I just got a new ATSF caboose and would like to have interior and exterior led's. Anyone know how I can get power to run the leds? Thanks!

Well, apart from John river6109 having the audacity to post images of what appears to be an "Atlas China" product (what is the world coming to?) .....

Marklin do make a good variety of lighting kits, particularly for interior lighting, but we would need to know the item number of your particular Caboose to know if there is either one for that, or whether someone may be able to suggest a kit for a different item which could be adapted without too much trouble. Most of the kits are generally just the normal incandescent bulb and possibly a light diffuser but there is also a more universal interior lighting kit with LED's # 73400 which was discussed here at some length a few years back ...

https://www.marklin-user...spx?g=posts&m=192125

As for exterior led's, the quick and dirty way is to drill a couple of holes and fit led's into them - basically that's what Marklin did with the passenger coach rear lighting on a few models except they used plastic diffusers to bring the light to the hole and painted red on the very end. Simple but effective. If you want the side-mounted style of rear lighting you might look at cannibalising a box car which already has them, or look at another solution.

If you add a pickup shoe to the wagon, you'll introduce a small amount of extra drag, as well as considerations if you use any form of centre-rail detection for feedback. The alternative is current-conducting couplers.

Another method yet again is to simply make the whole thing self-contained and powered by a 9v battery (or smaller) which you just replace as and when required. You'll need a way to turn it on and off (or simply disconnect the battery), but you won't have to worry about any drag, flicker, tricky wiring etc.

Often with these things the easiest method is look for another item which already has the feature you want, and then see how it's done and if you can adapt it using orderable parts.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

Regards

Well, here's the latest: I bought copper foil and created a pickup which I currently have glued to the bottom of the truck and a wire goes to the interior. However, now I need another wire for the other side of the circuit. Any suggestions on how to connect it so that the lights will work?

Assuming that your caboose is by Maerklin, one possibility would be to look at the recent Set 00767 which contains 12 cars with rear lights. One of the items in the set is a DB Eaos bogie hopper. It may be possible to obtain the slider and mounting, which might fit on the caboose bogie as well.

You could also consider using the "Easy-Peasy" lighting system from Rapido trains, which is battery powered and is controlled by a magnetic wand.
You could build a battery compartment into a box car (maybe 4AA, 2 C-Cells or a 9V) and wire it to the caboose behind. You can even get rechargeable NiMH batteries from Duracell or Eveready these days

I think all of the Maerklin USA cars all have the same bogies, so they would all use the same design for a slider.

You could run a single cable from the locomotive or B unit the length of the train and control the lights from there. Viessman has a two pole current conducting coupler or you could use Maerklin's current conducting close coupler between cars.

I hope that this info is of use to you

Regards

Mike C

Do you know if your caboose is one of the tin-plate style (such as Marklin #4777)? If so, I believe you remove the ladders and the roof will "slide" off.

-Brandon

Well, you were right! I was able to take off the roof! Now I need to drill holes for marker lights and at the base to install the wires for the wipers. Much appreciate the help!

Thanks Brandon! I have drilled the holes for the marker lights (2) and have installed them. I also drilled (with GREAT difficulty) the base of this all-metal caboose to pass the wires to the wiper and trucks and now waiting for the parts to install. Then I can put it back together and hopefully all will be done! The marker lights and overhead LEDs look awesome! I am thinking I will now install the same in the green caboose that was damaged from many falls onto tile floor. It is kindof back together and I would like to have it fitted the same as the ATSF caboose!
Thanks for getting me started! I will send a photo when it's done! :-)