I am about to switch my layout over to dcc, and I'd like to know if I must do anything "special" to my N scale Kato Super Chief and CZ sets with the lighted tail cars. I'd like them still to be lit in dcc. As always, any and all help is greatly appreciated. Jim
I believe any of the observation cars that came out of the box with the light already installed is an LED so you are fine. If you've installed any of the incandesent lights in the passenger cars it is strongly recommended to remove them and switch to the LED kit from Kato. And if you don't think it is nessacary I'll send you pics of the inside of a VIA set I bought that had incandesent and ran on DCC. I'm just thankful it only cause damage to the inside and never warped or bubbled the outside of the roof.
most common cause for damage by lights come from wrong settings on the dcc booster. it is essential that you really set it to n scale which limits the voltage to close to 12 volts. if set to h0 scale you will encounter damage. as an alternative you might use a power supply which delivers a bit less than 12 volts.
Not an issue with the tail cars at all Jim. I agree with Mavrick0 regarding the the tail light being an LED so no issue. I run my tailcar on a NCE PowerCab at around 13.5V with no modification. I would take note of Sandro's observations about track voltage if you have incandescent lit cars, though.
Thanks for the replies, men. Everything turned out ok with the sets, as I didn't add any additional lighting to the cars. Jim