Ditch lights

[cacole]

tstage

Did any FM H10-44s ever have ditch lights?

Tom

 

If they did, they would probably look as out of place as the ditch lights on Grand Canyon Railway's steam engines.

Getting back to the original question, Richmond Controls has super-bright white surface mount square LEDs that are pre-wired and could possibly be used to represent ditch lights without needing any type of additional housing.  I don't recall the catalog number for them, but they are sold by Litchfield Station and Ulrich Models.  Installing these requires special tools and advanced soldering skills due to the extremely small size of the wire, which is barely larger than a spider web.

http://www.mr-dcc.com

http://www.ulrichmodels.biz 

Another important consideration for the OP's question is, does the decoder in the Walthers locomotive have ditch light functions available?   If not, there's no way to make them "operational" if he means he wants them to flash.  Just because it's a QSI decoder doesn't mean that is has ditch light capability if it has been custom made for Walthers.

 

[rrinker]

tstage

Did any FM H10-44s ever have ditch lights?

Tom

 I was thinking the same thing. However, if there are any left in service today, even on a tourist line, they would have to have them added. First gen road switchers and cab units look silly with ditch lights grafted on, but them's the rules, in the US at least.

                                         --Randy

 

[tstage]

Did any FM H10-44s ever have ditch lights?

Tom

[loathar]

I got a set of these.
http://www.accuratelighting.com/HOscale/Electrical/HoscaleElectrical_DitchLights.htm
They come with bulbs, wires, resistors and metal housings. I wouldn't say working ditch lights are EZ to install. I probably rate them a 5-6 on a 1-10 difficulty factor. (and I have some electronics back ground)

[tsasala]

MRR has a nice video on how to do this. I don't recall if it's free, or part of their monthly dream, plan, build series.

[modelmaker51]

Operating ditch lights? How good are your soldering and modeling skills? Details West has them, but you would have to add and wire your own light source, ie LEDs or lightbulbs - something for more advanced modelers.

[Northernwoodw]

Where can you buy ditch lights and how hard would it be to install in a Walthers PROTO 2000 FM H10-44 with dcc and sound?