N Scale: Our Experience with Kato LED Interior Lighting Kit 11-212
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- We put some Kato lighting into our Amtrak passenger cars (Kato Amtrak P42 & Superliner N Scale Starter Set).
You can find our N scale specific playlist here: • Our N SCALE Adventures
Thank you for this great video!!! Very helpful for my upcoming installation.
Try installing the wide part of the diffuser in the lens in front of the led. Let me know how it turns out. Thanks for the video 👍🏽
That looks so realistic, well done. I've subscribed to your channel
Ewood Railway ...Thanks!
I would have done the same thing tint or try to block light with electrical tape. Looks good! Thanks for sharing.
Thank YOU for checking it out!
I used LED Interior Lighting Kit 11-214 on my Milwaukee Road set. I had enough left over from another project. It is a softer amber light. Went very well with the burnt orange color of the Milwaukee Road color scheme.
Oh cool! Very good to know! Thanks!
I'm going to install these today. If I get a different result, I will let you know.
Cool! Thanks and good luck!
Thanks for this video.
I find it remarkable that you like those lights. To me they are nothing but junk. They go over the counter for 30 to 50 bucks and what you get are half illuminated cars with a terrible look. 6 or 7 such cars just look weird.
I really like your video and that you tried to make something positive from this.
I purchased KATO fitting light boards on ebay with lots of little LEDs. They can change the color warmth and are dimable + they were cheaper than KATO 6pcs set.
I really regret buying the KATO set.
I wish you all the best, man!
We’ll have to agree: not so sure they are worth it and they ARE expensive! Thanks for your comment!
What's the 3rd party brand you bought with the superior lighting capability over OEM KATO?
I have just installed the N Kato lights in the Amtrak super liners. I found by covering the light board with electrical tape made it look more evenly through the car. The size piece of tape I used is 3/4" x1/2". Put the tape on the bottom side of the light board at the end of where the LED light is. To me this made a big difference spreading the light more evenly through the car.
Cool, thanks! We’ll have to try that!
I have done something like that but instead of electrical tape I used a piece of cardstock which I cut from a white business card, had it extend from the lighting unit to the first window, and attached it to the underside of the light unit with canopy glue. I found that the light diffused evenly through the car and was no longer concentrated at the end having the lighting unit. I found this works well 😂 with the UP excursion set and the Amtrak Amfleet and Viewliner cars.
I have the cardstock extend back a little from where the LED is in order to not have the light leak into the bottom of the car at the near end. This will take care of any space between the light bar and the LED. To the extent that light "leaks out" or shines downward, it will reflect off the card back up into the light bar.
I'm having the same problem with the bright light at one end. The way I'm improving it, not necessarily fixing it, is to cut a small piece of card about a quarter inch by half inch and with a tiny blob of superglue stick it under the LED light where the under side is like a black square bit, leaving about an eighth of an inch sticking out. This has the effect of deflecting light away from shining down into the coach end. I'm doing this on eight coaches at the moment and the improvement is very noticeable.
Thanks for this!
The defuser looks backwards. The wide end should be near the LED.
I wonder if Kapton tape over the amber lens would help lessen the brightness,
I tried that and it ended up looking a more unrealistic yellow with a slightly greenish tint. Definitely not what an Amtrak car looks like inside!
@@metroredline Probably worth applying some minus-green Lee filter, for a more natural tint.
I really want one of those
Same
Get a Tamiya X26 Clear Orange acrylic paint dose, put a drop over led and test. If need one more layer, ad more. i trow away the orange lens. Like this my KATO Orient Express have light close to that epoca, not a neon light. Light are magnificent if are mounted in the proper way.
Thanks for this!
I suspect the LED is not lined up properly with the diffuser. It appears the LED is pointed too high which does not allow the light to travel all the way to the opposite end. This is just a thought. Cheers!
They do require a bit of playing around with to get the light to shine all the way through the cars
Thanks. Yeah, I'll have to get back in there and mess around again one of these days.
