Hi all. Having a hard time getting the passenger car to close/snap together properly. The problem seems to be the lens. I watched some videos, I could not find an install on these the UP cars, but similar cars. Helped for the majority of the install, but the car length is different so doesn't give me a reference on what my problem could be regarding the lens. Most videos the lens seems to hold in place in the upper portion of the body. They have tabs, this lens is pretty smooth. In this case the only spot where it kind of holds, it is to far back from the light. The light has to be touching the lens, or the light doesn't transfer back into the car at all. And it didn't want to close up properly either in that farther back position. So I am assuming the lens needs to be against the light. I made sure the lens orientation was correct so light transferred down it. And I placed it in the upper body and carefully tried closing it, no luck. The lens just wants to move around and it wont seat properly/ square when I close it. And even if it did it was shifting fwd and back and wouldn't be touching the lens. The lens is kind of hard to get to lay in the upper portion so its flat, it wants to shift to one side or the other, nothing holds it in place. I tried laying the lens on the lower portion and gently setting body on it, no luck. So I decided to use a tiny bit of super glue on 2 spots/ posts where the lens rests on the lower portion. Not much so I could remove it if necessary. When I assemble it now, it is very close to working, but still isn't snapping in all the way. You can see underneath on the side where the body isn't mating to the frame all the way. Cosmetically it would be ok its underneath and pretty small gap, but its not locked in correctly, and it is shifted slightly when you look at the car from each end. In picture you can see the small gap on the side, and have a pic to show where I am trying to keep the lens. I have the arrows on the pieces pointed together when assembling, everything seems to be ok until the final click.
The lens does indeed fit into the body of the car, but this is the tricky part. There are little protrusions on the windows that will line up to spots on the diffuser, and this will hold it in place. Then once you place the frame back into the shell you need to look and see that the light lines up with the end of the diffuser and not get pushed down by it. I found that bending the light upwards slightly helps with this and the roof of the car will push it back down to line up properly. If the diffuser is still too long there should be scribe lines where you can break off sections like a chocolate bar, but scribe them with a hobby knife first. Hope this helps.
Just run your passenger trains during daylight hours and you don't need interior lights. I am so happy my boxcars don't need lights ! * Just a little humor with my morning .
Ok, I will try to find the sweet spot. The lens is pretty smooth though, the protrusions are so Suttle, you can't even feel them. These lenses are different than the videos I have found where they seem to have more obvious protrusions. I Wish there was a video made with these cars. The lens does have one set of obvious notches, but if was to try to use them where they look like they could possibly grab, I'd have to take break off at least 2 portions of the lens. That doesn't seem right with these long cars, would lose a most of light. I can't test that out though without snapping first as it extends it to one side to far. I'll try bending the light up a little tonight.
The orange warming filter was fun, it's tiny and is like a mini spring when installing. Tweezers aren't much help with this step as you have to rotate and preload it into another piece. As my neck was getting stiff staring down, I wondered if it's worth it. I'm a big fan of the lights, but there a lot easier with O scale. I can definitely see why people don't do it on N. In the end it Will make these cars sharp.
" I can definitely see why people don't do it on N. In the end it Will make these cars sharp. " Oh, but people do "do it on N " : Triple diner unit from KATO Daylight set, looks pretty good, even in daylight George !
I edited your picture a little to show you a couple things. the red circles are the tabs that align to the tabs on the glass inside the car body. There will be little protrusions in there as well. There should be another set of tabs near the middle bit the glare on the image made it too difficult to make out to circle. the green lines are the chocolate bar break off pieces. You have the updated version of these LED lights and lenses. The only difference really is instead of a white arrow painted to help diffuse the light, it’s a pattern in the material. I can’t say which one I like better, or which one works better, I can’t tell which of my cars has which type, they look to me the same side by each. Hope this helps you figure it out.
Woo Hoo! Thanks Massey, really appreciate the locations, made it easy. Set the body upside down, set the lens in. Then dropped the rest in and it snapped right into place. Last couple windows aren't as bright, but looks ok. Nice cars Carl.
Good job, and it looks great! Once you find that sweet spot the install is easy. The instructions Kato gives you are not very good in defining where things need to be.
View attachment 278578 Thanks. So it looks like the dome car/diner could take a light on each side? As It has the tabs on each end. Do you then snap 2 of the lenses so they both fit, one for each side? Or is it just one light, on a particular side? It doesn't look light the light will reach the upper dome, doesn't look like the cover will let light through.
I have never worked with this car before so I don't know if the light would work on both ends, or if it is set up to take a light for the dome and for the normal seating. Did you get instructions with your set? If so it may tell you.
You only need one light kit. When the dome car used in this set was originally tooled years ago, it was set up to take two light kits because there was no clearance inside due to the dome. When it was modified later on for the excursion train set, among other things, a new interior for the dome was made so a single light bar would fit inside. In order to determine which side the light kit goes on, look at the tabs on the window glass where the light kit snaps into and use that as a guide as one way will have enough standoff for the interior lighting pcb. It will only all fit in one way. (it's been a while, but IIRC, it's the non dome side of the car). I hope this helps! Kelley. www.dufordmodelworks.com www.facebook.com/dufordmodelworks
HPR, Not to hog your thread but I like to show off. Here is a short Y-T ( 3 minutes ) video one of my projects from last year. The test/program module sucks so don't pay it attention. Thanks for looking ! carl
In order to determine which side the light kit goes on, look at the tabs on the window glass where the light kit snaps into and use that as a guide as one way will have enough standoff for the interior lighting pcb. It will only all fit in one way. (it's been a while, but IIRC, it's the non dome side of the car). I hope this helps! Kelley. [/QUOTE] www.facebook.com/dufordmodelworks[/QUOTE] Thanks Kelly appreciate it. I wish the lights warming lenses did a little more warming.
Looks good Carl, nice work. It's Like having a few different sets in one. And being able to see in a lit-up room is nice.
