I want to take an Athearn GP38-2 RTR out of the box and turn it into a pleasing piece of motive power.
I eventually would like DCC, but would like to start with the headlights, ditch lights etc…
Can anyone point my in the right direction?
Firstly is this one of the loco’s that athern did with the DCC plug???
If so you can start by using one the many available plug in decoders.
If not you’re up to hard wiring a decoder. A lot of the DCC sites have examples of how to wire up the lights. Take your time and plan it carefully - you’ll be right.
Tim
No. This is without the DCC ready feature.
As far as lights… it only has one “big” one “inside” the cab.
Don’t you hate that big light that just sits inside the locomotive and make everything inside light up? I do. As far as Athearns, they usually have the light in front connected to a metal plate. I take the whole thing off., cut the wires and replace the light with a “Grain of Wheat” bulb. Why? Athearns put they light on that plate so it don’t touch the shell. It could melt it because of high voltage and make the light burn hot. Learned from experiance. The Grain of wheat bulb wouldn’t melt anything. As far as lights, if the lens is not a dummy lens, then you good to go.
Here is MY quick and easy and very cheap way to eliminate light showing up anywhere else but where you want it.
1,get your grain of wheat bulb ($1.00 at a hobby store)
2. solder the 2 wire to the motor (the metal clip on the bottom and top)
3 make sure when running the loco that the light works (Note: this operation is not for “directional” lighting, so running when running the loco backwards the light should still work.
4. Get some “Cardboard” slightly thick like a postal box or or shoe box.
5. Cut and fit the cardboard where the light lens are. Try to get it snugged against the inside of the shell.
6. Place the shell on the chassis. Make sure that the piece of cardboard don’t interfere with the front or back trucks while turning
7. Run the loco to see if it still operates the same and listen for scrapping noses (If it didn’t originally have any)
8. If all is good, take the shell off and take the cardboard out.
9. Glue the light bulb to the cardboard with a hot glue gun. Make sure your it’s on “Lo Temputure”
10. Place the cardboard with the light attached back into the shell. Use hot glue again on the same temputure to glue down the edges. Get a black magic marker and color the cardboard so it black. It keeps the light from leaking through the cardboard It’s dries in about 2 secs. Place the shell back on the loco and presto. Lighted where it supposed to be.
I have a question reguarding the lights. If you were using a traditional DCC decoder in the loco, not quick plug. Could you connect the grain of rice bulbs to the white wire on the decoder in order to have the same lighting effect?
That I can’t tell you because I don’t know exactly what kind of decoder you have. I would say try it, but you decoder may be sensitive and doing so may cause it to malfunction. Decoder areent cheap nor easy to deal with (some of them) Sorry I can’t be a helper
There is no DCC in my loco at current time. I did accuire a Digitrax DHAT that so far seems to do what I want. As far as lighting goes… I’m still doing the wiring, but look at the picture attached, and give me your feedback as far as how it looks…
I’m using 3mm LED’s in the lights that I have installed right now…
remember… be kind to animals!!! [:)]
Looks great,maybe a little brite,but good.
JIM
Would increasing the resister value dim the lighting?