I have been contemplating fitting lights into my London Underground S Stock train, and possible to some of the Hornby BIL and HAL units as well, later. I've just fitted lights into the first two of the S Stock cars.

I'm using the strips of surface-mount LEDs that can be purchased quite cheaply from eBay sellers, which are arranged in sets of three LEDs with a resistor included in each set to allow for direct wiring up to 12 Volts DC. I tested one group of three sets of three on DCC wired straight to the track and that worked fine, so proceeded to wire up the first two cars of my six-car S Stock. The Driving Motor cars are easier as they already have a PCB feeding from the bogie pickups, but Bachmann have been very kind to us in fitting pickups to all of the trailer coach bogies as well - wiring the lights involves more wire and soldering than the DM but is still relatively easy. I'll take photos of my wiring for the next entry, seeing as how I've reassembled the tow already done.

The lights are very bright, so I may look at ways to dim them a little (especially if I want to light the BILs and HALs!), but I'd say the experiment has been a success, so I have four more cars to wire up in the near future. I have posed an unlit car beside the two with lights for comparison.

Also related to lighting in coaches, I have been trying to figure out the best way of providing a centre coach for the Bachmann/Kernow green 2H unit to make it into a 3H. Replica Railways' non-gangwayed 64' coaches seemed like a good starting point, although the thorny question was raised about how to keep the through lighting facility for the head and tail lights, plus the interior lighting in the centre coach. My answer was to sacrifice a cheap Bachmann 4 CEP unit centre coach. The unit cost me $AUS50 plus postage (approx. £25 plus post) from far north Queensland a couple of years ago, so was an easy candidate. I can use the remaining 3 CEP for other projects.

I had to cut off the headstocks on the CEP TS chassis and adapted the Replica semi-open seating unit to screw on where the Corridor TS seats had been, The Replica SO body shell has prominent lugs inside at three places on each side. By filing them down to form simple ledges, the body shell sits very firmly on the CEP TS chassis at almost the right ride height - a teensy bit more filing to thin the ledges should see it right.

The Replica body shell needs the roof ridges filed down and the gutters thinned a little - both items need more work at this stage, but I am getting there (the plastic seems quite tough!).

I like the Replica shade of green but it is a little light and a little too blue for the shade Bachmann used, so I have already brushed a coat of clear varnish tinted with some dark brown and a little yellow. Again, more work is required, with perhaps a tint of dark grey or black for the next coat.

The lighting bar from the CEP coach will sit nicely in the roof but will need to be hard-wired to the PCB in the chassis. The interior will need painting, so when I pull it apart next time, I'll take some photos of the slight interior mods and the other areas I have mentioned.

This is not going to be a perfect match but I think it will pass muster once I have finished it.

I must say also that Gareth at Replica Railways was extremely helpful when I purchased the four non-gangwayed green mark 1 coaches - three to form a loco-hauled set and one for the 3H project. He put in the Pullman rubbing plates instead of buffers for the latter coach, and also emailed me some plans for the class 205 vehicles, as well as suggesting that maybe I didn't need the complete coach kit if I was using the Bachmann chassis - I said I had plans that also required the spare chassis so kept it simple.

Edited to add the missing photo.