Conventional constant- voltage lighting?

[Anonymous]

Is it possible you could bridge a capacitor between a headlite and the eunit lug? I thought the capacitor could hold the power, then with the breaks in current the light wouls still be on. Is this possible?

[lionelsoni]

Jerry, there are simple ways to keep lights from flickering by using capacitors, but that's not one. What kind of locomotive are we talking about? Is the shell of the lamp socket part of the frame (like a postwar F3) or mounted directly to the frame (like a postwar NW2), or is it free to be reconnected (like many modern locomotives)? Are you interested in having directional lighting also?

[Anonymous]

I have a 4-4-2 that I would nlike it to be done on. Its headlight is connrected in a series with the smoke unit.

[lionelsoni]

In series? Are you sure? I've never heard of that. Is there a wire that connects only to the smoke unit on one end (with no other wire connected to the same terminal on the smoke unit) and only to the headlight on the other end (with no other wire connecter to the same terminal on the headlight)? Or is one side of the smoke unit connected to one side of the headlight and the other side of the smoke unit connected to the other side of the headlight, which would be "parallel", not "series". Often one of the connections between the lamp and the smoke unit is made by grounding both of them to the frame.