Another use for the 12Vdc LED lighting strips readily found on ebay is to cut them to length to fit in the roof of a passenger car and then modify them by carefully removing the SMD (Surface Mount Device) resistors that are associated with every three LEDs and replacing them with 470 - 680 ohm 1/4 watt resistors as illustrated. Leads can be soldered either or both ends of the strip, fed by both rails. Just be consistent from end to end, i.e. right rail + terminal at each end and left rail - terminal at each end. Another methodology would be to connect the + terminal to a pickup on one truck and the - terminal to the opposite rail pickup on the other truck. The strips have a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing that makes them easy to attach to the roof. This will only work for DCC unless the rail leads first go to a bridge rectifier, then the + and - of the rectifier is connected to the lighting strip.
Always the electronic wiz. That would really look cool on a long passenger train with the layout room lights out. Great idea!
