Hey guys!
Working on my motive power. The RS-2's are in various states of (dis)repair... I'm awaiting parts and chasing gremlins. :-)
The Kato NW2 is running great with one smallish issue. The headlight(s) are orange! Not talking a bit of orange tint, but freaking pumpkin orange. I wrote to Kato and they assured me since the NW2 was a '40s design this was the norm. In fact, they said, EMD used to tint the lenses to achieve this effect. Seriously?! I come from a railroad family and worked for the Monon for a while and never saw an orange headlight coming down the line.
Back to my query... If I understand the headlights are illuminated by one bulb (LED?) that seems to be in the cab. Anyone replaced one of these widgets? Just looking to brighten things up a bit. Not looking for an arc light effect, but perhaps something to light up more than just the front coupler!
Any insight will be appreciated!
Amanda
Amanda,
Yeah, I don't know about orange. It used to be white LEDs were hard to make until the invention of the blue LED.
You can easily swap out the old school LEDs for new ones. If what's on last year's Christmas tree suit you, and they fit, there's a ready source.
Thing about LEDs is that they are polarized. One side goes to positive, the other to the negative. The longer leg is the positive one. Once they are cut, this may not hold true. Look into the "bulb" of the LED and you can see two electrodes. Install the new ones so they are aligned with the position of the old one and you'll be OK.
You may have to rework things to get it to fit properly inside the headlight assembly, so consider how it fit before you swap it before you start.
The Monon is my second favorite RR after the Rio Grande, so the Monon makes it to the mountains on my layout from time to time. Lived for a year when I was a teenager just across from a mill and quarry on the Maple Hill Branch southwest of Bloomington along Rockport Road. Wish I'd had the money for a better camera and more film. Here's the best of what's left of some crusty old Polaroids. The RS-2 seen here or another like it would run down from McDoel to work the quarry to mill service. It was awesome to hear those Alco 251s roar!
That was in 1970-1971, just as things were about to end.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Hi Mike!
I have a lot of memories of the Monon. The earliest was the passenger train crash that took out the old stone depot in Monon. We lived a couple of blocks from there and walked down to take a look after the dust settled. I was about 3-1/2 at the time.
For years we lived along the Michigan City line in Monon and I loved to listen for the local returning to town in the evenings. The sound of the horn getting louder as it got to the grade crossings closer and closer to town. The rumble of the BL2 (usually) diesel and finally the clickety, clackety, clang of the wheels passing over the rail joints.
It was a sad day when the Monon went away and I have no love for the L&N! I'll have none of their rolling stock on my rail empire! :-)
Anyhow, 'tis getting late an' I should probably call it a night.
Thanks for your reply!
Some "golden white" LEDs have an orangish lens to them but emit a yellowish white light. The ones that came with the Kato NW2s, however, are VERY orange and not prototypical at all.
I just switched out both the front & rear LEDs on my Kato NW2 switcher for Miniatronics Yeloglos and it worked just fine. As Mike mentioned, just use the old LED as a guide and cut the new LED to the same length. And resistors are already soldered onto the small lightboard that comes with the locomotive.
Having said that and IIRC, there is a little extra room to cut the legs of the front LED longer so that it ends up closer to the headlight lens. I also fitted a short piece of 1/8" OD black heat shrink over the head of the LEDs to focus the beam even more through the headlight lens; similar to the front lens on this Walthers SW1 I converted to DCC a fews years back:
The one issue that you may or may not be aware of with the Kato NW2s is the tight fit between the shell and the chassis. (Kato has a dedicated webpage about it.) Even with the Kato instructions, it's STILL a bear to get off!
I did follow their directions but ended up stressing the rounded transition betwen the front and side walkways on the shell. Since I was repainting the undecorated shell for my road (NYC) it was not as big a deal. However, you could see the stress/micro-tears to the plastic. I ended up repairing those micro-tears from the inside with Plastruct Plastic Weld. Hopefully your shell won't be as difficult to remove.
Once off you can remove some of the height of the four (4) chassis "dimples" with a small file to make the shell easier to remove in the future. Don't file it completely flat though. Otherwise, the shell will be too loose on the chassis.
Hope that helps...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Yippee! I managed to remove the shell from my switcher. I followed the instructions on the Kato site but, after about thirty minutes, decided this can't be right.
A little examination with my desk lamp and a magnifying glass, I noticed some small tabs that seemed to be just below the infamous dimples. Aha! Got my jeweler's screwdrivers and went to work. About five minutes of screwdriver-ing and prying, I had the darned thing off! The only damage is a few scrapes on the motor housing (That sucker is big!)
The LED's are a bit odd though, the flat spot is between the leads. Eh... that's where being a nerd comes in handy! :-)
Update! The LEDs finally came in... some 3mm warm white. Got the cab light replaced last night and it's pretty yellow, but it's a bright yellow and I can live with that. Only issue I had was putting the led on the wrong side of the circuit board. <arghh...> Oh, reassembling the cab was a bit tricky. More than two hands would be handy.
After a bit of thought though, I should have waited till after Wednesday. Those orange lights would have been great Halloween decoeations!
Anyway, working on the front light now. Should have my little NW back together by lunchtime!
Monon RailroaderThe LED's are a bit odd though, the flat spot is between the leads. Eh... that's where being a nerd comes in handy! :-)
A couple of aligator clips, each on a short lead and a battery comes in handy for testing LED's
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley