . . a few months ago someone posted a review of No-Ox-ID , a special electrical contact grease, and said that after putting an even coat of it on all of the center rails, almost all of the light flickering in his car lights stopped.

I bought some online, and tried it.  It practically eliminated all flickering, except when a car passes over a turnout, or over a crossroad, where the gaps are big.  It was a great solution for me.  And, in a weird way, it looks kinda realistic to have the lights flicker when the cars clatter over the turnouts and crossroads

You might want to try that.

Mannyrock

@dmestan posted:

@gunrunnerjohn, from the Henning's site it looks like your full lighting kit operates at 12-19V, while the regulator only operates at 5-19.  So if running conventional the full kit isn't the right choice, correct?

The full kit has 12V LED strips, so you're right, the full kit is really designed around command.  The only reason the full kit exists is there are a surprising number of people that don't want to solder, and they'll pay a premium to avoid it.  The full kit has everything soldered for you, but obviously that costs more.  If you just buy the regulator board, you can use it with 5V strips for conventional running, it's a perfect match.

Mark reported less flickering with Mobil One motor oil on the pickup rollers and Manny said NO OX ID reduced flickering with better center rail conduction with the pickup rollers.

So maybe NO OX ID could be used to lubricate the pickup rollers also.  Since NO OX ID is a conducting grease it has more conduction improving things going for it:   Conduction and being a Grease, which should stay on the roller pins better than an oil and improve conduction too.

As for post war passenger car incandescent bulbs, some with two per car creating a larger power draw from the transformer.  Mini Christmas tree lights (0.4 watt/bulb, single 12 volt or two 7 volt bulbs in series) can replace the original large wattage bulbs and greatly reduce power usage and give a more realistic passenger car lighted appearance.

Charlie

P.S.- When I put NO OX ID on the center rail, I didn't put it down a thin coat.   I put it down like a medium coat of vaseline.   

I was a worried that this grease might get in the wheels, rollers, or up in the motors, but this didn't happen.  It stayed put.

I think that motor oil of any kind would help for a while, but would tend to seep/drain down into the track bed.

Mannyrock