I told a friend I’d convert his three Chas Ro passenger cars to battery power. That meant replacing the power for 20 very small incandescent bulbs (E-5 in the trade). I decided that replacing the lights with LEDs would be a good idea, and even better if I could find screw in LEDs. A search of the web turned up exactly what I needed: E-5 LEDs, operating from 6 to 12 volts.

So I ordered them, and while waiting for them, I removed the track pick ups, installed cables between each car, and painted the inside roofs white to reflect some of the light. I also added a single light from an expendable car into the baggage room.

When the LEDs arrived (in about ten days), I just screwed them into the sockets, plugged the cars together, and noticed that about half the LEDs didn’t light up. After exchanging a few, and finding out that they DID work, I reversed the power, and the on LEDs went off, and vice versa! So, I took the bottoms of the cars off (again), and reversed the wiring on about one third of the sockets!

Works like a charm. The LEDs should run for a long time with a new 9V battery. While testing everything I used one that had only about 6V.

No pix, because it really wasn’t much of a project.

20 leds running at perhaps 10 ma gives 200ma for the 9 volt battery, only several hours of operation for alkaline battery. Energizer spec was down to 4.8 volts in 2 hours at 200ma.

Installing a rechargable 9 volt may be wise. more amp hours and cheaper in the long run.

I’m thinking of putting 2 9V batteries in parallel to give us longer battery life. Everything is working fine, except for the obs marker lights. Very interesting technology, but neither LED seemed to work. Got to look at one that works to figure it out. Hope it’s something as simple as I am, 'cuz this is a puzzler.

Dick, how did you run the cables between the cars. I’ve done the same thing with some older Aristo cars, but I’m not really satisfied with the result. Another opinion or way of doing it would be appreciated.

Yea, I would like some ideas. I bought some small bullet connectors, but they are still rather large for 1:29th scale.

Specifically, I’m looking at the cable to car interface. I’m loath to disassemble the cars, but otherwise, the only solution I see is to run the cables through the trucks, not necessarily a good idea.

Steve, something that resembled HEP cables would work, but the bullet connectors I bought are a bit long for HEP connectors in 1:29 scale. And whatever system I work out has to be idiot proof as to polarity. That is why I am also interested in how Dick did/does it.

SO, spill the beans Dick, how did you electrically connect the cars?

I’ve used Miniatronics mini two conductor cables with a male and female connection and 12 inch leads (two sets in a pack) on all of my LED conversions both battery and track power. I wire them into the power system in the car. On this project, I mounted the male end in a brass tube cemented to the bottom of the car, and let the female end be long enough to extend from the second car to the outlet. You could reverse them, and they would look like a house outlet: Female on the wall, male on the cord.

Since these cars have printed circuit boards, I connect the wires to the boards near where the track pick ups were connected.

The plug and socket set has a white dot on one side. Match the dots, and you can’t wire them backwards. If you are using LEDs, you might have to rewire the sockets, as polarity didn’t matter with DC incandescents. (Don’t ask me how I know this!)