Lighting kit for a Walthers Amfleet Lounge Car
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Motley
Active Member
Oh boy... I installed the lighting kits for 8 of my Walthers Amtrak Superliners. And it was a pain in the arse to install. The shell was difficult to remove, and once I finally got that off, when I installed the light, the tabs on the lighting kit are cheaply made, and when I installed the shell back on, the light strip grounded out on the roof of the metal shell, and fried the lights. Not once, but twice it happened before I got smart and put a peice of black tape under the roof.
Now I also have the Walthers Streamliners and those lighting kits are much, much better and a lot easier to not only remove the roof shell, but the lights have a better tab design than the Superliner light kits.
I'm not sure if your Amfleet are similar to the Superliners, but if they are, all I can say is good luck, and remember to put a piece of electrical tape under the roof!
Now I also have the Walthers Streamliners and those lighting kits are much, much better and a lot easier to not only remove the roof shell, but the lights have a better tab design than the Superliner light kits.
I'm not sure if your Amfleet are similar to the Superliners, but if they are, all I can say is good luck, and remember to put a piece of electrical tape under the roof!
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streamlinedtrains
New Member
Superliners...GAHHHH
Agreed, the Walthers kits are extremely temperamental. I have six cars, and only managed to get 2 of them working. Of the remaining 4, 2 of them burned out (as you say, I think the metal coating on the inside of the roof was to blame - short circuit of death!) and the other two were so intermittent that I gave up.
I'm going to try again, this time with a small amount of adhesive putty (blutack) to hold them in place, which is a less permanent solution than soldering. I do want to get the interiors out for painting at some point, so I want to keep the kits removable.
The ones for the single-level cars are MUCH better - I like them a lot actually. They have incandescent bulbs which look very natural, and are way easier to install.
Wish me luck! (And definitely use electrical tape as Motley suggests!)
Michael
Agreed, the Walthers kits are extremely temperamental. I have six cars, and only managed to get 2 of them working. Of the remaining 4, 2 of them burned out (as you say, I think the metal coating on the inside of the roof was to blame - short circuit of death!) and the other two were so intermittent that I gave up.
I'm going to try again, this time with a small amount of adhesive putty (blutack) to hold them in place, which is a less permanent solution than soldering. I do want to get the interiors out for painting at some point, so I want to keep the kits removable.
The ones for the single-level cars are MUCH better - I like them a lot actually. They have incandescent bulbs which look very natural, and are way easier to install.
Wish me luck! (And definitely use electrical tape as Motley suggests!)
Michael
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