K-Line Headlight

[Roger Bielen]

I need to replace the headlight on one of my K-Line E8's, does anyone know what the voltage is?  I tried a 12V grain of wheat and either something came loose in reassembly or its a lower voltage.  Any help is appreciated since asking K-Line is out of the question.

[ben10ben]

I would guess that it's an 18 volt grain of wheat. Both of my K-line engines seem pretty normal at 18 volts, and not blindingly bright as one would expect a 12 volt to be.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Roger, I have a set of older Lionel Madison cars that had 12v bulbs.  When I began running the cars with TMCC where the voltage is 15-18v, they burnt out in short order.   I'm not sure you will notice the difference between the brightness of a 12 v vs an 18v bulb. 

Also, there was an article in CTT about using LEDs for lighting.  I have not given it a try, but somebody on the forum has tried it. 

LEDs can be found at:  http://www.scottsodds-n-ends.com/

[Roger Bielen]

The engine is TMCC, I'm not sure if the circuitry reduces the voltage to 1-1/2 V, 12V or puts through the full 18V.  Worse comes to worse I'll have to get a couple of lengths of track set on the workbench and try to test it with the body off.

Thanks guys

[Roger Bielen]

Found my problem.  In addition to the broken wire at the bulb I found a pinch/break in the wiring further back, underneath the engineer's platform.  Now the problem is finding an 18V, T-1 (3mm) bulb with insulated leads.  The best I could find are 14V.  Guess I'll check the ads in CTT, Scott's, etc.

Isn't this hobby fun?

[lionelsoni]

If the lamp is getting 18 volts AC, you could put a diode (1N4001, for example) in series and drop that to about 12 volts RMS.

Three millimeters is a standard LED diameter; and you can get white LEDs that mimic the color of incandescents.  However your lamp may be mounted vertically.  I was able to make the switch from vertical incandescent to horizontal LED on a Rail King; but it was not a trivial modification.