Wiring a light on a dummy calf unit

[cedarwoodron]

I have this old EMD calf with trucks that appear to have plastic wheels/metal axles set into metal housings. I saw the old wiring article for lighting tenders and got the idea that I could light up the empty hood light housing by wiring an LED to the front truck. If I replace the plastic+metal wheels with all metal ones, would the metal wheels rotating in the housings allow a simple left+ right electrical pickup for such a circuit? Or...has someone already done this and can offer advice? Thanks for any feedback. Cedarwoodron

[gandydancer19]

I don't see why it wouldn't work.  If you are using DCC, you should add a diode and resistor in series with the LED.  I would also be inclined to replace all the plastic wheels with metal ones.

[wjstix]

It should work, although you may still have some "flickering" of the rear headlight. There are some light systems out there that have a capacitor or something so when the wheels lose power for a second it keeps the light lit...I think there are some battery powered lights that also can be set up to be recharged from track power.

If you run the two engines together (as you normally would in a cow-and-calf arrangement) you could also run two small wires back from the powered engine and use that to light the calf.

If you're in DCC, you could get a powered chassis with headlight and replace the dummy calf chassis with a powered one, install a decoder, then set the CVs so they run together as one unit.

[cadman11]