Mike, thanks for uploading those photos. I like the end result and I'm going to shoot for something similar.
Max, thanks for the lead on the backup light. I'm going to take a closer look at it, but I'm guessing it will be close enough for what I want.
Thanks for the info Guys, I had a feeling it wasn't going to be a slam dunk.
Johnboy out......................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
Custom Finishing makes a backup light for an E unit. I don't know if that would be a suitable substitute for what you are looking for: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/247-106
I doubt you want to invest in a BLI dome/obs for a donor car, right?
Personally, I would DIY this. Either build it up out of styrene or get a nice sized chunk of it, probably from Evergreen. They sell some pretty big stuff special order most likely as your LHS won't have it unless they do large scale of something.
Depends on what you're trying to copy, which is why I brought up building it up. It can be tricky, getting two side panels to match, but may work best.
The light itself could have a ridged ring, maybe a F-unit headlite type thing. Needs a styrene tube to hold the LED, if full size, or act as conduit if it's a SMD LED to fit inside the lamp.
I looked in the PSC catalog and nothing really. BLI aside, I have an old Con-Cor shorty obs with a high mount tail light, but there's not much there and it will always look like that, unlike something you work out.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Hi Mike,
Love seeing your work and heeding your knowledge.
I am not going that detailed (as of yet) but making some adjustments to some items. One thing I would like to add is the upper rear tail light on tje observation car. Do you have any idea where one might be found. I realize that I might have to adapt it to fit my 72ft. Athearn cars?. Hope you can point me the right direction. Thanks in advance to Mike or anyone that might have a source for me.
Johnboy out..................
Glad to be of assistance. Note that at the end I wrote this about the resistor value for the drumhead: "On the drumhead, I used 1000 ohms in place of 330, but it could really stand to be dimmer yet, like 2700 ohms, maybe?"
Here's the board on the dome-obs
The obs wiring
Dimmer is better
Thanks Mike! I actually found your thread on the Atlas forum a while back and that's what started my interest in adjusting and adding lighting. It's been a great resource as I've been planning my own adjustments.
The one broken image that I would really like to see is the improved drumhead and markers on the Observation car. The description in your post gave a good sense of what you ended up with, but I would love to see it. I'm planning on adding separate LEDs for the markers that are run from the original marker light circuit. Then I am going to run a separate circuit with a TCS FL2 decoder to have a separate working red mars light and white backup light in the main rear light fixture. I found some very small red and warm white LEDs that will fit nicely in that limited space. I just need to decide whether I want to mount them directly on the shell or workup a fixture that attaches to the interior so disassembly remains easy.
1. The later runs of Genesis Fs are more detailed. None of my early run Rio Grande Fs have them. Not sure of a source for them.
2. I'm betting the lights your describe here are an Amtrak addition. Pretty sure they weren't there when in service as the CZ.
Something that helps with more realistic lighting is to dim the far too bright factory lighting. I wrote how I did this (really pretty easy) here: http://atlasrescueforum.proboards.com/thread/2266/dimming-constant-lighting-california-zephyr
Looks like many of the pics are down. I may be able to fix that if they're not there for you when you look. Let me know if you need me to do that.
Red markers would be displayed to the rear of the train - i.e. on the last car only.
If there aren't built-in electric lights (a "modern" feature) then marker lamps would be hung on brackets at the car corners.
Those electric markers as well as upgrades and conversion of the car to use Head-End-Power would be later upgrades.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
Hi All,
I've been doing a bit of research in preparation for further "accurizing" my HO scale California Zephyr cars and locomotives and I've run into a few questions concerning some lights that none of my usual sources have been able to answer for me:
1) My Genesis FP7 and F7B both have backup lights on the fireman's side of the rear door (F7B also has a backup light on the front end). My Genesis F3A, and two F3B's do not have these backup lights. Is this prototypical, or is this due to the fact that my F3's are from the early 2002 run? If they are supposed to have these backup lights, does anyone know of a source for the appropriate light fixture/bezel (it can be brass or plastic).
2)In looking at pictures of various CZ cars, I have noticed that some have red marker lights on either side of their diaphragms. Were these original to the cars, or a feature of the additional cars bought in 1952, or added later? Were they only present on the rear of the cars, or on the front as well? Under what circumstances were they illuminated? My Broadway Limited cars, which are otherwise bristling with details, are lacking these particular lights, which makes me wonder what their prototypical story is. For a picture showing the lights in question, here is a recent ad for the Silver Thrush: http://railswap.org/osc/classifieds/index.php?page=item&id=1936 . One of the lights in question can be seen just to the right of the diaphragm at the rear of the car. I'm just about to embark on a major lighting upgrade on my cars, so if I need to add these markers I'll put them on the to do list so it all gets done at once.
Any help is much appreciated.