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Adding a working tail lamp to a Lima BR Mk1 BSK Coach (Part 2)


Art Dent
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Continuing from Part 1 (link here)

 

I used the pre-wired DCC Concepts lamps (such as DML-LLBRD - £20 for 6)

 

Going back to the coach body, the hole for the wires was made by holding a pin in a pair of pliers and heating it up in a flame.  The hot pin

makes a nice neat hole which is just the right size for the thin enamelled wire to pass through.

 

It seems there was no 'standard' placement of the tail lamp - hence the two lamp brackets.  Sometimes they were on the platform side, othertimes

not and it was placed nearest the Six Foot.  I guess they didn't have a lamp on both sides to save on paraffin - even at the expense of safety.  With

two lamps, if one went out you'd still have the other lamp hpwever with one lamp ...

 

50363038988_fedaebee69_c.jpg

 

The enamelled wires from the lamp were fed through the hole and the lamp super-glued into place.

 

This is tricky as neither the coach body nor the lamp seem to like superglue but epoxy was deemed to be too messy as it doesn't

'grab' instantly ...

 

50363038953_d44b4c0d0b_c.jpg

 

A 30k-ohm resistor was then soldered onto one of the feed wires (so that I didn't forget later) and glued into place inside the coach body
using some more epoxy ...

 

50363038848_1e1b6c3f18_c.jpg

 

A slot was cut in the floor of the coach using a 1/4-inch twist drill and a small half-round needle file ...

 

50363733046_e0257a55df_c.jpg

 

Before going any further - a quick check that everything was working. A continuity-check quickly established that pick-up from the track
was virtually non-existent. The problem - blackened wheels. A quick go with some 600-grade wet & dry paper sorted that out. Notice the
difference between the wheels on the left (the pickup wheels) and those on the right. Don't forget to clean the oxide layer off the wheels
and flanges where they contact the track ...

 

50363038718_0b26e26873_c.jpg

 

A picture showing the wiper contacts in relation to the rear of the wheel.  Notice that one wheel has been cleaned whilst the other

is still blackened  ...

 

50363038493_6171379543_c.jpg

 

The lamp wiring was also checked and found to be fine ...

 

50363898887_5b8624b08c_c.jpg

 

Whilst it doesn't look pretty, I had decided (since this was essentially a 'test' project) to make everything re-wireable.  Thus if anything didn't

work as expected or later on something broke, it would be easy to fix.

 

The two red wires are the feed wires to the tail lamp as seen in the previous picture and will untimately go into a 'chocolate block' connecto.

 

The resistor and large diameter feed wires are epoxied in place ...

 

50363898872_d730341160_c.jpg

 

The two 'chocolate block' connectors allow for the complete removal of the interior moulding ...

 

50363898827_885653f260_c.jpg

 

I also took the opportunity to fit some passengers from Bachmann Scenecraft (article number 36-408). If anyone can suggest some further
figures (OO scale not HO) and where to get them from I would appreciate it as the Bachmann figures are rather expensive.

I could have also painted the seats and put some travel posters on the walls above the seas, but I may do that at a later stage as I have to take
the coach apart again to fit the push-button on/off switch to the bulkhead at the end of the coach (on the left of the previous picture).

 

50363038638_dcf2644419_c.jpg

 

On later 'conversions', I have added colured seat covers (I'd found a sheet of interiors from the old Kitmaster range) and partition detailing.

 

Here's the sheet I found ...

 

50363225823_9c50a7be31_b.jpg

 

A view of the side of the coach where the lamp is fitted ...

 

50363898777_9f3710aaa2_c.jpg

 

... and a close up showing the wires passing between bogie and coach.  The wires are barely visible.

 

50363898632_8174001484_c.jpg

 

Finally, the completed coach with working tail lamp fitted to a short train on my test track (my son's old 6ft x 4ft layout) ...

 

50363038463_07f7931612_c.jpg

 

I thought I'd got a picture of the inside with the push-button on-off toggle switch (located in the vestibule) for this vehicle - but I haven't, so here is a

second Lima BSK which has had the seats painted instead of the Kitmaster treatment.

 

50363280038_d08999b752_k.jpg

 

and

 

50363280098_093d476417_k.jpg

 

The inside of the Luggage Compartment has been painted with matt black paint ...

 

50363287313_871647962a_k.jpg

 

The end of the push-button switch can be seen in this shot (it disappears with the roof on) ...

 

50363287248_fa28352622_k.jpg

 

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my efforts. All I need to do now is apply some weathering to finish it off and maybe apply the printed Moquette from

the Kitmaster sheet and a few passengers..

 

A later coach takes the track feed from the chocolate block inside the Luggage Compartment and feeds it to a stay-alive (home-fabricated - link here) and a LED lighting bar.

 

The switch still controls the tail lamp so it can be switched off if this coach is next to the locomotive.

Take care,

Art

 

Edited by Art Dent
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Obviously your existing arrangement will only work with the track voltage one way round. If you want it to work either way round, and almost essential if you are thinking about stay-alive electrolytic capacitors, is to wire a small bridge rectifier, or four diodes in a bridge, after the pickups.

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28 minutes ago, cliff park said:

Obviously your existing arrangement will only work with the track voltage one way round. If you want it to work either way round, and almost essential if you are thinking about stay-alive electrolytic capacitors, is to wire a small bridge rectifier, or four diodes in a bridge, after the pickups.

 

Isn't that an advantage?  If you wire it up the right way round then the tail light will automatically be out when at the front of a train, and illuminated at the rear.  The push button would only be needed if the coach is not at either end of the train.

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  • 1 month later...
On 21/09/2020 at 16:32, Titan said:

 

Isn't that an advantage?  If you wire it up the right way round then the tail light will automatically be out when at the front of a train, and illuminated at the rear.  The push button would only be needed if the coach is not at either end of the train.

I would use a bridge rectifier (£1?) or four diodes (£0.08) for coach lighting but I use a  single diode in series for the tail light. I put an electrolytic capacitor, 16 or 24 volt from memory in parallel to the LED to minimise flicker as mine only pick up from 2 wheels on each bogie.   The on off switch is really elegant, mine is underneath on my battery powered LED BG tail light my LED lit suburban set and brake vans have no on of switches at all

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