Athearn GP-7 reversing headlights

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have an HO Scale Athearn GP-7 that is straight DC and I was wondering if it would be possible to set it up with reversing headlights. If so, how would I do it and what would I need? Thanks in advance for any help.

2

there have been several articles in Model Railroader magazine on this over the years but the exact issue excapes me at this time. It is pretty much “wooden axle” technology by today’s standards and only involves a couple of diodes. If you want constant intensity lighting, there is a bit more involved including the use of 1.5 volt led’s. I am sure you will get a response with all the information you need soon.

grizlump

3

http://www.mrollins.com/constant.html try this.

grizlump

4

Many thanks! I’ve chosen the setup I want to try and saved in my Favs., I’ll post the results when I build and test it.

5

The Constant brightness circuit mentioned earlier works. I have it in three Athearn GP38’s. It’s cool to have the locomotives stopped with the headlights on. I remember putting just a directional headlamp circuit into a rubber band drive Athearn GP7 many years ago. That was just a diode in series with each headlamp bulb. It took some fiddling around to get the diodes right way round so that the proper headlamp lit up. Now a days I tend to omit directional headlamps. When the locomotive is on the layout and fails to run, seeing the headlamp light up lets me know the electricity is getting to the locomotive. With directional headlamps there is a 50-50 chance the headlamp I can see is the one the diode is keeping dark.

Athearn headlamps tend to glow in the cab and show thru the cab windows. The engine will look more prototypical if you arrange some light shields to direct the light out the headlamp lenses and keep the cab windows dark.

6

I thought about that and have some ideas on how I’m going to block the lights from the cab as I’m a big fan of Athearns owned a number of them over the years. Thanks bunches for the info., I’ve learned a lot from this posting.

7

It’s pretty easy to add some metal tubing around the lights so they only shine forwards.