Athearn RTR SW1500 headlights


robjacox

New Member
I just got a screaming deal on a new/unused Athearn RTR SW1500 complete shell to upgrade an older Blue-Box SW1500.

The upgraded detailing is OUTSTANDING, I am more than impressed. But with all the grinding and filing I had to do on the old chassis to make the new shell fit, I should have just paid the money for a complete RTR model and threw the old one in the garbage.

Now for my question...

The headlights on the RTR SW1500's are probably 1.5 volt bulbs or so? They hooked up the circuit board on the RTR. I would have to install a constant lighting kit and hook them up parallel to diodes, right?
 
1.5v incandescent bulbs.

If you get a light board that the RTR line comes in, then you'll be able to just hook up the bulbs to the board, and the decoder to the board.

If you get a board style decoder (as opposed to a chip in shrink wrap), then you can wire the leads of the bulb to the board.
 
Putting aside DCC, which I don't think is the issue, the light board on the RTR SW-1500 already contains the constant lighting circuit. the output from the board is 1,5 volts so no resistors should be needed. Just hook up the appropriate size 1.5 bulbs to the tabs on the light board and then snp them into place on both ends. IIRC, the cab end has a light shield below the headlight bulb, and the bulb snaps in place on top of the shield. The bulb on the hood end should be self-explanatory.
 



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