I've been playing about with this for sometime, but never got round to finishing it off - the coach lighting that is. This is a carriage lighting kit from Layouts4U. Once installed, like the new Hornby 4-wheel coaches, you just wave a magnet over the roof and the lights come, do it again and they go off. The kit comes with instructions (very simple), a length of LED's (self-adhesive peel-off backing), a battery holder and battery, some wire and a latching reed switch. You just stick the LED strip to the roof of the carriage having soldered the wires to the reed switch and the battery holder. The reed switch can also be glued to the carriage roof. As this was a brake carriage, I put the battery holder - loose - in the luggage area and put it all back together. Wave a magnet over the roof and the lights come on do it again, and they go off. I have installed a magnet in the tunnel portal where the track exits the fiddle yard - and it works - as the coach leaves the fiddle yard the lights go on, and when it returns they go off.
The only slight draw back, is that you have to create a slot in the top of each compartment divider to allow the fitment of the LED strip - so having possibly spent a bit on a carriage you the have to start butchering it. This particular coach - a Bachmann Bulleid - came from WTD.
This was actually a very simple job, as the body came off of the carriage with no difficulty - if only they were all like that
. The kit cost £6 which is not expensive, but if you look on ebay battery holders and latching reed switches are all very cheap, and you could probably make your own for less than six pounds.
IMG_0844 by
Barry Clayton, on Flickr
Should look good with some passengers.
