Locomotive lighting dilemma.


C

ChevelleSSguy

Member
I have about 15 Athearn BB locomotives which I have mentioned before in the past. Got them brand new in the early to mid 90s. Only one of them has ever been run so the others are new and handrails still need to be installed. The one that has been run, has the handrails painted and installed. A BN GP40.

I am planning to start working on these and get them presentable now. However, I am planning to eliminate the crew frying headlight setup and go with LED lights. The decision I need to make is, our club is still on DC and we are in the early stages of switching over to DCC. So for now, I plan to tune them up and continue with DC until the switch is done. Once the handrails are painted and installed I dont feel like screwing around trying to get the cabs off so I can get the LED lights in at a later time.

Should I just prewire the lights in the cab first, before painting and installing LED lights? I want to be the most prepared with these units when I start adding decoders in the future. The are all GPs, SDs, 1 is a dash 9, 1 is an AC4400, 3 are sw1500 switchers from last years Atlas deal. So the cabs are all capable of coming off.

I would also be instrested in what diameter soft white LED lamps and resistors would be best for this?
 
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You could install the lights and a DCC wiring harness and just put in a dummy plug until the layout makes the transition...OR...you could install everything including a DCC decoder that is also capable of running in DC mode too.
 
depend on how much money you have for this, the best would be to install in dcc decoder in few of them now so when dcc will be ready you will be able to play directly with them (3-4 loco) and install a wiring harness in all others loco cab with a dummy plug, so you could even swap the decoder from loco if you never run them all at the same time, for the leds just use a 1000ohms 1/4 watts resistor. the led color that match the most protype headlight are the "golden white", "pure white" tends to be a bit blue

and watchout, make your wiring clear, there is a risk you might try sounds decoder, and love it !
 
If you use a 5mm LED, you can light up both headlights with one LED. LEDs have a narrow viewing angle so very little light if any will leak into the cab.

I'd reccomend installing DCC last. The LEDs can be secured to the cab roof on the inside with a bit of scotch tape. Same goes for the rear headlight, just tape it to the inside of the hood.
 
After I install my LED's in the cab roof I glue on a small pc. of black felt over the bulb & on each side.
 
if needed LED diameter can be easily turned down. hold it in your drill chuck and use a file as it rotates. just be carefull not to get carried away.
 
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