Question about lighting an MTH dummy engine

[tgovebaker]

Hi everyone,

I have an unpowered MTH SD-60 that I would like to wire for interior lighting and headlights. I have no idea how to go about this, and haven't found much by digging around on the web. Any suggestions?

(P.S. I bought the MTH product over a year ago, before the judgment. Don't hate me... [;)])

Best,

Tom Baker

[ChiefEagles]

Why hate you??????????? Find some MTH pickups to go on the dummy trucks or trucks with pickups. Not sure how you can add them to a MTH. On the postwar Lionels, I added the pickups [bought from parts], added a couple of bulb holders, wired one wire from each bulb holder to the pickup wires and the other wires from bulb holders to a screw to metal frame. Install bulbs.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Why couldn't he run a jumper from the dummy to the powered unit using those little tiny male/female plugs sold by Radio Shack? [?][?][?][?] They would look like the MU cables between the engines.

[ChiefEagles]

Would work too. Good idea.

[lionelsoni]

The tiniest connector that I use is just a male and female pair of connector pins. After soldering them to the (black, stranded) wires, I cover all but the business end of the male pin with black shrink tubing.

When you are adding a light where no light has gone before, it's a good opportunity to make it flickerless. Put a small bridge rectifier (like the Radio Shack 1.4 ampere one) between the ac and the lamp socket and wire a few thousand microfarads of capacitance across the lamp.