Hi folks,
I own a Mehano 2-10-2 that I upgraded to look more similar like a SP F5 2-10-2. This included attaching a Precision Scale brass visor to the Mehano headlight in order to resemble more a late steam era SP style headlight.
Now I purchased a Westside brass SP GS-8 4-8-4 (actually a Cotton Belt 4-8-4) that I wanna modify into a Mexican NdeM QR-1 4-8-4. That model has the perfect headlight for my Mehano SP F5 2-10-2, so I would like to attach it to the F5, while at the same time, the headlight of the Mehano engine is perfect for a NdeM 4-8-4, so I would like to attach it to the Westside engine.
The Westside 4-8-4 engine has no headlight installed yet, but I plan to install a LED one. The headlight of the Mehano 2-10-2 engine is a conventional light bulb that works fine and that I don´t wanna change. That means that the 4-8-4 should receive a LED which shall be placed just behind the headlight casing of the 2-10-2, while the light bulb of the 2-10-2 must be squeezed through the brass headlight casing of the 4-8-4.
How can I attach the brass headlight casing of the 4-8-4 to the smokebox door of the 2-10-2 in a way so that the round hole in the middle can get covered as much as possible? The problem is that the light bulb must be somehow attached to the headlight casing in a way, that there is no light coming out between the back of the headlight casing and the smokebox door and also that the bulb isn´t too much "hanging" out of the headlight casing on the front.
The problem with the headlight casing of the 2-10-2 is, that an LED light unfortunately cannot be placed inside it (although there would be enough space for it) but only behind it. Drilling a small hole in to the brass smokebox door of the 4-8-4 shouldn´t be so hard, but I´m afraid that the light will not be visible very well if the LED is placed inside the boiler behind the smokebox door and behind the backside of the headlight casing.
What do you guys think? Any advice?
Here are 3 pictures, showing the smokebox doors of the 4-8-4 and 2-10-2 with the headlight casing of the 2-10-2 in between and showing the prototypes for comparison so that you have a better idea of what I´m talking about.
De LuxeThe problem with the headlight casing of the 2-10-2 is, that an LED light unfortunately cannot be placed inside it (although there would be enough space for it) but only behind it. Drilling a small hole in to the brass smokebox door of the 4-8-4 shouldn´t be so hard, but I´m afraid that the light will not be visible very well if the LED is placed inside the boiler behind the smokebox door and behind the backside of the headlight casing. What do you guys think? Any advice?
So basically there would be an LED placed far back from the lens? headlights tend to work OK with an LED at the back of the casting. You're talking maybe another scale foot?
You should be OK. Any of the LEDs, with proper resistance, will easily porvide lots of light. If you can squeeze a 3mm LED back there, it will be fine. If the hole needs to be smaller, check out the Richmond Controls/Ulrich Models prewired surface-mount device tiny LEDs prewired with leads. I use these for all my difficult space-limited installs. I tend to run 5k to 10,000 ohms or higher resistance to dim them to more realistic steam era expectations.
This is an install on my first piece of brass, an old Westside HOn3 C-25, using an MV lens. The headlight is pretty deep on it and works well.
The MV lens has a reflective coating so you don't need a bulb. I scratch a small opening on the back of it, leaving most of the coating to appear to be a reflector, then glue the lens on the front of the headlight case as I button things up. So the LED is sitting all the way in the back of the casting. The light appears to be like a conventional reflector headlight, so plenty of light gets out, through the small centered opening scratched in the coating.
The leads on this tiny thing look like scale electric cables, so looks good from the outside if they do have to run like that to get back to the boiler. I give them a bit of black liquid elecftrical tape to make them look right. May not matter if something else is the problem, but this solves the problem of getting power to them.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
De Luxe How can I attach the brass headlight casing of the 4-8-4 to the smokebox door of the 2-10-2 in a way so that the round hole in the middle can get covered as much as possible? The problem is that the light bulb must be somehow attached to the headlight casing in a way, that there is no light coming out between the back of the headlight casing and the smokebox door and also that the bulb isn´t too much "hanging" out of the headlight casing on the front.
Hi De Luxe,
Heres what I thought up
Use something like a plastic rod, plastic tube, modeling clay, etc and apply it, then drill a hole in the center and sand it down to match the boiler. then you paint it white/silver
Or fill it in with a really think sheet (so you can keep that roundish shape of the boiler front) of syrene and sand it down to match the boiler...then drill a hole.
Just some thoughts...
Charles
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Modeling the PRR & NYC in HO
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Hello,
(Sorry, I saw this post a few days ago but I've been very busy at work...)
Yes, you could put a bright LED in the boiler and the light will get through. I've used part of a heat shrink tube to close the gap on one of my locos. But it's a bit sad to sacrifice a part from a brass engine for that. The parts from the old MDC kits are great for that. They were often based on the SP prototype too. I'm sure you can find some on ebay... There is also Cal scale (Bowser) parts.
Good luck.
Simon
I'd like to see your Mehano 2-10-2 SP conversion. Any pictures?
Thanks everybody for your advides. Since you told me that the light of a LED should be bright/powerful enough, I will leave the LED inside the boiler just behind the smokebox door. Will save me a lot of head ache I guess. So only drilling a hole through the headlight casing of the SP 4-8-4 will be a bit complicated I guess.
@ southgate: Here are some photos of my "espee-ized" Mehano 2-10-2. I modified the cab with styrene to make it rectangular (will do the same with the GS-8 4-8-4 to make it a NdeM QR-1 4-8-4 one), I added a Bachmann Hicken style tender, Champ decals, Precision Scale brass numberboards, visor for headlight and SP late steam era solid steel pilot. I´m not a detail fanatic, so I´m happy with the model now. Only thing what I still want to change is to remove the center dome because the F5´s only had 2 domes. I tried to remove it but it wasns´t possible. I was afraid to break something so I didn´t try it anymore. By the way: Tomorrow a DCC decoder with speaker will be added to this engine, as well as smoke unit and cab light. Then it will be finally be complete and finished except the headlight casing, which I wanna exchange with the headlight of the GS-8 4-8-4 of course. So these are the last photos of it with the original headlight casing, which will soon become the headlight casing of my NdeM QR-1 4-8-4.