Locomotive bulb query

[CasperGriswoldBacon]

Been looking at some of my long-term wrecks that were put aside for one reason or another, and have come across an old Marx ho diesel. Now this has a screw-in light holder with a diameter of 5mm. Now i'm not gonna get spares for an American company that went kaput 40 years ago unless there is some in America which would probably cost me loads, but I wondered if there was any sort of standard sizes in the uk. Had a glance on ebay and they don't really give the size of the screw-in bit. I suppose I could take off the lamp holder and hardwire an old triang bulb into it or just a random bulb. Any ideas?

Picture of lamp holder



More pictures including the X04 type motor on steroids. Americans really do make everything bigger!

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/F ... rx#p515748


MOD NOTE: Topic moved to the Electrical section where its more suited and will attract more views.

[CasperGriswoldBacon]

ah, think I've found one in the ebay home lighting section

[RobLeighton]

I'm after the same size/style bulb for my Jouef SNCF loco - could you point me in the right direction on eBay ?

[Bufferstop]

Old strings of Christmas lights used the same holder. In the pre LED days they were used in radio and electronic equipment for panel illumination, pretty much world wide. They are a miniature "Edison Screw" bulb holder. I presume the range goes large ES, standard ES, small ES, miniature ES, sub miniature ES , micro ES??? What the actual sizes are must be in the wiki, somewhere.

[CasperGriswoldBacon]

good question!. Haven't ordered them yet. Think it was these which are the 5mm diameter.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152993641737 ... SwuilcYdlv

[RobLeighton]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JNL31WW

Found these LED so lower heat... I'm assuming there's a current limiting resistor in series with the LED inside.

[RobLeighton]

DON'T USE THESE BULBS - SCREW THREAD IS TOO SHORT - CERTAINLY FOR THE JOUEF LAMP HOLDER ON MY LOCO...

[Bufferstop]

Unless you are determined to keep the loco original I'd replace them with an LED.

[Ironduke]

Can you add a led+resistor to the old bulb ? Usually the leads from the glass bulb are soldered to the screw and are easily desoldered.

[RobLeighton]

Managed to hacksaw a couple of loops worth of thread off my Jouef lampholder and now the bulb fits and works, just need to solder it back on... But I am out of solder!

[CasperGriswoldBacon]

DON'T USE THESE BULBS - SCREW THREAD IS TOO SHORT - CERTAINLY FOR THE JOUEF LAMP HOLDER ON MY LOCO...

heh. Are we talking about your bulbs or mine rob? How long is your lamp holder?

[RobLeighton]

My earlier suggestion - they're a few turns on their screw fitting short of making contact with the centre contact at the bottom.
I've cut the lamp-holder down by about 3mm and it now works.
So, to re-iterate, I wouldn't use the LED bulbs I suggested.