i have decided to take a stab at HO for awhile after being with n. i own a whopping 20 sticks of atlas code 83 flex and a new, old stock, athearn f7 and 2 UP passenger cars! anyway, that f7 has a terrible headlight setup in my opinion. it only cost 38 bucks to my door, but can i do anything about the headlight? its a dim lightbulb sitting about where the crew should be and the 2 lens dont light up at all. this is a dc setup for now. surely, there is some kind of aftermarket kit or whatever to fix this. thanks…
Make a light shield. Roll a tube of white paper and fit it over the bulb and over the lens in the front of the locomotive. Tape the light shield to the lamp bracket. It guides all the light out the lens and make the cab dark.
Similar to David’s suggestion, but use a brass tube - more light tight, and dissipates the heat.
All of my Athearn Fs have been converted to DCC.
I use a small structure bulb and socket with a heat shrink cover. Then I mount it on th front clip. Since I don’t use the original bulb I can trim or bend the clip to the right height for the lens(s). Sometimes, I put in an aluminum foil heat shield above the bulb to dissipate the heat a little.
Haven’t had any trouble with any of the installations so far.
i can do this, thanks for the info…
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Old timers simply removed the bulb and hard wire LEDs.
where do i get those LED’s? thanks…