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I have some questions to help try to answer this question:
1) Will the train have Power Functions or just static display? This will determine how much room you may have to work with.
2) What's your thoughts of wires between the cars? This may determine how many battery packs you will need.
I have a PF'ed train that I lit using the PF Battery pack itself. So when the battery is on, all the train lights are on. The nice side effect is that when the battery is about to go, the lights flash and will turn off seconds before the train stops.
I will say the cable running between the passenger cars is not noticeable. I think a cable on this train maybe too noticeable :(
So you may want to get 2 of the coin battery packs to use in each of the cars. The Headlight kit with a few extra Pico lights may get you started.
- JimP
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Hi, thanks for asking your question. Jim raised some good points-- I took a look at this model over the weekend (we have it built in our shop, but not with PF added), and agree that if you don't have PF installed, there is room in the tender to put a Coin Cell battery pack and use the 2 LEDs included in the Headlight Kit to light up the headlight and inside the cab. You could use another HL kit to light up the last car. If you had PF added, the tender space is all taken up by the PF battery, so then the option would be to use a HL kit with the battery pack inside the last car, then a wire run up to the front (probably a 12" connecting cable) to light the front of the engine. let us know what you decide to do- this is a very tight model, so not much room inside for lights! It would be really pretty to see it lit up, though.
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This guy's done it. https://youtu.be/up3uGR9LHZM
I was thinking a light brick for the carriage, but is the cell pack better?
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Phil Worthington Thanks for sharing that video-- their results look great. I saw that you also asked in the YouTube comments about how they went about lighting the train. Would be very interested in their response.
For the carriage, if you didn't want to run wires from the engine, and also if you wanted to avoid the (slightly large) coin cell pack, a LEGO light brick in the carriage might be the best solution.
Later this year, we'll have some even smaller power source ideas that would allow you to put our Pico lights into the carriage. Stay tuned!
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Thanks for replying Rob, I'm just getting started with my winter village, and getting back into Lego as an AFOL. I started building it just two months ago, so what you see in the photos is very much MK.I, but I'm pretty happy with it so far.
I've not tried any lighting yet, aside from the light bricks, so I'd love to see more tutorials like your winter village cottage.
My ultimate ambition is to light every aspect of the village, even the moving parts. Any ideas on lighting the carousel in the winter village market?
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Phil Worthington Thanks for the photo, Phil! You should check out a post by Zarina J elsewhere in this forum-- she's been working on her Winter Village for awhile, and has lit it all up! she posted a video that shows the end results. I'm sure she'd be willing to share some of her secrets with a little prodding! :-)
I love your plan to light up all the Winter Village sets. For the carousel, we have tried several approaches in the past, including wireless power transfer from the base into the rotating part with energized coils (this approach was unsuccessful). One option might be to use what's called a slip ring-- we use this in our upcoming kit for the big Creator Ferris Wheel to allow the power source to be located outside the wheel. The challenge with the slip rings is they need to be very small-- we have a small number of them that we were able to get custom-manufactured, but they are quite expensive as a result. In the coming months, we plan to construct our own kit of the Winter Village Market, and we'll try the slip ring approach and keep everyone posted on the forum.
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Rob Klingberg Well, looking at it from a newbie perspective, there is quite a bit of room under the fabric sections of the carousel roof - which also conveniently rotates with the centre section of course. Also, all the sections you'd really want to light are in that roof. So, if a battery pack could be hidden under the roof, I think it would be much easier than trying to get power through a rotating part?
Do you produce a fixed strip of lights that would be suitable for that centre section? If not, I think a 1x8 light strip with 8 RGB LEDs would be a great product, you could combine them with a controller to make light-up signs, Lego light walls, etc!
Anyway, I think working down, rather than up, would be the key to the carousel - if you have suitable products?
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Phil Worthington Hi Phil, you're absolutely right about the space under the carousel roof. I was thinking more from the perspective of people who wanted permanent power for their setup, or who had their carousel placed on a larger layout where it was difficult to reach. But self-contained battery packs are absolutely an option. We've considered doing the same with the Fairgound Mixer, where the three spinning cars could use their own self-contained power sources to have onboard lights vs. needing to use four slip rings.
One option for the carousel top would be to use a coin cell battery pack and several flashing Pico LEDs. We'd need to make a custom setup that would be optimized to fit inside the carousel top. Once we have a chance to build the set, we'll have some more ideas to share here.