Any ideas on how to add class lights to an engine?


MoPac_Eagle

MoPac_Eagle

Well Known Member
I am putting soundtraxx tsunami 2 decoder in a Proto 2000 Missouri Pacific FA-1 and I would like to put class lights in it any ideas? I want to put green and white class lights in no red. In the future, I will also do a GP7, E8, SD40-2, and a BL2. All Proto 2000 expect the SD40-2 which is a Kato.
thanks in advance
 
I used fiber optics 20 some years ago on a number of locomotives.

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dave1905 said:
I would second fiber optic filament off a bulb or LED. I would also suggest that in reality, there will be very, very, very few times you would use a green class light, the MP wouldn't be running that many sections of regular trains, but would run dozens of extras.
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ok, so they would run more extras than regulars?
 
Use these wired LED's (green) if you want green markers. Hover over the picture to enlarge. As you can see, they are tiny, but have a flat face that can be CA glued to the end of the Fiber Optic, then covered with small diameter shrink tubing. A 1K. 0hm 1/4 or 1/2 watt resistor on the negative black wire and solder that to your decoder's function tab (red to the common tab) Most decoders that support the use of LED's have function tabs with a current output of 100 milliamps. I am reliably informed that each tab will support 6 of these LED's, but I would limit to 4, if you want several lights to turn on/off via the same function key.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/15-x-Pre-W...618191?hash=item235efee40f:g:T4UAAOSwHPlWcr1G

For the white lights use the Warm White versions
https://www.ebay.com/itm/15-pcs-Pre...572329?hash=item235e0a0ce9:g:ZKUAAOSwk1JWcr5~
 
The number of extras vs. regular trains is era dependent.

I didn't have a MP timetable handy for the 1960's, the earliest "modern" one I had was 1971 and I had a 1938 timetable for the Palestine Div.

By the era you are modeling the, passenger traffic is very reduced and a fraction of what it was in 1938. I doubt there would be many sections of a MP passenger train, if there were passenger trains at all.

In 1938, the major routes of the Palestine Div had typically one or two through freights ("red ball freights") and a local. Lighter routes might have just one red ball and a local or just a local.

By 1971, half of the subdivisions on the railroad had no scheduled trains in the timetable at all, and those that did only had one or two scheduled trains each way. The exception being the Carthage Sub (Kansas City to Newport, AR). I can pretty much guarantee that the MP ran more than one or two trains a day each way on its major routes.

By the time I got to the MP in 1979, there were only a handful of scheduled trains on the whole railroad.

If you are running -2's which are mid 70's engines, yes, the majority of MP trains will be extras.
 
The Great Divide said:
Informative thread, it's funny but I think the new tiny LED's have created so many fantastic lighting features now that many of us skip the fiber optics and the younger guys will forget to even consider using this tried and true tool from the past.
I have used fiber optics to bring light to lanterns and even today the tip of a clean cut optical strand offers a smaller sized lighting source and with some mechanical work inside the lighting box you can change colors or make the flickering of a kerosene wick or a candle seem very real. Anyway there seems to be no shortage of good modelers in here with good ideas.
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I am going to try both ways (maybe) definitely going to do the fiber optics. I will try to post pictures before and after once i get the fiber optics.
 
dave1905 said:
The number of extras vs. regular trains is era dependent.

I didn't have a MP timetable handy for the 1960's, the earliest "modern" one I had was 1971 and I had a 1938 timetable for the Palestine Div.

By the era you are modeling the, passenger traffic is very reduced and a fraction of what it was in 1938. I doubt there would be many sections of a MP passenger train, if there were passenger trains at all.

In 1938, the major routes of the Palestine Div had typically one or two through freights ("red ball freights") and a local. Lighter routes might have just one red ball and a local or just a local.

By 1971, half of the subdivisions on the railroad had no scheduled trains in the timetable at all, and those that did only had one or two scheduled trains each way. The exception being the Carthage Sub (Kansas City to Newport, AR). I can pretty much guarantee that the MP ran more than one or two trains a day each way on its major routes.

By the time I got to the MP in 1979, there were only a handful of scheduled trains on the whole railroad.

If you are running -2's which are mid 70's engines, yes, the majority of MP trains will be extras.
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I have not chosen an era. You can see GP7s and SD70ACEs side by side. Also you wouldn't happen to know anything about Nashville Illinois would you? The Missouri and Illinois came through here but it was ripped up in 1991.
 
Depends on the railroad. The MP traded in FA's to buy GP18's. The BL2's were gone really early. By 1985, the GP35's were all gone and the U30C's were gone or about to be gone. By the time of the CNW merger the MP, now UP, was all -2 or better (except for switch engines). All the previous models had been retired. With each subsequent merger the joining railroad brought a lot of pre -2 engines into the fleet and they were all retired after a few years. By the early 2000's all the SP's older engines were gone. Even the UP E-8's were really "E-38-2's" (a GP38-2 engine and electrical gear in an E-8 shell). On the other hand the BNSF was still running rebuilt GP30's.
 
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Plus, after 1985, the railroads started covering the class lights with sheet metal, so there weren't even any class lights to display. For example, none of the MRL engines have class lights, the SD35's and SD45's were delivered with them and they have been removed and plated over, while the SD70's never had class lights.
 
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