I would like some LEDs to replace the bayonet bulbs in older Lionel passenger cars. Scott's Odds n' Ends used to sell them but I guess his successor is out of business too. Anyone know of a source?
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Town and Country Hobbies would be a good try.
I would look into doing light strip conversions, The LED bulbs will flicker worse than the old bulbs.
I’ll second Town and Country.
RoyBoy ... anything on E-B with screw bases?
Note that the guys are recommending Town and Country Hobbies...can be difficult to find the website if only looking for T&C.
http://stores.towncountryhobbies.com/leds/
Before jumping in, I'd solicit input from guys who have actually used the plug-and-play LED replacement...and make sure it will meet your expectations. As pointed out earlier you may see flicker behavior different than the original filament bulbs - LEDs turn off instantly when power is lost, whereas the bulb filaments "slowly" cool down while still emitting light. I 100% get the simplicity of plug-and-play replacement, but from what I've seen here on OGR the majority of guys making the conversion to LED bite the bullet and take the extra step to install LED strip lights and corresponding electronics to provide smoother, more-uniform flicker-free lighting and gaining the benefit of up to 10x power reduction.
RoyBoy posted:
Both of these items have instructions saying to "flip it" if it doesn't light up.
Can someone explain what this means? It suggests to me that it is a DC device where polarity matters. If I am correct then the LED will be rapidly pulsing on and off when hooked to O-gauge AC track voltage. This high-speed flickering can be annoying to view depending on your age and eyesight - your mileage may vary.
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Here’s the drop in LED’s for passenger cars offered by town and country hobbies. No big difference other than much lower amp draw. Led on left, original bulb on right. If you are looking for the cool bright,flicker free, plus even light distribution then go with the led strips offered by GRJ and others.
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As Rod shows, simply replacing the incandescent bulbs with LED equivalents does not improve the so-called hot-spot effect. OTOH, I can relate to the reluctance to cut/modify/splice into the wiring of a passenger car...perhaps it affects re-sale value?
I've shown this several times before (and every time I get laughed off the forum ) but if you want to mess around with LED strip lighting but don't want to cut into the factory-supplied wiring of your rolling stock, you can make a bayonet-to-wire adapter. Here's an adapter with 2-wires (center-track and outer-rail) made from a burnt-out bayonet bulb. So, if for whatever reason you want to go back to the factory-supplied bulbs you simply remove the adapter and plug in the original bulbs.
Let the laughing begin.
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Thanks guys. Town and Country's look just like Scott's with the reflector thing on top.
Stan, I'm laughing because it's so simple, nice idea!
The only problem is, I have absolutely no reluctance to hack the wires in my stuff, or anyone else's stuff if they're silly enough to send it to me!
I've gotten them here. Good quality too.
Most of the time they were kind enough to melt the wiring out of the item before it gets to me