Custom interior lighting in G-scale passenger cars

Passenger trains look so much better when equipped with interior lighting. Especially when run in the evening and in a nicely lit scenery. No wonder that after upgrading my N-scale coaches, I've decided to install light into my G-scale cars, too. And of course I expected that to be easier than in N-scale thanks to all the space you get in a large model.

Additionally PIKO decided to solve the biggest challenge with the introduction of PIKO 36168 wheel sets that feature easy-to-use power pick-ups. So no need to struggle with metal strips, springs or batteries to get the power into your cars. You just need to buy a proper wheel set.

Unfortunately PIKO 36168 wheels are not really cheap. And I decided to save some money and equip each car with only one set, and use regular PIKO 36165 metal wheels for remaining axles. So this is what I bought:

I certainly hoped that both types of wheels would feature the same look, so that my coaches would appear 'normal' with mixed installation. Well, turns out they're not identical but they're not very much different, either. Here's the comparison:

PIKO 36168 on the left, PIKO 36165 on the right

PIKO 36168 are ball bearing wheels. This means they roll incomparably better than other available products. Here's a short video showing their capabilities.

 

I also needed an electrical circuit to drive the lights. And all my previous findings apply to the G-scale, too. My creation is much bigger than my N-scale kits and features an impressive 2200uF capacitor. I certainly hope it will give me a flicker-free experience even on a dirty track.

This is what the bottom of my coach looks like before the installation. You can see the factory supplied plastic wheels.

The wheels are easily replaceable (well, assuming you're not doing it for the first time...). You can see the more expensive set with power pick-ups on the left, the cheaper metal set on the right.

There are three easy to notice facts once the 36165/36168 wheels are installed:

• The centre of weight of the car changes dramatically - you can feel it very well when holding it.
• The car rolls much better - seems it goes twice as far when pushed, compared to plastic wheels.
• The wheels fit perfectly into their slots BUT they also have some extra space and can move left and right. And when they move too far, they don't roll so well any more. This however seems to occur only when holding the car on its side and it does not affect normal operation.

PIKO 36168 wheel set features power sockets that can be connected in two different ways. And if you have wires with female pins, you can just attach them.

The tricky part is of course getting the wire through the car. It took me well over 20 minutes to pass it to the rest room area where I wanted to put my electrical circuit. I'm not going into the details of the process, since it will vary from car to car. But here's the result.

Once installed, the first test can be conducted.

Now it's time to install the lights. I'm using cheap and widely available LED strips. I'm still working on a solution that would glue the strip permanently to the roof. From my experience they always come off... sooner or later...

Everything connected and the next test is possible. It's difficult to tell from the photo but the LEDs are lit here.

Once the body is closed we can see what it looks like for real. Here's the car without interior lighting.

And here's one with the interior lighting installed and switched on.

Works as expected, although the light could be a little brighter. Perhaps I need to use smaller resistors in the future...

So how does the capacitor work? Does it ensure flicker-free light? The answer is in the next photo. You can see here the same car but the picture is taken around 10 seconds after the coach is removed from the track. It's still well lit.

I also have a video showing the result. Unfortunately the quality is so-so due to shooting in very low-light conditions. But it certainly summarizes my work well.

I'm very happy with the result. Just three more cars to convert now!