Howdy all:
In my continue effort to upgrade by Lionel New York Central Flyer 0-8-0, I'm thinking about illuminating the reserve lamp on the tender. It's super-easy to make it light all the time, but I thought it might be cool to have it light up only when the train is running in reserve, like some of my MTH trains. I realize this will require wiring between the loco and the tender, but I have no idea how to figure out where power might be on only in reverse. Any thoughts would be most welcome!
Best regards,
Bill
What kind of motor does the locomotive have?
Bob Nelson
Not wanting to discourage you, but:
Metro North Commuter Railroad, "General Rules": ( most railroad would be the same)
" HEADLIGHT"
"13. The headlight must be displaied brightly on the front of every train by day and by night. ----------
---------- Engines in yard service must display the headlight to the front and rear, by day and by night. The headlight on the end coupled to cars may be extinguished."
Don U. TCA 73-5735
DMUinCT -- Thanks! That actually makes the job a bit easier!
DMUinCT has a good point for full scale railroading and hi-rail. My trains are 'O' gauge Lionel post war and allowed a little freedom of operation. I would like to see this thread continue for conventional Lionel postwar locomotives. How is a tender reverse light wired to be operable?
B.
I know a couple of years ago Jeff from train tender had a setup I believe by lionel that was for the slope back tender so when you backed up it would come on.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
On DC can motored locos, wire the light in parallel to the motor, but insert alternate facing diodes, one in each wire. If the bulb lights in forward only, switch the wires at the motor connection.
Rob
For a postwar locomotive with the usual motor wiring (one end of the field winding grounded to the frame), all you need is to connect the back-up light (or the headlight) to one of the motor brushes instead of the pickup. The light will be very dim when it should be off; but, especially with a light pipe, the glow is very hard to see.
You can also stick a diode in series with it to drop the voltage some and reduce the illumination in reverse.
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