Athearn GP-38 DC lighting issues

[cfinn]

Hi all,

new here and to the hobby.

i purschased a used athearn GP-38 Mil. Road and it was missing the light assembly so i ordered all the parts from Athearn.

when i went to install it i cannot get the base of the bulb to stop shorting out against the wiper clip i purchased. seems like a poor design.

any ideas or tips or pictures showing how it goes together would be really helpful as i would like to see the loco lit up.

 

[Diesel-Electric]

Hey cfinn,


First welcome!

I too have two Athearn GP38s, if you are good at electronics and with a soldering iron, I would advice you to install LEDs in place of the incandescent bulb on your locomotive.

You can get 100 3mm warm white LEDs for under $10 on Ebay and use the appropriate resistor and have nice lighting for you locomotive. The good thing is as LEDs have polarities (ie, a plus and negative side) you can install one for each head light and have directional lighting.

I have done this for both GP38s, of course I've added a constant brightness circuit to it also.


Hope that helps,


Diesel-Electric

 

[cfinn]

Thanks for the reply, i might have to look into that down the road a bit.

Still new to soldering iron but getting better. i soldered the wiper clip to the bracket and a wire to the bottom of the bulb (that was fun ) but it did take and didnt blow the bulb. sure is a bright light. LED's would be much better though. this GP-38 is a project loco i bought used that is my "experiment" with and dont be suprized if you break it...I learned a lot tearing it completing down and re tooling it although by the time i bought replacement parts i could of bought the darn thing new...