Ditch lights on a Kato SD40-2 in DCC

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m a little curious, how does one go about setting up ditch lights on this unit?

Also how do I install the lights on to the shell?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

2

What nothing? No response …

3

I did one of these about a year ago. It’s either a detail associates kit, or a details west kit. I can’t remember which it was, but it comes with EMD SD style ditch light bezel castings, and bulbs, but I’m trying to standardize all of my bulbs, so I used Miniatronics 1.2 mm bulbs instead of the ones that came with it. You just drill a hole in the walkway where you want to bring the wires through, and glue the castings down over and just in front of them, then thread the wires through. Then I wired the bulbs straight onto the decoder and did a little programming, and now it’s got alternating ditch lights.

Greg

4

The engine in my signature was done a similar way. It’s a Kato SD40 but the process is very close to what Greg described above. It’s a little harder to conceal the wires with lights mounted on top of the walkway, vs lights mounted below on the pilot. The hardest thing is probably trying to run the light wires neatly and not let them get hung up on the mechanism while trying to get the shell back on.

This engine currently has a Digitrax DH163AO with 6 functions, plenty for the headlights, ditch lights, and the flashing beacon on the roof.

5

Thanks for the info, i did some more research and decided to put the ditch lights on the pilot, but the top of the light bracket just above the walkway.

For the front/rear
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=128103

For the front …
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=126917