Free FREDs...

shaygetz

Active Member
Buying new shoes for the little ones is no longer a dread chore at Wally World now. They've got these neat shoes that come with a free FRED (Flashing Rear End Device for the benefit of newcomers). I was able to walk away with two of them just for the asking, I guess the salesgirl was intrigued by my proposed use for them. She even gave me ones that hadn't been activated yet so they'll blink for months to come (should prove interesting as my layout is in the bedroom, "Honey would you put that THING in the roundhouse or somethin', I'm tryin' to sleep.")
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
This is what it looks like removed from the box. Wouldn't take no time to have 'lil blinkies following up all yer trains...
 

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Clerk

Active Member
Isn't that expensive to buy a pair of shoes just to get the Freds?
As Tyson said.....Cabeese only on my rails thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Originally posted by Clerk
Isn't that expensive to buy a pair of shoes just to get the Freds?
As Tyson said.....Cabeese only on my rails thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was where they were free---I just asked the salesgirl if I could have the box they came on. She gave me two, guess at 43 I still have that boyish charm:rolleyes: :p My club is in a parallel universe, where old fogies run SD70MACs and unit trains. Us young bucks like cabeese and icing platforms. I'll be using one as a FRED and one as a flasher on my steel wide vision.

You're right, Jim. I can't look at anything smaller than a cassette tape without pondering it's use in model railroading:D ;) :p
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Much to Tyson and Dick's dismay, I decided to do it as a FRED first. As it comes from the box, with the glue and paper trimmed off...
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
I trimmed it down by clipping excess off as close as I would dare, then filed the LED down 'til it was just shy of the element. The circuit is revealed and found to be soldered to the + side of the batteries. This was important to note as LEDs are polarity sensitive---they will not light if wired to the wrong side.
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
After testing, I trashed the old battery setup and mounted a 2 cell (AA) battery clip inside the car with foam mounting tape.
 

shaygetz

Active Member
The I carefully unsoldered the FRED from the the motherboard and threaded it thru two holes drilled into the bottom of the car.
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
I did the final soldered connections, then tested again. When happy with the results, I mounted the FRED to a dummy coupler and placed it in its box. I used a dummy because FREDs are usually dropped in the knuckle, making a working model useless. I also mounted the circuit with more double sided foam tape.
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
I balanced the car by placing an equal amount of weight at the opposite end using depleted uranium ingots (lead fishing weights;) ). The finished car awaiting weathering and paint.
 

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Matthyro

Will always be re-membered
An enlightening project shaygetz
But I am a cabeese lover too. All the left over ones from CN and CP now reside and are used by the MAT.
Have to put up with the EOT thinggies I see on the CN line through here now
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Blinkity blink...next up will be the caboose flasher unit. As for final cost, the battery clip was salvaged from an old radio. Bought new it would be around $1.98 at Radio Shack. The shoes that the FRED came with were $11.96, in the Walther's catalog a FRED goes for $12.95 so baby got new shoes, I got a FRED and had a buck left to offset the price of the battery clip for the caboose project. My railroad's CFO is pleased.
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
Thanks, Robin. I love railroading in general though I do prefer running with a hack on back myself. The B&MC sports three. Since I visit many layouts modeling a variety of eras, it is nice to have a EOTD equipped car to run on the modern layouts.
 

Clerk

Active Member
Ok shaygetz. I"ll concede. You used your noodle on this one. Nice going. I will still use cabeeses though. Hey. Maybe these will work as marker lights on cabeeses.
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Originally posted by Clerk
Ok shaygetz. I"ll concede. You used your noodle on this one. Nice going. I will still use cabeeses though. Hey. Maybe these will work as marker lights on cabeeses.

Thanks, Dick. I'm working on installing one as a rear flasher on an extended vision cabeese even as I type. I am tickled that the lowly caboose has such a loyal following almost 20 years after its demise.
 

shaygetz

Active Member
For all you "crummy" fans out there...trim down the LED like before. Then, because of its size< you need to extend it some with a bit of clear styrene rod like so. I then joined the two together with a piece of shrink tubing.
 

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shaygetz

Active Member
Stick it thru a hole sized to the clear rod (3/32" in my case) all the way thru till it just passes under the vestibule. Paint it with the appropriate color.
 

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