I have a USRA Light 4-8-2 Item No. 81602 and installed an MRC 1650 4 function decoder.  I made no other modifications other than plugging in the 8 pin decoder (after removing the jumper).  I am using an MRC Prodigy advance DCC system.

1.  The headlight is dim, not as bright as when operating on straight DC.  What voltage lamp is factory installed?  Any thoughts on how to make it brighter?

2.  Any guidance on how to dissassemble the loco?  In particular, how to remove the boiler shell in order to access the light PCB?

I have used Atlas code 83 flex track and am pretty happy with it.  Other brands are usually twice as expensive or more.  Any real advantage to the the more expensive brands of flex track?

Tim,
Thanks for the advise.  I did not touch any of the wires.  I simply removed the jumper from the PCB in the tender and plugged in the decoder, verifying the red wire on the decoder did in fact plug in to the red pin on the PCB.

Hoople,
Thanks for the decoder advise.  These MRC decoders have no shrink wrap.  We'll see how long they last.

I have a USRA Light 4-8-2 Item No. 81602 and installed an MRC 1650 4 function decoder.  I made no other modifications other than plugging in the 8 pin decoder (after removing the jumper).  I am using an MRC Prodigy advance DCC system.

1.  The headlight is dim, not as bright as when operating on straight DC.  What voltage lamp is factory installed?  Any thoughts on how to make it brighter?

2.  Any guidance on how to dissassemble the loco?  In particular, how to remove the boiler shell in order to access the light PCB?