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I have an old Globe single headlight F unit dummy unit. I want to add the second (nose door) headlight prior to having it custom painted. What is the easiest way to do this and have it look right? Is there a brass tube/casting that will give the proper nose door headlight trim ring and is hollow for lighting? Thanks Mike
If parts are not availible I would just do what you are thinking. Use a thin walled plastic tube cut to the size needed and then add a clear lenz . or brass if you have the space.
I think Athearn may have offered their F7 with the second light, or was it another firm? If it was Athearn, just replace the shell, they are the same thing, some 50-60 years old!
Here's an entire kit of details that includes a door with the lower headlight : http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/328-1001. Not cheap but there are lot of parts that would be useful for detailing an old Globe shell. Bob, you may be thinking of Cary, which did make a replacement F-3 body with dual headlights but good luck finding one of those. I may be wrong but, up until the Genesis line, I don't think Atheran ever offered a dual headlight F unit.
When I modeled B&O in my youth, the only type of Athearn Bluebox F7A shells I could find were the dual-headlight ones. I always had to grind down the rim of the bottom hole and fill it in with epoxy. I don't remember seeing the single-headlight shells until much later.
Well, I'll be danged. Whe I was buying Athearn BB F units, they only came with one headlight. I had to add many a door headlight to my SP, UP, and ATSF units. This was back in the late 60's and early 70's. I still have one of my old A units with my added door headlight. I guess they must have come out with a two headlight model during my MR hiatus.
Sorry for the Johnny-come-lately response to an old thread. Hopefully someone out there still cares about this topic!
Cal-Scale makes a brass casting of the single Mars light housing for F-units (part #190-417). I used one to dress up the existing nose door headlight hole in an Athearn RTR F7. There was a good article in the recent Kalmbach book "Detailing Diesel Locomotives" where the author used the same part to install a nose door headlight in a P1K CB&Q F3. Basically he drilled a hole in the door, inserted the casting, filled in the gaps around the edge with gap-filling CA, then painted to match the surrounding area. The clear lens was made by temporarily plugging the back side of the lens, propping the model in a vertical position, and filling the headlight with a clear-drying epoxy (Envirotex maybe?).
Right on Bob, yes my Athearn F7's are two lampers and I've been looking into getting rid of the 2nd headlights on mine. I did buy a shell with one headlight but I believe that the Bachmann shells look better (to me they do) so that's the route I'm taking. The Bachmann shell will fit but it will take a minor amount to have it secured to the chassis.
