Large Scale Central

Lighting up James the Red Engine

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

A Christmas delivery of James the Red Engine is scheduled for my son. I’m in the process of converting it to RC/Battery so it can run outside. I’ve seen a James that has both the headlight on the side and his eyes lighting up. Does anyone have a suggestion as to where I can locate instructions and materials for doing this? Its not important for me to have this done before Christmas…just thought it would be fun for the near future.

Thanks a bunch!
Richard

#2

I always watch eBay for light combo’s, maybe you can find something there with 9v power. I found red bulbs for putting on the rear of a caboose and led strips for inside.

#3

I’ve been eying our Thomas as he runs under the tree for a light job. He’s going under the knife for Batt/RC after the tree comes down, though I’ve not convinced myself he needs running lights…yet

#4

I just converted a James to battery R/C.

I drilled out the front lamp and inserted an LED wired to the lighting output on my ESC in the tender.

I did not notice that the eyes were lit as well.

#5

I just converted a James to battery R/C.

I drilled out the front lamp and inserted an LED wired to the lighting output on my ESC in the tender.

I did not notice that the eyes were lit as well.

#6

Thanks for the suggestion Tony…as a matter of fact the RC insides are yours…will any LED work in this case or did you order something special from somewhere? Also…if I wanted to get the eyes lit up would I just bundle the wires and connect to the same ESC spot? And how does the light stay in place…hot glue or silicone adhesive??

Thanks,

Richard

#7

Personally I would shy away from hot melt glue. The lower temperature hot melt glue might work, but I killed some white LEDs by hot melt gluing them into my RS3. The heat of the high temperature glue was enough to kill them

#8

Hello Richard.

I used a warm white bright LED with a 470 ohm resistor in series. It is very bright and illuminates the whole of the headlight. Don’t like it actually. Assuming you can actually remove the headlight from the front of the loco I would do so after drilling access holes through from the underneath. Then dismantle it and paint the inside with a couple of coats of black. Drill the LED hole from the inside, shorten the LED legs and solder the connection wires to the back of the LED, paint the rear part of the led black and glue in place with a silicone adhesive.
I have never been able to get the Thomas headlights out. Percy and James were easy to remove.

If you cannot get the headlight off you will have to drill out the silver “lens” from the front. That means (very carefully) removing the flange from the rear of the LED so you can get it in. I would do this after adding wiring to the LED so you know which is the Anode and which is the Cathode.

I was in a rush to get these last loks converted so did not take pics. I will doing an Emily soon and will show a step by step pic series.

Sorry, I have no idea how to light the eyes.