Here a few tips that I learned from my 2 BLI Hudsons. To get to LED, remove the cover on the boiler on the front. Pretty easy....just be gentle.
But thing I found with both of mine, is that they were kinda of dim. I noticed that LED (and the 2gen has the golden white led)wasnt aimed exactly at the headligth houseing. LED's have quite a bit of directional property to them. I carefully, pushed the LED back a little and lined it up to aim better on the headlight and got quite a bit of improvement. Might be worth checking to see if that is the case for yours as well.
Best Regards, Big John
Kiva Valley Railway- Freelanced road in central Arizona. Visit the link to see my MR forum thread on The Building of the Whitton Branch on the Kiva Valley Railway
The locomotives in the President's Choice train sets sold in Canada are from International Hobby Corporation (IHC) in Philadelphia, PA. Some other company is adding the rolling stock, power pack, and track to make a complete train set.
President's Choice are HO train sets released every year by Superstore/Loblaw's grocery stores here in Canada. They release a new one each year for Christmas.http://www.theweebsite.com/trains/pctrain_s.html
The 2005 set was the Hudson 4-6-4, made by IHC (Mehano) of Slovenia.http://www.mehano.si/?PID=21&PHPSESSID=t9lknpkqgbli92h8vp0glltjt5
I like the 4-6-4 Hudson a lot. The set itself is basic in quality, but the engine and tender are better quality. And if you want a Hudson (with smoke) to modify or tinker with, you get good bang for your buck getting this set for $49.99 (Reg. $99.99). The set has horn-hook couplers, but the tender car coupler can easily be changed.
For a beginner like me, I was pretty pleased with the President's Choice sets. I now have a couple of good engines to get started with, and lots of basic track and a cars to mess around with. After I added new couplers, I was off to the hobby shop to buy more cars.
My engines are:
4-6-4 Class K-5-A Hudson Steam Engine & Vanderbilt Tender CN 5702
2-10-2 "Big 10" T-2-A Santa-Fe Steam Engine & Vanderbilt Tender CN 4100
Ajelms, hey welcome to the site! Who make the Presidents Choice, or is that the name of the company and not a series name? I have seen the name a few times but with not knowing anything about them I never bought from them.
With the set being $50.00 more than likely the engine makers are not the same. Mine is a BLI or Broadway Limited Inports J 1 d Hudson New York Centeral. But if it is, I buy 4 of the sets!
What do you think of yours, any run time yet?
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
MisterBeasley, MY BLI came with the front of the engine off, I did not look hard but the bulb was right there. There is no light bar to transfer the light to the headlamp if that what you mean about the silly pipe.
Tom. I had no reason to check the light at the time. But I will pull the front off and check it out later.
Ken
I am new to this stuff, but this topic caught my attention because I just picked up a complete HO set that included a 4-6-4 Class K-5-A Hudson Steam Engine & Vanderbilt Tender CN 5702 with a smoker.
Loblaw's/ Superstore's here are clearing out last years Presidents Choice set for $49.99 Cdn.
If you are near the border, or new someone who was heading up here. You could get a 4-6-4 Hudson with a smoker for very cheap, and get some extra cars and track to boot.
Here is a link to a site that shows the President's Choice sets. The Hudson was the engine for 2005.
http://www.theweebsite.com/trains/pctrain_s.html
I'm thinking of getting one of those Hudsons. How hard is it to get to the headlight? Is it a simple matter of removing the shell, or do you risk having all the valve gear equipment falling apart in your hands?
Do they use one of those silly plastic "light pipes," as someone indicated? If so, then the right thing to do would be to remove both the bulb and the light pipe, and position a LED right up in front of the engine. I did that to a P2K S1 (cab end) and I was very happy with the results.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Ken,
Here's what an LED looks like:
The back end of an LED is flat; the front end, dome-shaped. Also, the LED "element" doesn't look anything like an incandescent bulb.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Tom, how canI tell if the Hudson has a LED or a incandescent? J has a bright white light.
I agree. An LED is the way to go for headlights. For the J class, a golden-white LED would be appropriate. It's bright and gives off a slightly yellowish hue that looks prototypical for that era.
Do you know if your J1e comes with an incandescent or LED headlight already? If it already comes with an LED, it should already have a resistor on the board and unsoldering the old LED and soldering in the new one should be fairly straightforward. For HO, a 3mm LED is the right size.
cudaken wrote: Pretty darn happy with the J1e, the tape under the tender fixed the sound and sounds very good now. Pulls 17 cars that are way over NMRA standerds (Lead cars from the 60 pull's) with out its traction wheels. I like it so much the Class J stays parked most of the time now. One thing the Class J has that the J1e is lacking is a great headlight! Can the J1e light be up graded to the level of the Class J? I like to run the bench with the room light's off. Dim light of the Hudson caused one wreck, I lost track of the Hudson and it rear ended the Class J and derailed some cars on to the A line (they where on the B line) and poor GS-4 ran into the over turned hoppers and took the leap of death to the floor. Needs new drive wheels. Other question, why do they not have smoke units in the better engines? Is it because of the mess leave on the track? Can a smoke unit be added to the BLI's? Ken from K-10 said the unit on AC would run so hot it could make the shell melt, you would think there is a way to control the heat. As far as I know only PCM offers smoke. With me being on the quest for a Big Boy in stead of the Athearn I will go with the PCN big boy. With some luck I will have on in Feb of this year. On the smoke, why does no one make a diesel that smokes? Cuda Ken
Pretty darn happy with the J1e, the tape under the tender fixed the sound and sounds very good now. Pulls 17 cars that are way over NMRA standerds (Lead cars from the 60 pull's) with out its traction wheels. I like it so much the Class J stays parked most of the time now.
One thing the Class J has that the J1e is lacking is a great headlight! Can the J1e light be up graded to the level of the Class J? I like to run the bench with the room light's off. Dim light of the Hudson caused one wreck, I lost track of the Hudson and it rear ended the Class J and derailed some cars on to the A line (they where on the B line) and poor GS-4 ran into the over turned hoppers and took the leap of death to the floor. Needs new drive wheels.
Other question, why do they not have smoke units in the better engines? Is it because of the mess leave on the track? Can a smoke unit be added to the BLI's? Ken from K-10 said the unit on AC would run so hot it could make the shell melt, you would think there is a way to control the heat. As far as I know only PCM offers smoke. With me being on the quest for a Big Boy in stead of the Athearn I will go with the PCN big boy. With some luck I will have on in Feb of this year.
On the smoke, why does no one make a diesel that smokes?
The BLI hudson or any model can have a bright headlight by replacing the present bulb or LED with the right LED. The small SMT LED can be placed in the headlight without using the common light pipe of plastic.
If you are ready for one of the PCM Big Boy's, they are now $325.00 at Factory Direct Trains, but are the non sound models.
http://factorydirecttrains.com/store/index.cfm
Atlas has some O scale diesels with smoke. But Alcos belched thick black smoke, not puffy white stuff, so until someone comes up with a chemical mix that gives a nice dark smoke, it's never going to look right.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.