# Kato Passenger Cars With Light Kits Not Lighting



## pmcgurin (Sep 7, 2010)

I had not used my N Scale trains in several years. I have several Kato passenger sets of railroads like Santa Fe, Pensylvania RR, BN and others with the bulb type and LED type of light kits I installed as long ago as perhaps fifteen years ago. I pulled all these out and tested the cars yesterday and today, and about half of the cars, some with LED light kits and some with bulb type light kits would not light at all. All these light kits worked in the past. I am wondering if anyone knows if these Kato light kits of bulb type or LED type go bad over time. I cleaned the Kato track before using it and over and over while testing the cars. I am using a Tech II Dual Power 2800 transformer, which is old, but it makes locos run quite well. 

Since I am starting to sell the glut of stuff I collected before, it could be a no brainer to sell the cars that won't light with advice to the buyer that the light kits don't light. I rarely see ebay ads for passenger cars anyway that say the cars have light kits.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

The bulbs or LEDs are not likely to go bad while in storage. More
likely is that they are not getting any juice from the track.
I would suspect that the wheels and/or the wheel wipers that conduct current
to the lights need cleaning. Over time, oxidation can build a barrier
on the wheels and the wipers. That would break the conductivity. The contacting metal should be clean and bright...wiper and wheel. 

Don


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## pmcgurin (Sep 7, 2010)

Thanks, I will take the cars apart and check this out. It seemed overwhelming that half the cars wouldn't light. The n scale stuff is in the basement, and I should have expected this.


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## pmcgurin (Sep 7, 2010)

After taking several cars apart for cleaning and adjustment of contacts, I found most of the problems were with bulb type lights. Newer LED type lights appear more reliable and light more constantly than the older bulb type Kato kits. The contacts on the bulb lights are flakier. Running lighted passenger cars is something I do enjoy. I have found that pulling the passenger trains with a Life-Like loco rather than a Kato loco lets me put more juice on the track for any resulting loco speed, and locos slower like Life-Like allow the lights on the cars to light brighter. Sometimes I have used a Kato E8 shell on a Life-Like E8 mechanism to get something like a BN Burlington Northern Kato E8 shell on the life-Like mechanism to pull my BN 10-car train with the bulb lights so the lights are optimally bright without the train moving too fast.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

LED passenger car lighting should not take so much
current as to slow your locos down. Apparently from
your post you have both LED and Incandescent bulbs
in your cars. Those with incandescent could be
doing the current loading. Replace those bulbs with LED lighting
and you'll eliminate the loco slowing.

Don


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## pmcgurin (Sep 7, 2010)

With the incandescent lit cars I use slower engines like Life-Like e8s so that, with the throttle turned up to light the incandescent lights brightly, the train is still moving moderately, where if I pulled that train with a Kato loco it would be going much faster than with the Life-Like. Your point about the LED light kits is well taken, though, and I am going to change out the bulb type lights for LED over time. I have about twenty cars to upgrade. If I get that done I can run Kato locos and the lights will show up at lower throttle.


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## scenicsRme (Aug 19, 2020)

This is interesting on swapping shells and chassis. I have been doing the opposite with my locos, swapping lifelike E series shells onto Kato at first and now onto Broadway limited mechanisms, since I run DCC in n scale. The Kato chassis was very dependable and quiet and easily plug and play board converted to DCC. Then I saw the light (or rather heard the sound) of the BLI E series locos and found they were nearly as easily mated to the lifelike shells. I have now been using the BLI chassis for my conversions for DCC and sound. 
With DCC the light levels in the cars is not dependent on the speed or current draw of the locos either, and you can even install small inexpensive DCC mobile decoders in the cars to control the lighting remotely. I only wish the BLI locos came in the right livery so I could use their beautifully painted and detailed shells as well. 
I have extra brand new Lifelike and Kato n scale E chassis if anyone is interested, as well as BLI shells.


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## pmcgurin (Sep 7, 2010)

I am sure it would be great to ise DCC, but I am not readdy to get into that expense. Then there is that after an IT career I was glad to retire and not to have to program stuff. I kind of enjoy the savage amusement of DC. I am now preparing to install LED light kits into four Kato Amtrak smooth side cars from one of those book sets I bought years ago, for them to be pulled by the old Kato E8/9 from the old blue-sided box of the nineties. Old stuff I thought about selling, but I couldn't find equivalent sold listings on ebay, so I'll keep them. I might think about DCC, but I'm not sure if I'll last long enough. Never do today what can be put off until tomorrow.


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