I am thinking about replacing the bulb in a Athearn HO blue box engine with a miniature bulb to the shell. I will probably be converting the engine to DCC in the future. Has any one done this and any ideas on how to do this?
The Athearn blue box locomotives can be improved with the addition of a light shield that directs the light to headlight lens and prevents the lamp from showing thru the cab windows. On the F units a simple tube rolled up from white paper and taped to the lamp bracket was very effective. On the GP38's I placed a constant lighting circuit and a 1.5 volt bulb on a piece of vectorboard the fits into the cab ceiling to light the number boards and the short hood headlight. I added a second bulb in the long hood for that headlight. For long time I was a fan of directional headlights, and added many a diode to make the "forward" headlight go on and the reverse headlight to go off. Nowadays I like BOTH headlights to go on as an indication that a stalled train is getting power and the reason it isn't moving is some kind of mechanical problem rather than electrical. So I omit the headlamp reversing diodes.
David Starr
What I do is glue a length of 1/8" ID Brass tubing to the inside of the shell, then just stick the bulb in. (I do NOT use the factory lights, just GOW bulbs on pigtails hard wired to the frame)
Don
-- snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net
Thanks, probably cheaper that the miniature bulb.
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