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I am in the planning stages of my New layout. I just finished my trackplan, and in the final planning stages. My Layout features a Proto 2000 SW9 running a branch line in an industrial district, there is a bit of street running, with about 6 industries.
I would like to have sound and ditch lights on this locomotive. I have heard that space is tight inside of this model, and I'm in for a hard time, fitting a sound system. I don't believe the model comes with ditch lights, but that seems like that would be a feasible job.
Is the SW9 already DCC equipped? If so, you should be able to replace the present decoder with a Tsunami or QSI sound decoder with no problem. Adding ditch lights is obviously possible, as Mark's photo shows, but I'm no expert in surface mount LED's so I leave that to Mark and other guys here who really know what they are talking about.
I don't believe they are dcc equipped, I am willing to and capable of wiring it up though. But my question was on fitting a sountraxx decoder and speaker inside of this small unit. One more thing.
Which decoder would give my a 567 sound, with functioning ditch lights on the front and rear of the locomotive. When I say functioning, i mean flashing back and forth at crossings.
Initially I was going to recommend a DSD101LC because the are kinda thin, but alas, only 2 lighting outputs. If you can make it fit, a Soundtraxx Tsunami TSUAT1000 or TSU1000 (1st generation is a 567) would fit the bill, but you are going to have to make some weight concessions. You are going to need a place to enclose and mount the speaker. Probably over one truck facing down, and place the decoder over the other truck, possibly intruding n the cab space. This probably means removing a little weight from inside the body.
As far as ditch lights, lets see if Mark can give us a source and part number, his are fabulous!!
Well the LEDs are Osram White LEDs that I picked up on EBay a while ago. The front Ditch light housings are Detail Associate parts and the rear ones are scratchbuilt using an LED and brass bar stock.
I have two PK2 sw8's with QSI sound factory installed, they run and sound great, but there's no extra light outputs on the DCC board. There maybe room for an extra DCC decoder to run the extra lights.
I have two PK2 sw8's with QSI sound factory installed, they run and sound great, but there's no extra light outputs on the DCC board. There maybe room for an extra DCC decoder to run the extra lights.
Getting the lights to flash back and forth can be done once you get the DCC decoder in there, you can program it to do that according to the decoder's instruction manual, or your DCC system's manual. There was an article in the April Model Railroader about adding a working beacon to an N scale diesel. I know this is not that close, but it could possibly help a bit.
Ditch lights are powered from 2 of the decoders lighting outputs. You may need to install limiting resistors in the input side of the circuit depending on the decoder, usuall around 470 ohm resistor. The blue is your common for the ditch lights, as well as your head and reverse lights. And YES, they do flash when programmed correctly. With a decoder like and NCE D13SR, you set the CV for one ditch light to 184 (56 for a bulb, add 128 for an LED=184) and CV other to 188 (60+128=188) CV's used can vary. Some folks use the yellow and green, some use green and purple wires so the CV's affected are 121,122, and 123 respectively. Also if you want them only to work in forward then add 1 to the cv value, only in reverse, add 2. (I can't imagine anyone wanting ditch lights in reverse!)
Whatever 4 function decoder you use, double check the literature that comes with the decoder, it will spell it out for you!
how do I install them physcially? How are they attached onto the locomotive? I'll probably be high mounting most of them as the prototypes had them retrofitted onto them.
How'd you install the LEDs into the ditch lights? Did you use really small LEDs or did you use fiber optics or a light bar?
I use SMD LEDs for my ditch light installations and depending on the prototype I use the proper decoder to have them flash or not. Here are some installations I have done showing the detail in assembling the Ditch light housings. Pictures are self explanatory.
Where do you get your surface mount LEDs? Is there a particular size that I should use?
Are the ones in the photos warm white or yellow? (I use mostly warm white and white for my locomotives. I want the ditch lights to match the head lights in color)
Where do I get the ditchlight housings? I was thinking details west but I wasn't sure if they were the same (unassembled) ones that you have.
Mark, thanks for the info on that, I got my bottle the other day and it took the blue right out of my lights! Stuff smells like Vicks Formula 44D though!
The ditch light housings are Detail Associate castings.
I had to drill the casting and backing plate for the LED. Its a time consuming process as you have to start off with a #75 drill and work your way up 1 drill size at a time. If not you will end up cracking the casting and ruining it.
