Hey everyone, just wanted to document here what I did to improve the headlight on a Bachmann Spectrum HO scale 3-Truck 80-Ton Shay I own. This process could be applied to the rear light too but for now I just did the headlight since that is what I see most often.
I have owned this Shay for a number of years now. Got it back in 2015 I think off eBay. It had the typical Bachmann split gear issue and could only propel itself on 2 out of the 6 axles. Barely enough to get itself moving. So the first upgrade was swapping out the drive line with the replacement driveline Bachmann sells on their parts website. Glad they make those and improved the plastic since the NWSL metal gear replacement seems like a tough job!
I later went on to upgrade the decoder to a Soundtraxx Econami and it overall looks and sounds good, except for those terrible square headlights. What the model does is it has a light bulb down inside the boiler and it uses a square plastic channel to relect the light up and forward out of the headlight housing, but rather than use a round piece of plastic they chose a square one. So I decided to finally bite the bullet and fix the issue. Here is a before and after.
So first you want to follow the instructions on this website to disassemble the locomotive: http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/2012/06/bachmann-spectrum-shay-disassembly.html
Next, you want to follow these instructions I got from a guy on Facebook who had done it already, his advice was awesome:
1.The headlight housing is glued to the top of the smoke box on a little headlight stand. You need to pry the headlight off, but not the stand.
2. Get the smoke box cover off. It's glued on and you should be able to CAREFULLY pry it off with a hobby knife or tiny screw driver ( Just go really slow and it'll eventually come off. Just work all around the cover. Stick the edge of the knife in, twist, move the blade, and do it again.)
3. With the boiler front removed, you can slide the whole headlight base/square plastic channel forward and out of the way.
4. Remove the back cover to the headlight casing.
5. You can either remove the clear lens or reuse it, I just reused mine and never removed it.
6. Pull the square plastic light pipe out of the headlight base, and cut the wires to the factory incandescent bulb inside the boiler area. Be sure to leave enough wire for the soldering.
7. I chose to use a LED from Evan Designs, specifically a Nano LED designed to work with DCC and prewired with a resistor + rectifier: https://evandesigns.com/collections/hobby-leds/products/chip-nano-pico-leds
String the LED through the headlight base and glue the LED to the headlight back cover plate and string the wires through the hole where the factory incandecent bulb was. Trim the wires as much as you can but still use shrink wrap to keep electical problems from occuring since the motor is right there.
8. Paint the inside of the headlight "barrell" silver or white for a little extra pizazz.
9. Glue the backing plate with LED to the headlight housing.
10. You'll want to fill that hole in the bottom of the headlight housing where the plastic light channel was with a plastic putty. Otherwise, the light will leak down and shine on the top of the boiler.
11. Slide the headligth base back into place and glue the headlight back to the headlight mount.
12. Make a new lense out of clear plastic if you decided to replace the lense.
13. Glue the smoke box cover back on.
14. You're done! Reassemble the model and just do the rear!
What started as a love of Thomas the Tank Engine has grown into this... a passion for all things railroading!
YouTube: FJX2000 Productions
Insta: hayden_trains_n_fjs
Nice work, FJX! Thanks for sharing!
I've been installing front & rear headlights in some brass locomotives recently using SMD LEDs and magnet wire and have been satisfied with the results. It's gratifying when you put it all back together and works like it's supposed to.
I assume you went with the warm-white LED? I added my own resistor and went with 10K rather than 1K. I really like the look of the headlights with the higher resistance.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Thank you! And yes I used warm white. I enjoy the brightness of these LEDs since I love the look of the model going through tunnels and you actually being able to see the tunnel light up! I have installed these same LEDs now in a Bachmann 2-8-0, ConCor Galloping Goose, Rivarossi Cab Forward, and I'm sure there will be more in the future! If I have a model with enough room and I feel adventurous enough I may even add more creative lights in the future like firebox flicker or running lights or stuff like that!