I need info about adding headlights, window glazing, and directional lighting.
I’m not going to super detail these but want some idea of them working as the somewhat higher-end old stuff. where can I get lighting modules and or how to glaze the windows? I’ve been out of the model train business for too long and have forgotten more than I ever knew.
Thanks for any info in advance
John
Welcome aboard! [#welcome]
How old is the engine? Is this going to be DC or DCC?
I had a couple of those old geeps from my teenage layout in the 1950s. When I pulled them out of their 35 year hibernation, they didn’t run well at all. I tried putting in a DCC motor decoder, but the engine only ran in small, jerky movements. One engine just got tossed, and the other I gutted and turned into a sound dummy.
I found a sale on Proto 1000 geeps in my road. New in the box, they were cheaper than replacing motors and wheels. This was maybe 20 years ago.
Most important, how does the engine run now?
By the way, as a new member you will be in moderation for a few posts, to make sure you’re not an advertising bot or a troll. Keep posting, please, and you’ll soon be out of that rut.
Welcome to the forums.
Mr. Beasley’s reply is something to consider, especially if your going to convert this to DCC.
First you should do a stall test on the motor, and check the amps. You want to be less than the rating for decoder you plan on putting in.
Most basic DCC decoders are good for 1.5 amps, so your motor should stall test at less than that. I’ve converted a few BB Athearns, with the stock motor testing at 0.65.
The board you want clips on to the top of motor, and replaces the brass strip that is on the stock motor.
If you want to try it, Athearn offers this:
https://www.athearn.com/product/ho-dcc-adapter-board-locomotive-1/ATH90616.html
What I always do is simply hardwire the decoder into the loco, and add LED lights, and skip the board.
Actuall, I have a few boards laying around, with the DC jumper, if you want to PM me, I would send you one to try, if your sure you want to go that way.
Hardwiring a decoder is very simple, and they come with good instructions to do so.
Just my thoughts,
Mike.
John has another thread that is so far unanswered and relevant to the discussion.
There is a lot we don’t know here. John may remember back in the day when there was a DC board for directional lighting in DC engines. We don’t know his intentions regarding DCC or sound.
Walthers had a diesel dress up kit for F3’s and F7’s but I don’t remember anything for Geeps.
I agree that the LifeLike Protos were of better detail and running quality than the BB’s. However there is a BB tune up tutorial somewhere out on the web, if he wants to persue that.
I think we need more clarity on what John wants.
Henry
Thanks Henry,
I guess your right, more info.
Going by the unanswered thread, he’s looking for DC directional lighting.
I guess we’ll wait!
Mike.
I actually found a set of side railings for my BB geep on a rack at my old LHS. It was not labeled as anything other than GP9 railings. I just took a chance that I would be able to make them fit, but they fit exactly with no modifications.
On a different topic, the old BB geeps use the locomotive frame as one side of the electrical circuit. Since the coupler pockets on those engines are part of the frame, they are electrically “hot” and you should isolate the couplers or use plastic couplers or replace the original pocket with a plastic one. That’s what I did.
[Unable to combine posts from duplicate threads so this is a copy & paste of Hornblower’s post from the thread that was deleted…]
John
Welcome to the forum! As my layout is built for operation with multiple operators of differing skill levels handling my trains, Athearn Blue Box locos are my “go to” choice, especially when I can pick them up used so cheaply at train shows and on-line. As your other thread inquires about rebuilding a Blue Box loco, I thought I’d respond to both threads together.
The first thing I do is completely dissassemble each loco to clean out dirt, crud and dried up grease. I reassemble the trucks and oil the gears with a couple of drops of plastic compatible oil (it doesn’t take much). I next solder a couple of 3 to 4" lengths of 28 or 30 gauge flexible stranded wire to the steel electrical contacts on each truck so that the loco does not have to rely on contact with the chassis or the steel contact strips along the top of the original motor.
