Bardic lamp battery and led bulb

[M7R]

I apologise if this is the wrong area, I wasn’t sure where to post it… however here goes,

I have a bardic lamp which I would like to use however I need a battery for it. I had seen some one selling D cell conversion kits for them on eBay but they don’t ever seem to be in stock and emailing the seller doesn’t seem to get any reply…so what are my options?

I would also like to use a LED bulb too to get a longer battery life and brighter beam, does anyone have any recommendations?

I will say this is not for use on a railway, so no worries about being compliant etc

Cheers

 

[Llanigraham]

I found a 9v led bulb with the same fitting and fitted a standard PP9 battery to mine. Gives an excellent light.

 

[_toommm_]

Something like this?

BEST SELLING BARDIC LAMP BATTERY KIT USES 3 X D CELL& RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES | eBay

SUPERIOR QUALITY BARDIC LAMP CONVERSION KIT - BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Indeed you have truly set a 'gold standard.'. No modification to the wiring or lamp is required, the kit simply replaces the original battery.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[Mugby]

The original flat pack Bardic batteries were unique to British Rail (and probably continued for a while with their successors) The contacts were arranged so that wouldn't fit any other application in common use, this was to prevent the batteries being stolen and/or being sold for gain. That's probably why they seem to be permanently out of stock now.

Same principle applied to signal bulbs (in pre-LED days) the bayonet fitting had three prongs instead of two as in domestic bulbs, to prevent theft.

 

[Harpers Tate]

The one hidden thing to watch for when fitting an LED to a Bardic is the lamp polarity. Some LEDs are +/- sensitive and the internal wiring in my Bardic is, I think, somewhat non-standard with these reversed vs. normal. Incandescent lamps don't care which way round the current flows. The bulb I got (it's a long time ago and I don't recall where) is marked as NOT being polarity dependent. Find one with the same attribute.

 

[jupiter]

The colours wash out in front of an LED. Get a lower powered one if you want some realistic greens and yellows.

 

[M7R]

Thanks folks, the ebay kit posted above is back in stock so I’m ordering one while I can!

Bulbs I will keep the polarity in mind, doesn’t surprise me if it’s wired up differently to stop parts being reused on other things

 

[M7R]

The colours wash out in front of an LED. Get a lower powered one if you want some realistic greens and yellows.

Luckly I’m not after colours just a unique torch for use when camping etc. I will be taking my paraffin signal lamp with me too as a table lamp again just because I can

 

[Trestrol]

I didn't bother with the conversion kit. Mine was rescued from a skip and was missing the battery plug anyway. A quick search of ebay produced a 3 C cell battery cassette which I soldered into place. I did stick it to the base with double sided tape to stop it rattling.

 

[Trestrol]

Same principle applied to signal bulbs (in pre-LED days) the bayonet fitting had three prongs instead of two as in domestic bulbs, to prevent theft.

A lot of signal bulbs only had two prongs. The ones you are thinking of are SL35 bulbs which had a second filimant. As very few if any signal bulbs were 240v anyway stealing them would have been pointless. Most were 24v although there were some 110V ones.

 

[Ashley Hill]

I’ve put a Nicelite LED in my work Bardic. It seems to work well, although the red looks a little bit wrong.

 

[M7R]

I’ve put a Nicelite LED in my work Bardic. It seems to work well, although the red looks a little bit wrong.
View attachment 116925

That’s brill thanks! Will order one of them as nice to know it’s been used and works well

 

[Ashley Hill]

Yes the NL312 works well and you don’t have to worry about polarity. Hope you get on with it ok.