changing the headlight on the Bachmann 2-10-0

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Seeing as the headlight is rather hard to see on my 2-10-0 I'm
Thinking I'd like to swap out the stock lightbulb in my Bachmann decapod for
a 3mm golden white LED. Is this a difficult job,anyone attempted it?
I pretty sure Bachmann used a lucite light tube to transmit the light.

 

[lmackattack]

not hard at all. the factrory led uses a light tube that enters the back of the headlight. you will need to remove the headlight,tube and all that stuff to get a nice brite beam.. Remove the boiler to access the stock LED. at this point you may want to remove the stock head light/bracket so that you can Drill the smoke box door to get the new led through or just drill to get the led wire leads Through the door. After you figure a way to have the Led outside the door you may need to mount the bracket a little closet to the boiler? this will help hide the wire leads. I have done this trick on my 2-8-0 and 2-8-4 with great results. I paint the back of the LED black so that you cant see the light shine rearward

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Great' sounds quite similar to the conversion i did on a older Tenshodo Great Northern steamer i just finished,hopefully the results will be the same.

 

[malletman]

You can reuse the Bachmann lucite tube to the headlight, just butt the LED up against the light tube from inside the boiler. My NKP Berkshire is this way using a Miniatronics 3mm yeloglo golden white LED with excellent results. Nice bright headlight and still has the nice flat lense on the face of the headlight casting. The less modifications you make, the less chance of messing up something that will effect the overall appearance of the model. Nothing wrong with having the LED inside the boiler with the lucite fiber optics to transmit the light forward. Now if the old bulb or LED was inside the headlight casting itself, then your kind of stuck unless you have access to fiberoptic material the right diameter for the headlight. I usualy put an MV lense with all the foil backing removed infront of the led so when not lighted it looks like a proper glass lense. Cheers Mike

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

As to the MV lense did the same on the one above 'removed the foil backing ,just wish there was a easier way of removing the foil on the lense other than scraping it off with a no.11 blade,those suckers are hard to hold on to even using a tweezer's

 

[malletman]

I heard that, I usualy chase the lense to the floor atleast 1 time when trying to scrape the foil backing off the lense. The MV's tend to be on my brass more than anything else since those engines are best done with 1.5vt light bulbs, hollowing out a solid brass casting to accept a LED is a real bitch, much easier to drill a hole thru the rear, silver paint the inside of the casting, install the micro bulb and put the lense on the front. Now the new stuff with fiber optic material from the light casting to the inside of the boiler are all getting LEDs when not equipted originaly. The next project is a post war style Bachmann PRR K4 that has poor headlight output on normal track voltage. I am waiting till I put DCC in it to see what it does, it will probably get the LED treatment. My prewar K4 has the light up in the headlight itself since its mounted up high and on the face of the boiler instead of infront of the stack. Its not going to be as easy. Both of my NKP Brass engines, Berk and USRA light Mikado, have Ibenlite circuits that handle both the Mars light and steady headlight. I have them set up for Mars and main headlight in forward travel, and main headlight only in reverse. I am debating whether to attempt painting the Mikado myself or having my professional painter do it. Depends if I can find graphite in a rattle can. Chances are its going to go the pro painter for DCC conversion and painting sometime in the spring. Cheers Mike