Kato RhB lighting kits

[jonhall]

 

 

I've acquired a couple of sets of coaches secondhand recently, and was pondering what was 'standard' vs add-ons.

 

The 4 Bernina coaches in a 'book' style box has the pictured lighting 'tubes' loose in the box - would these usually have been supplied in this set?

 

I've also had for some time had the Ew1's and these seem to have been part fitted with a lighting set, but not all coaches have light tubes - at least one only had the bulb insert, so I've swapped it into one of the Bernina coaches, and its a bit flickery.

 

Any tips for improving the connections? I suspect its the connection between the pickups and the light board, and I was wondering if simply a loop of heatshrink might improve the contact?

 

The other thing with the Ew1's are that the light bars don't really transfer the light down the coach, with the bulb end being much brighter - any top tips for improving that - I wondered about painting some of the light bar silver to improve the 'bounce' ?

 

Thanks

 

Jon

 

 

 

 

[MrTea]

Hi Jon,

 

Those plastic pieces look a bit similar to the clear plastic diffuser that comes supplied with the Gourmino restaurant car:

 

 

On this model you break off the small piece at the bottom and fit the diffuser to send the light down the roof of the coach. Otherwise it’s lit by the table lamps only as supplied. 
 

I think the Kato light bars are slightly different. I’ll see if I can dig out a photo for you. 
 

Ian

[MrTea]

I found these photos of the Kato lighting kit I’ve added to some of my EW1s. 
 

 

 

 

It looks like your Bernina coaches have a slightly different light bar to the ones that came in this pack? These have cuts  where you snap them to the desired length and a silver strip down the middle. 
 

From what I can remember the LED unit goes at one end above where the pick up strip is visible?

 

I’ve had a mixed experience with mine, the light level is ok but they are sensitive to dirty track and often flicker as they get pulled along which somewhat spoils the effect. I’d wondered whether a capacitor would help if it could be wired in? That seems to be used to smooth out gaps in current on some of the other coaches with light I have in 00. Interestingly the built in lights in the Gourmino coach don’t seem to flicker so there must be something different about the way that’s constructed. 

[Jim Easterbrook]

A few more pictures...

 

Light guide snapped in the correct place.

Installing lighting in Kato RhB EW-I coaches by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

 

Installed.

Installing lighting in Kato RhB EW-I coaches by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

 

Excessive light shining through coach end doors.

Installing lighting in Kato RhB EW-I coaches by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

 

Light spill reduced...

Installing lighting in Kato RhB EW-I coaches by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

 

...by taping over the end of the light guide.

Installing lighting in Kato RhB EW-I coaches by Jim Easterbrook, on Flickr

 

(I tried aluminium tape instead of black insulating tape to see if it would reflect a bit of light and make the dim end of the coach brighter. It didn't have any noticeable effect.)

[Gook the Goblin]

Didn't have the bottle to pull my coaches apart. Thanks for the guide Ian and Jim, feeling a bit more confident to have a go  now.