2-6-0 tender backup light

[Barry Karlberg]

How difficult would it be to re-position the 2-6-0, tender backup light to the rear center rather than the engineer's side?

Thanks,

Barry

[Doneldon]

Barry-

Not difficult. It's basically an appearance thing.

                                                              -- D

[Barry Karlberg]

Thanks, Don.

More to the point how would it be done?

Barry

[blwfish]

Here's a (crude) cut-away photo of that tender.



The backup light is the surface-mount LED that you can see below the backup light.  There's a light pipe that runs directly up from the LED into the light casting.  Relocating the light would involve either a more sophisticated light pipe arrangement that probably has two bends. Alternatively you could simply remove the small circuit board with the LED entirely and replace it with a hard-wired LED, probably mounted directly in the (relocated) light. I'd say that the latter is probably the less difficult approach. That's what I'm going to do as the entire tender silhouette is wrong for my application (a very rare C&O E-5).

[Barry Karlberg]

Thanks, blwfish.

Great information, straight to the point and easy to understand.
If one were to use a "light pipe" and try to bend it what that entail?
"Light pipe" and source?

Thanks,

Barry

[blwfish]

A light pipe is usually a clear styrene rod.  In this particular case, the one in the tender now goes straight up from the LED to into the backup light casting. If you making the tender deck taller, it would be a trivial matter to pull it out and substitute a longer one. If you're good at bending styrene, this might not be so hard, but most of us aren't so good at this type of thing.  Writing this now it occurs to me that perhaps the pipe doesn't need to be bent, it could be three pieces with properly cut angles - that would not be too hard, if it works.

[blwfish]

I just took a closer look at the tender, and it might be easier than I had originally thought. The little circuit board with the LED on it has longer wires on it than I had initially thought, so if you remount it in the center of the tender, you can probably re-use the light casting and the stock light pipe. That requires creating some sort of hole in the weight for the screw to fit into, but that shouldn't be hard. The main difficulty with this plan is that I am fairly sure that the light casting is cemented to the tender shell with plastic cement, and not with some form of CA. At least, my CA debonder did not loosen any of the detail parts on the boiler, such as the bell. I would not bet on getting the light casting off all that easily. You might have to cut it off flush?

[richg]

Install a light fixture in the center of the tender shell. Put an LED in it. Unsolder the original LED and solder the wires from the new LED to the point of the original of the old LED. The original LED resistor is on the PC board.
Using a Optivisor and fine point soldering iron, this can be done.
I have done SMD soldering. You can even replace the resistor with a 1k resistor if the resistance is a little too high and you want a brighter light. The resistance is marked on the resistor chip.
Many Bachmann locos have somewhat dim lights because the LED resistor values is too high. Many LED's have a 20 ma max and 1k resistor allows about 9 ma which many use.

Rich

[electrical whiz kid]

The LED setup with the LED physically mounted into the lamp fixture itself-is a smashing idea!  I have two mantua Camelbacks I had done that to.  Sure, the wire leads are seen protruding from the rear of the fixture, but that can be disguised o that they "blend" into the appearance.
One other option I would like to mention is the use of optic fibres.  These are a plastic (Lucite, etc) used to transmit light.  They are gathered together at the light source. cut and polished (sort of) so [that]they are smooth.  the load end I have done this:  Put heat to it, it will bubble.  Let it then cool off, then take a hobby knife, and cut it across the bubble, make thqt smooth, put it into the area y ou want lit, clue it, and there you have it!!!  There are several sources besides Micromark.  It would be good to read up on this prior to doing it.   
RIch C

[Barry Karlberg]

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions I now have a better idea about how to proceed.

Barry

[MarkInLA]

Hi. I stumbled onto this thread and noticed Rich's expertise about loco lighting..So, I am cheating a tad here to ask: Is there a way to make HO 2-8-0 headlight as bright as the 2-6-0 I too own ? Mogul has one of the best Ive ever seen..connie is one of the worst ..And mogul isn't even Spectrum as is connie !
Thanks,
Mark

[Doneldon]

Mogul has one of the best Ive ever seen..connie is one of the worst ..And mogul isn't even Spectrum as is connie !

Mark-

The brightness of a light isn't an indication of quality.

                                                                      -- D

[jonathan]

Mark,

The Connie headlight is dim because the LED (or conventional bulb, if you have an older version) is sandwiched between the locomotive motor assembly frames.  The light is projected into a plastic "light pipe" which travels through the smokebox, then into the headlight assembly.  Solid construction, but terribly inefficient.

I do a bit of tinkering and move the LED directly into the headlight.  It is very, very bright as a result.  This is not prototypical of steam headlights, but I like it, so rule one applies.

So, it is possible to make the headlight brighter, but you may not like all the work involved.

If I had the Mogul, I would do the same to the reverse light.  When it comes to running model trains, I like bright lights... just because. 

Regards,

Jonathan