The chassis and motor that comes with the older Rivarossi E units are o.k. but I wanted something better. After searching around I found a brass chassis specifically made for these units, made by Ajin of Korea.The craftman ship on the trucks is well done and for me beautiful just to look at. I has an Ajin can motor that runs smoothly with a straight metal rod shaft going in both directions to the gears in each truck. I have to admit though these custume brass chassis cost more than the two Rivarossi engines
It comes with a brass "I" shaped bracket that you attach to the roof with four rods that hang down and slip directly into four poles the stick up from the chassis floor, so the shell is stable when attached to the chassis. Believe it or not these brass drive chassis are engineered such that the shell slips right on. And for me a perfect fit.
The running is fantastic and it has good pulling power.
The thing that is missing are the headlights and cab light. So, now I went into the pondering mode; What to do? I had run out of Evans Design LED headlights that are easy to wire to the motor or chassis and look great when power is applied, but since I did not have any on hand I looked for another solution; then the light bulb in my head lit up. I had just purchased several packs of the Model Power building lights. The new ones are different than the previous model. The new ones have a very bright light that are white in color almost like bright LED lights.
I stacked up three layers of double sided tape this fit right to the nose of the chassis. I then shortened the wires on the light source that go to the motor. Rember, depending how you attach the wires the power source is directional. I had to attach the wires coming from the light to the powered wires to see which way the light worked when going forward. Once I figured that out I placed the Model Power building light on the sticky tape as close to the nose as possible so the light would shine directly into the clear plastic channel tubeing that guides the light to the headlight and number boards.
Now the test drive. After placing the engine on the tracks and powering up, to my amazement it worked. It is a very bright light, the cab, headlight, and number board were all lit up with one light source.
It is also cheaper than buying headlights, four lights to a pack for about 6 or 7 dollars at my hobby shop.
So if you want headlights for your engines or replace the old bulbs in your Athearn units give it a try.
Robert Sylvester
Newberry Columbia Line
If I read your post correctly you are running a dc layout and not a dcc layout. In the event you are running dc you can also add a diode in one leg of your headlight wires which will allow it to turn on when runnning forward and off when running in reverse
I appreciate that but the way it is wired it already does that. For some reason when the engine goes forward the light comes on and you see the cab lit, the number board lit as well as the headlight. The light goes off when I am in reverse. If I reverse the wiring then the light only comes on going backwards. Can the diode keep the light on no matter which direction the engine is going? And yes it is a DC layout.
Newberry-Columbia Line
apparently there already is a diode in the circuit. eliminating it will accomplish what you want to do.
robert sylvesterCan the diode keep the light on no matter which direction the engine is going?
Diodes = think of a one way street.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley