Silvine HO Trolley Bus Bulbs


tombbbb

Member
Good Morning,
I'm hoping someone on this forum can help me. I have an old Silvine ? HO Trolley bus, which works great, and it needs new headlight bulbs and one interior bulb. They are very small, not threaded, soldered in, and I'm attaching photos with measurements. I hope someone can help me identify these, and even better, tell me how and where to get some of them. It's a great bus, and I'd like to complete it.
Thanks,
Tom
 

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I’m no help, I had to look up Silvine.
Just wondering if you couldn’t convert it to LED’s, unless of course you’re restoring to original that is.
I’d love to see it running!
 
I think Rico is correct, your going to find it hard to find those bulbs, unless someone has a stash somewhere of old new stock.
 
Thank You for the answers. That's about where I'm at right now. I was trying to keep it original-but I do have some leds I use to light up the interiors of some buildings,which I may try. My only concern is I'm not certain which are the correct brightness to use for headliights and the interiror of the bus. I'm attaching a photo I found online of the bus. It has a white plastic insert inside it, which the bulbs light up. The headlights fit into a fixture behind the front grill, and they are clear through the body.
Thanks again for your interest and help.
Tom
 

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Thank You for the answers. That's about where I'm at right now. I was trying to keep it original-but I do have some leds I use to light up the interiors of some buildings,which I may try. My only concern is I'm not certain which are the correct brightness to use for headliights and the interiror of the bus. I'm attaching a photo I found online of the bus. It has a white plastic insert inside it, which the bulbs light up. The headlights fit into a fixture behind the front grill, and they are clear through the body.
Thanks again for your interest and help.
Tom
You can use a warm white LED, if it's too bright simply add a resistor somewhere on the circuit to dim it.
The only other thing I can suggest is to try a headlight bulb from an old Athearn or Atlas loco, likely you would have to modify the bulb holder in some way, but other than that, sorry.
 
Was just about to say this...darn Smudge beat me too it ;) Highly recommend a "breadboard" where you can plug in resistors and LED to check lighting level and color... and that they work (don't ask, but I have had that happen...bad LED made in China...)...the breadboard also helps make sure you get polarity correct when soldering for simpletons like me. :) Good luck. Posted an image below in case anyone is not familiar with the terminology...I used to be a robotics engineer (before med school like 25 years ago) and used these all the time testing/designing circuits (pre-Fritzing...hehehe).

 
I’m no help, I had to look up Silvine.
Just wondering if you couldn’t convert it to LED’s, unless of course you’re restoring to original that is.
I’d love to see it running!
Rico,
Sorry, It's not running right now. Hopefully tomorrow or even later today. I'll post a video then.
 
Rico and Smudge,
I attached the video of my trolley running , as a zip file. Hopefully it will open at your computer If not, I'll keep trying-let me know. I could not get the video to go from google photos to this forum the way I did with the photos.
Hopefully you can open it, and hopefully you enjoy it. Please excuse the condition of my train table-I'm making a lot of changesi.
 

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  • silvine trolley for forum 1.31.2023.zip
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Rico and Smudge,
I attached the video of my trolley running , as a zip file. Hopefully it will open at your computer If not, I'll keep trying-let me know. I could not get the video to go from google photos to this forum the way I did with the photos.
Hopefully you can open it, and hopefully you enjoy it. Please excuse the condition of my train table-I'm making a lot of changesi.
Bugger that's fast. 🤣
 
That looks very much like my Eheim/Brawa trolley bus system on my vintage narrow gauge layout.
I seem to remember reading that the Silvine system was a copy of the german system and sold in the USA.
if so the bulbs for the German busses can be obtained from the German Ebay site in screw thread and "bullet" types.
They are 19 volts because the German busses run on 12v DC or 16v AC ( Normal DC or Marklin AC) they use AC motors so that they will not reverse which could damage the trolley arms and steering.

IMG_0977.JPG
 
Thank You for sharing your pictures, and all the useful information. You have a nice setup-I'm not there yet.
In addition to my Silvine trolley, I have some aristo craft trolleys. Due to their age and condition, they took some attention to get them going.
I will definitely pursue the German ebay, I also believe I found a website here in the US , with a large selectionof bulbs that may help. Or I may solder in some leds that I have.
 
S
Thank You for sharing your pictures, and all the useful information. You have a nice setup-I'm not there yet.
In addition to my Silvine trolley, I have some aristo craft trolleys. Due to their age and condition, they took some attention to get them going.
I will definitely pursue the German ebay, I also believe I found a website here in the US , with a large selectionof bulbs that may help. Or I may solder in some leds that I have.
weren't the original bulbs soldered ?
 
Eheim Trolley busses were imported and sold in the USA by Aristocraft and AHM and sold in their packaging.

The Eheim and Brawa busses that I have are fitted with screw type bulbs in holders so are not soldered, only the screw type is shown in the spares section of the manual !
Where the "bullet " type bulb comes in I am not sure but both types are listed on German Ebay sites.
 



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