lighting a kato station

[Jimbo]

I have a Kato Island station,, yes I know one of a couple lol  But this one will be on the main line, I ripped up ballast an changed some track,, Any ways I want to light this one up kind of the right way, but along the lines of it being easy enough to do  because of my hands, I check  Kato's station lighting kit they say it will work but further investigation  into it  I really don't think so??  The lighting kit is more for the suburban station,,, with that said,,, I need some input!!   Thanks    

[Kamome]

It’s unclear from your post which Kato station/platforms you have. The Platform lighting kits are designed for the newest released DX range of platforms.

There is nothing that Kato produce that fits the older platforms or station buildings to light them. In a lot of cases I’ve seen, modellers have used adhesive LED strips to light platforms with wiring hidden under the roof cavity.

 

Look at the gospel of Sumida Crossing http://www.sumidacrossing.org/LayoutElectricity/ModelLighting/LEDStrips/

[Jimbo]

thanks for the reply its the island platform  yes as I found out the kato lights wont work,,those are only for the dx series,  so I have led strips coming,, I have enough to re do my other two station's when they get here,,  Thank you  

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Perhaps you can find super small led tape lights. Look for cool white around 5000K.

Cut to size. Wire them to a 2-function dcc decoder. Or use Kato dcc light decoders to create fiber optics. Like they do.

 

A less permanent way to mount leds is to use conductive copper tape and solder leds to the tape strips. It’s as permanent as the adhesive.

Still, I recommend wiring to the led on a Kato decoder for dc and dcc circuits. The led on the decoder can be removed.
 

My planned layout is just a glorified test track and lighted stations are on the wishlist, too.

Edited March 24, 2020 by PhilipS
Marked Safe

[chadbag]

One cool thing about some brands of function decoders for lights is that they support different modes.  One decoder I have (I forget which one) has a "Flourescent Tube" light mode, so when youy turn it on, it flickers on and off once or twice before going on. just like fluorescent lights are wont to do.  That would look cool on a station...

 

[cteno4]

cool, that would be a fun circuit to put into regular led lighting circuit for small streatch as you get that random flicker cycling around when bulb starts to go. could be done with an ardunio nano easily for a couple of bucks. ive wanted to build one to just randomly turn lights on and off in buildings, but this would be the same thing just do a flicker at random times. i need to sit down at some point here and just get back to C, been decades and my dyslexia makes C tough, but this aint rocket science programming!

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

that's all good thoughts!   I have 12 6 inch ones coming an 4 3 inch ones coming,, should keep me out of trouble??