I like to remotor these locos using the SMC FP280-KN DC 16v 11200 rpm can motor currently available on-line for $3.25 each. Don’t let the cheap price fool you! These are strong, torquey motors that will smoothly propel a BB loco all day at prototypical speeds without a hitch, all while drawing significantly less current than the original motor. Note that these motors were originally designed to power automotive side view mirrors. Because such mirrors are often in near proximity to stereo speakers in the car door, these motors come with an interference shield to keep motor noise out of the speakers. If the motor will fit inside your loco with the shield in place, great. However, the actual motor is significantly smaller with the shield removed, especially useful when installing one in a GP9. The shield can easily be removed with a razor saw or hack saw. &
Here’s the Athearn tune-up & rebuild that I’ve always used:
http://www.mcor-nmra.org/Publications/Articles/Athearn_TuneUp.php
Mike.
I can’t afford DCC, a 2x4ft layout, Mojave yard, the geeps have Kato motors, and low-speed gears, and they run great. the wiring is ground to trucks and hot to the metal arms .dioads for lighting 1.8mm. and yes I could just buy newer geeps but my wife would have a fit if a 200$ plus engine showed up haha, it’s more fun making stuff anyway. sorry for the extra post. I’m new at this forum game.
This is an old picture of an Athearn BB GP9 on the left and a Proto GP9 on the right. It’s easy to see the difference in body width between the two. I think that was done to accomodate the wide motor Athearn used at the time. The Athearn model is a dummy now.
I also have a more modern GP9M model from Walthers. It has a modern frame and motor, but is curiously built with the same wide hood as the old Athearn BB units. Again, the BB model is on the left with the Walthers model on the right. This BB model was upgraded with the railings I mentioned earlier.
A GP9M was created by modifying an older GP9, chopping the nose to give it a full frontal cab for visibility. I actually looked up the old engine rosters, found the engine number of the old engine that was converted to the modified model, and gave that number to my old dummy BB, just to tick off anyone who might be that much of a rivet counter.
Missing the motor and gear towers, an old BB model is pretty empty inside, so it makes an excellent start for a sound dummy with lights.
That is odd. I wonder why Walthers did that? Maybe they got old tooling and didn’t think anyone would notice, or care. hahaha.
Mike.
the bottom line here is I need to have the lights on going forward and in reverse
directional .my great-grandkids love trains so I’m trying to impress them with model ones and real ones, we go to the loop in Cal and Mojave also the BNSF Barstow to Mojave is a mile from home at Edwards AFB. This is motive enough for me.
My old big layout was burned down by some punks while I was in Reno on hot August nights.
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It’s tuff to find videos and how-to instructions for directional lighting on blue box locos, that don’t include a conversion to DCC.
This kit looks pretty simple, and it includes a set up for 2 locomotives.
Scroll down to read all of this guys ad, and see what it’s all about.
If you are savy at soldering, using resisters, etc., you could probably set up your own system.
A common wire would go to each bulb, with the headlight wired to the positive (engineers) side of the loco, and the rear light wired to the negative(frame) side of the loco.
You might also ask this question, how to do directional lighting on a Athearn blue box, over in the Electrical and DCC forum, maybe somebody has a simple way of doing this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/202728399502
Mike.
When I was still running in DC my two go-to units for directional lighting was, #1: Utah Pacific CLU-96 and #2: Miniatronics Corp. CL-013-01. Both units used diodes to control 1.5v bulbs, bulbs included in Miniatronics unit but not in Utah Pacific one.
Dan
mbinsewi; this idea is fine I’ve done this mod, and it works great. I asked Athern about their adapter board size and got a brush-off. thank you
John
snjroy;
this was a very good instructional it helped a lot with what I’m doing, one thing IO learned is you can turn one led over to switch track power and it will light in the reverse direction
I’m glad it was useful. Of course, credit goes to the original authors. This forum is a goldmine. Keep us posted.
Simon
Thanks John.
I think I mentioned this before, maybe in your other thread, I have a few boards I don’t need, and I am sure they will fit in the shell.
If you’d like, I can send you a board, if you want to try it.
Send me a PM through here, and we can figure it all out.
Click on my avatar/picture, and it should take you to the page for sending a PM.
Click on Start a conversation next.
Mike.