Installing LED lights in a Walthers Mainline Series Passenger Cars.

[ACL1504]

WOW Tom excellent modeling as always but I think the answer is to purchase lighted cars. Life is too short.

Curt,

Thank you and yes, life is to short.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom,
Thanks for the tutorial!
There are a lot of unlighted Walthers heavyweights in my inventory.. Inspired by your successes, I went to their website last night: they don't recognize the numbers on their own cars. Kinda' inhibits looking for lighting kits for the fleet.
Two observations:
Southern always did great maintenance on their fleet.
Perhaps if other roads had done the maintenance you do and the Southern did, we'd still have great passenger service all over the country.

Chip,

Thank you and I have other Walthers passenger cars as well.

NOTE:  Refer to my last post, later this morning or afternoon to get a full review of this thread and other Walthers passenger cars.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Great work Tom.....looks like these cars are a bargain, but the cost of the light kit and the time to install it correctly, make it less attractive than first thought.....and those darn grab irons still have to be installed. 

Greg,

Thank you and yes, they are a bargain. However, at what cost. Time is valuable and this isn't what I had in mind to do over the holidays.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Oh, I forgot.....Bill ordered a Southern baggage car - on sale - for the consist. Have fun. 

OMG - Heaven help me!

[ACL1504]

This morning the Judge reminded me that although the thread was good, I forgot the trucks. And, he is correct in that it is important for me to cover this one last area.

On the Walthers Parts List they have listed #64 Drawbar Bushing (2).  In the instructions, these parts are never mentioned or shown.

In the following photo you can see the small round drawbar bushing.



It fits into the larger hole on the Angled Drawbar as shown below.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

The below photo shows you how your assembly should look with the drawbar screw and drawbar cover in place.



Also note the two thin metal wipers on each side of the underframe.  These wipers/contacts are two electrical pickups from the new trucks. The screws on top are the contact points.



Continued -

[ACL1504]

Final assembly of the trucks -




Walthers had a great idea when offering these economy passenger cars. Realizing their costs of the regular passenger cars were close to $100.00, this was their way of offering cars at a significant reduced price.

Don't confuse this lighting car kit with the Walthers Light Bar kit shown below. This lighting kit is used with the regular Walthers passenger cars - the heavyweights, Budd and pullman standard cars.



The Walthers Interior LED Lighting kit is #920-1060 - above.

The Walthers Mainline series passenger cars are a great bargain if you only want to run them without lights. As this threads shows if you want to add lights you'll need the LED lighting kit for the Mainline Series. This series will only fit in the Walthers economy mainline series. And as Greg mentioned, you'll still need to purchase the Walthers Passenger Exterior Detailing kit #910-200 which includes the handrails. Sold separately of course.

So, all I can say is  Caveat Emptor, meaning buyer beware.

[ReadingBob]

Great thread Tom.     After reading all that I think I'll stick to hauling coal.   

[ACL1504]

Great thread Tom.     After reading all that I think I'll stick to hauling coal.   

Bob,

Thank you. Stick to coal or buy the big ticket cars.


Tom  

[GPdemayo]

Great thread Tom.     After reading all that I think I'll stick to hauling coal.   

Bob,

Thank you. Stick to coal or buy the big ticket cars.


Tom

Only wholesale.....

[jbvb]

I've bought a few Walthers 41-NP-11 trucks as they're correct for B&M/MEC lightweight coaches, combines and diner/bar/lounges.  But their 5 mm kingpin hole is tiresome to adapt to most non-Walthers cars.