These lighting kits are a pain... I bought the Kato Hiawatha set from Kobo shops and the LED lighting is pre installed and works perfect. I never got these kits to work right when I did it,
Anthony Harris ...Good to know we’re not the only ones to have issues with these. Kind of a bummer.
@@minnesotaeerailroad8471 Ya usually Kato can do no wrong in my eyes... except these lighting kits are a pain :/ But check out Kobo Shops in the future!! My Hiawatha set is PERFECT with the lighting. Not too bright, evenly distributed lights. Also, I have some Bachmann passenger cars with nice LED lights from the factory.
Cool! Thanks for this!
YIKES!!!!! Headless guy on train, that's scary at least he didn't bleed all over the place🤣 Wished i could help you on that lighting I'm ho scale and I take the lazy way out and buy cars pre lite. You definitely have patience with that n scale train👍
Sleeping with Trains Now that’s an idea, blood! Halloween’s coming, hm 😁😜
Absolut cool video, nice train nice detail.
Greetings from Germany Gert🙋🏻♂️
Thanks, Gert!
mistakes help people i think. one thing is for sure- it didn't look right at the beginning so it was the right move to try to improve it. unfortunate for that guy who got his head cut off. wish i could help.
Mystic Southern Railway ...😂 That poor guy! ...Seriously tho, yes, mistakes are necessary experiences and all part of the fun 👍
I got a six car amtrak passenger train for Christmas and wanted to add lights but this video and several others make this seem almost not worth the money and trouble.
Yeah, we haven’t taken the time to revisit this. So yeah, we’d have to agree with your comment at this time. But there are folks that have commented success with this. You might scroll through the comments here and see if you can find any hints. Good luck!
You can use a orange sharpie pen on LEDS
Nice! Yeah, that makes sense! Thanks!
ship it to me, I can install it perfectly.
Are all N-Scale KATO trains set up by default with exterior lights able to accommodate an interior lighting kit?
I believe most are, yes.
@@minnesotaeerailroad8471 Thanks! And I take it that there are aftermarket non-KATO branded lighting kits that will work with KATO trains? Or is it a proprietary design?
I assume there are aftermarket kits. But we have t gotten that far 😊 I know a lot of people will fab up systems too.
Has anyone attempted to hack/install a different light? -Instead of the KATO light kit, run a lead to the light unit contacts connected to a small light strip or maybe a series of rice lights and put them on the floor?
There’s gotta be somebody that’s tried something different. I know I thought about that, too. But it’d be great if somebody posts a link here of a video of somebody doing that.
dang my metra light kit turned out nice maybe these windows too big
Yeah, the Metras seem to work out well!
Ua! Um! Conductor? Um? There a dead. Headless guy! In the back of this car? Um I want off this train of death! ASAP!🤪🤣 Just kidding thank you.
😂😂
Hello new friend ++117🔔Greetings from Turkey EUROPE
I installed the older incandescent light kit in my superliner passenger cars and it was so hot that it melted the roofs...anyone else have this problem?
Ouch! 😬
@@minnesotaeerailroad8471 yes and I followed the instructs to the letter and I don't heard anyone else having the same problem. I emailed Kato and have not gotten a reply yet.
It really made me upset to see the roofs of 4 cars showing light and melting. I followed the instructions perfectly and yet have not heard anyone else having this issue. I emailed Kato and have not had a rely as of now.
Gosh, yeah. Maybe somebody will chime in here with some insight.
You should make this the topic of your first video and see if people can help out. You might even help out the next guy avoid this disaster too if you get it figured out.
I'm so surprised by how many people fail at installing these properly. Then you get a bunch of idiots calling them junk when really they buy a japanese product with japanese instructions and wonder why they fail at installing them. Its not the product. Its the idiot user. I have installed around 60 with no issues and they all look perfect.
Do you have a video that’ll help us out? We’d love to see it.
How did you do it ?