It has been a while since I have done anything in the hobby. (about 10 years). Hence the name of my railraod. but any ways I am working on getting my engines back in order as well as finishing some kits up and would like to upgrade several of my locomotives from having just the jewell lights to actually having either an LED or Wheat bulb in both the front and rear of my engines. Granted most of these kits were the old round house engines and were thus plastic. Is there any way of installing lights into the current fixtures with out melting or changing the light fixture? I would also like to upgrade the system to DCC in the next couple of months and probably have sound in a few of them.... I havent found any information of either in the forums as of yet... I have shot the dealers and Digitrax for some information but no replys after a week. I live in the middle of nowhere now and Caboose hobbies is nolonger just across town...My books are all outdated as far as wiring goes...since they were my late fathers.. Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I am in the process of doing the same thing. For an ahm steamer (080)I am using a piece of acrylic light rod to fit in the hole and will light it from behind mounted on the metal weight. The roundhouse rs-2 I have will get a piece of alumin tube the size of the grain of wheat bulb and fit that inside of the tube. Hopefully that will keep anything from melting. I have a bachman gp-40 that I broke the light bars on so they will also get the light tube treatment. Make sure there is a resistor in place when using the grain of wheats or led. they will go fast if you don't( ask me how I know that)
Lets see if there is any other advise we could use.
Mike
alco's forever!!!!! Majoring in HO scale Minorig in O scale:)
Lost
I have the attitude of if Im going to replace the light bulb I may as well fit an LED instead. The deciding factor was an Atlas RS1 that I decodered and put 14 volt bulbs in. When I fit the shell back on I must have disloged the headlight. An hour of running and the shell melted. Since then any time I open a loco, Pasenger car or anything with a light gets an LED and 1K resistor.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
One difference is that with a grain of wheat, you have two small insaulated wires that have to be run to the power source. Usually a hole or two needs to be drilled. With the LED you have two larger uninsulated bars sticking out that need wires soldered to them. This affects the size and placement of the holes. I have gotten LEDs in even metel engines but it takes more work to find a place for the lead wires or metal tabs.
You can trim the leads on the LED down to just big enough nubs to solder the wires on. With a 3mm LED that makes it no bigger than a GOW bulb as far as the rigid part. You cna even turn down the flange - you can turn down the overall diameter of the LED too if you're careful not to go so far as to compromise where the leads penetrate the case. And you can cut the length down by quite a bit - if you hold the LED up to a bright light you can see a little whisker wire coming from the anode terminal - you can cut the top of the LED down to just above that without damaging it. Or use surface mount LEDs which are already incredibly tiny - small enough for HO markers.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thank you guys! After reading your replys and reading other material on this site I am deffinatly hooked again! I guess I got answers from some thof the best here. Art... Your RR is absolutly beautiful and I love the dining room set up... totally cool.. Couldnt pick a better decor if I tried! I will most likely be asking alot of questions soon!
Thanks again!
If you decide to upgrade your engines to sound, the quantum revolution is a nice way to go. The outputs are 5 Volts, but they already have resistors inline for 1.5V bulbs, and LEDs. So you don't have to wire up additional resistors! This is a huge space saver! If the bulb/LED is too bright, or dim, that too can be programmed.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
lost&forgotn... would like to upgrade several of my locomotives from having just the jewell lights to actually having either an LED or Wheat bulb in both the front and rear of my engines.
Granted most of these kits were the old round house engines and were thus plastic. Is there any way of installing lights into the current fixtures with out melting or changing the light fixture?
I live in the middle of nowhere now and Caboose hobbies is nolonger just across town...
Texas Zephyr, and Digital,
Thanks for your ideas. I am going to check into the quantum revolution, that is a company that I havent heard of yet... but sounds like a great idea! I am also glad to hear that you were able to install a light into roundhouse 2-8-0. It gives me a sigh of relief. There is a chance of actually making these models into something realistic if I can get the rest of the bugs worked out of them. There is some kind of resistance in the mechanism that I am trying to eliminate so that they will run smoother. I think that they dont run as well as they should. It's time to go back to the drawing board here on them to get them running smoother. Its a long process to work out but the end result should be better.
Texas,
I live in Miles city, MT. which is located in eastern Montana. 170 miles east of Billings. The closest hobby shop that carries anything remotely involved with model railroading is located there...and he is only open a few days a week... Nothing like Caboose Hobbies who spoiled me with all the information and basically anything I would need or could think of in the hobby... Thank goodness that they are online shopping..! I am still modeling different parts of the Colorado rail lines due to that is where I am from and have the most fond memories... I was hooked on them as a kid...just like my father who actaully remembered the Colorado and Southern running in Golden...( remembered fighting fires every time the C&S came up north to the Brick yards for loads and started a fire every trip up there.) Most of what I am modeling is the old C&S lines because of my first hand knowledge of the Golden, clear creek canyon, Central city/ Black hawk. to Georgetown areas.... Though many of my own personal trips took me to areas like the Alpine tunnel and Silverton. even have first hand knowledge of the Alpine area in the winter... (spent spring break snowshoeing all of the way up to the tunnel. ( not a suggestion by any means... there is a reason that they abandoned this route!)) But a trip that anyone who is interested in should definatly take a trip to see....
I guess that the most ironic thing about me modeling the Colorado lines is that I am a QA/HSE manager for a railcar repair facility that is housed in the old Milwakie rail shops that were built in the late 1890's to 1910. Most of the buildings here are the original brick buildings that were used by them to repair their cars... The foundations for the roundhouse and water tower is still here as well as the shops that we use to repair cars including the transfer table... but I have little interest in modeling this... My office is in the original Milwakie shops office... Kind of ironic eh? It would be a great model for anyone interested in a medium sized switching operation, as the yard here has about 20 miles of track with a great amount of switching ideas for a prototypical operation. I should post a forum on this for anyone interested in modeling a meduim sized yard ( holds about 1000 cars at any given time) cause I have kind of a first hand experience with the modern operations of this facility and some of the original operations from some of the older employees that were here when it was being run by the original company. Sorry got off on a tangent....LOL
Glen