Following my previous posts on interior lighting, I'm going to start this long endeavor by equipping the RIO Nord-Pas-de-Calais passenger cars from Lima with the ESU led strips.
Background information
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| http://ffmf.nord.online.fr/cfreels/BB16651/BB166651.htm |
I'm providing here some links related to the real RIO cars:
- Historic of the RIO cars: link
- Pictures: link
- Historic of a BB 16500 engine - typical for RIO cars: link
Links for the miniatures
I'm adding a new link to a blog about various options for interior lighting: here and here. There's also a video that shows what I'm trying to achieve:
ESU LED strips
I'm using the following items:
- ESU 50709 - Digital LED lighting strip "yellow"
- ESU 50707 - Power wheel pickup for LED lighting strip
- ESU 50710 - PowerPack for LED lighting strip.
The led strip fits perfectly into the RIO car, so there is no need to cut any section. There's a toilet section in the car which will nicely hide the PowerPack; luckily the connectors on the LED strip are almost exactly above the toilet compartment. The main challenge is how to install the power wheel pickup ....
Power wheel pickup
Looking at the bogie, it seems that using ESU 50707 is the best option. I can put two of those back-to-back and fit them between the two axles. That bogie will pick up power from all 4 wheels.
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I then need to carve the thickness of the ESU piece from the bogie:
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I then need to make a path for the wires to go back into the car. I made a hole in the bogie and let the wires on each side of the coupler. I also opened the floor inside the car:
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And from there, I just need to put the two wires through all the openings and solder them to the ESU power wheel pickups:
And done!
And the usual video - with the Neon effect!