LIONS do not have access to a lot of plastic, fine metal, or even fine wood for that matter. Big furry paws (with claws) [and digital neuropathy] mittigate against suc finess, but said LION does use lumps of coarse wood in the model building of him.
As you may know, the LION has been trying to keep the lights on when the trains stop. Easy for you DCC folks, but this is a DC layout, and so to stop a train it enters a block with now power and it stops until some majycal timer and relay enervates the circuit permitting the train to proceed.
Now this is what the LION is now trying in an effort to overhaul the trains of him to the specifications of him.
This is the frame of a subway car with a battery installed. Little blocks of wood hold the battery in place. I can open the car, slip the battery out and slip a recharged battery in its place. The contacts are made from some printers copper spacers. You cannot get these, but any lump of metal will do.
Here is the same car. Now the lighting bus has been added. I kept the space above the battery clear to ease the replacement of the battery. There are also two nails in that left block that are terminals for the track power. You can see that four conductors pass through a hole in the frame to create the "train line" There are two wires for the motor circuit, yielding 48 wheel pick up, and two lighting wires for the lighting system.
The power to the lights is controlled by an on/off switch, or as in this case by a jumper replacing the front coupler. I shall get rid of this jumper and replace it with a push-on/push-off switch inside of the car, accessed by a 1/16th" dowel through a small hole in the roof of the car. (What the heck, old NYCT cars have lots of holes in them!)
Here is a trailer car. There is a 6 point printers slug under that piece of plywood to add weight. (You cannot get that stuff anymore either). The negative conductor is colosest to us, the hot conductor is the further one and has the resistors between it and the LED. The LEDs are clearly soldered in place. The two cut nails in the middle are for the track power. Each side of each truck is connected to the appropriate post, and the track bus from cars on either end are so connected as well.
Here is the motor car. I removed the supplied circuit board and glued (silicone caulk) to 1/16th" welding rods to the top of the motor housing for the lighting circuit. The trucks connect to the motor under this housing. Adjoining cars are connected to the traction bus at the truck solder joint. I removed the original truck wires since they were shorter than what I required, and because the mechanical connection was quite unrelieable.
Here is the same carwith the lighting installed, and with the cabling from the previous car shown and connected. The LION likes wire from old computer mice for this wiring application as they are very very flexible.
One mor car to attach and this six car set will be ready to put on the tracks.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Neat trick for DC constant lighting, without spending big $$$ on it Lion.
Nice Job!
(And, still like the tip on using old mice wires... Or would it be tails? )
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Broadway Lion - Once again I'm in awe of your ingenuity in using basically scrap items to accomplish what you want or need. My grandfather was like that. Never threw away a screw, spring, nail, etc. He must have had 200 hundred or more cigar boxes full of stuff like that in his basement. Now that I think about it, I don't know where he got the cigar boxes either, because he didn't smoke. I think I probably throw away too much stuff that could serve other purposes.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA