4-8-2 Mountain headlight replacement

[OlddManWithHO]

Sir, Mr Bach Man!

     Just ordered a Spectrum unlettered 4-8-2 Mountain loco and was wondering is it possible to order a replacement headlight assembly with number boards that have some loco numbers on the boards?

Roger Merritt

[rogertra]

Sir, Mr Bach Man!

     Just ordered a Spectrum unlettered 4-8-2 Mountain loco and was wondering is it possible to order a replacement headlight assembly with number boards that have some loco numbers on the boards?

Roger Merritt

You can buy decals in your road name font specifically for your road name.  Adding decals and extra details is all part of this hobby.

Cheers

Roger T.

[electrical whiz kid]

Yeah, Roger...
How are YOUR eyes these days? 
Seriously, I had picked up decals that worked for me.  They require PATIENCE, and an orderly plan.  I installed them on a couple of my engines, and they are-shall I say-delicate?  You have three or four numbers to install singly.  It is fun...
SGT C.

[rogertra]

Yeah, Roger...
How are YOUR eyes these days?  
Seriously, I had picked up decals that worked for me.  They require PATIENCE, and an orderly plan.  I installed them on a couple of my engines, and they are-shall I say-delicate?  You have three or four numbers to install singly.  It is fun...
SGT C.

Since you ask, I am blind in the left eye and have a plastic lens in the right eye.  Everything closer than eight feet away is out of focus so I need +3 magnification reading glasses and an illuminated magnifying lens for detail work.  All my locos, steam and diesel are individually numbered both on the cabs and in the illuminated number boards.  I have my own road name so I have no choice, I can't run on down to the local hobby store and buy a readily painted and decaled loco, if I want to add another loco to the GER fleet, I have to paint it, decal it and weather it, nobody does that for me.  Besides, this is a hobby.  In a hobby you do not just run down to a local hobby store and buy everything you want, you build as much of it as your can yourself.  That's a hobby.  Having a railroad where your purchased everything at a hobby store isn't a model railroad, that's a train set.  

The newer generation seems to think "Model Railroading" is running down to the store and buying everything.  No it isn't.  Yes decaling requires patience and a steady hand but it's a skill a modeller needs to learn.  Just like adding details, painting models, weathering models, kitbashing models etc., etc..  If you need it and it's not available, build it.  That's model railroading.  Not whipping out a credit card.

Cheers

Roger T.

[electrical whiz kid]

Roger;
I wasn't aware of your condition.  That has to be tough to get around.  Both of my arms were out of commission, and could barely use my left hand to type-and I thought that was bad.  As a guitarist, I had, over the years, become familiar with the likes of Django Reinhart, he had his left hand burnt pretty badly in a caravan fire and had lost the use of his third and fourth left fingers.  He became a total jazz virtuoso!  If you are a guitarist, and you can't aspire to play at least that well, then you'd best not quit your day job...My opinion to the crybabies.
On the hobby:  I am in complete agreement with you, having had joined the hearty ranks of scratch-builders long ago.
Roger, I couldn't begin to tell you how many parts makers are out there.  I have, in my computer, about three hundred e-mail addresses.  I do not mean to thump my chest; there isn't anything you cannot build because you cannot find the parts.  Sooner or later, you will stumble upon them.  Guys like Bob Van Gelder and George Sellios are a great inspiration  to model making, and I like to aspire to be that good; if only for my own satisfaction.
Even going online to Tichy Trains or Sylvan, etc can be an adventure in finding scratch builders parts.  My usual plan of action is to drag the girlfriend to any craftsman type train show and find those parts you would NEVER find in an LHS.
Dealing with Northeastern or F&C can be interesting, to say the least.
For the guys who are getting into the hobby there is myriad parts out there-certainly more than when I started monkeying around with this stuff.  And by the way:  THE WHOLE PROCESS IS A TOTAL BLAST!
SGT C
 

[rogertra]

Well said Sarg. 

And you are a musician.  I'm jealous.  Always wanted to play an instrument.

BTW, I failed to mention, even with my eyesight the way it is, I'm the resident lighting designer for a local professional ballet company.

I light performances like this, our current production: -

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153059697749583&fref=nf

Cheers

Roger T.