Hi,
I’m planning on installing some ditchlights on my Athearn RTR C44-9W. What lights/LED’s should I use. I have a Digitrax DH163 in it if that matters any. The holes are the same size as the Athearn holes for the headlights.
Thanks,
Smoke
You might just be better off getting an Atlas 8-40CW and save yourself from a ton of work.
I already have a 8-40CW also.
-Smoke
I used details west ditchlights on my c40-9w
Check Athearn’s web site and look through the parts listing. They sell replacement ditch lights for their SD70s and these might be suitable for other models. Unfortunatley, they don’t have pictures or dimensions of these parts.
I know that they use the 1.5 Volt incandescent bulbs that are used in the headlights, because I had to purchase a pair as replacements for one of my engines.
These ditch lights mount on the running board, so if there are already holes in your model where ditch lights would mount internally, these won’t be suitable for you. In that instance, I’d try to use white or golden glow LEDs.
Are the Athearn RTR locos able to operate on DCC, or do I have to put a resistor in?
-Smoke
I don’t own any Athearn RTR locomotives so I don’t know if their lights require resistors when you install a decoder, but the Genesis SD70s required resistors for all of their lights because there were no decoders with built-in voltage regulators available at the time.
TCS now makes decoders with built-in voltage regulators for Athearn and other brands of locomotives with 1.5 Volt bulbs, but whether one of these will fit into the RTR models is something I cannot answer.
Andrew,
I just put 1.5 volt lamps in an Athearn RTR SD40-2 the other night. They do not need a resistor as the outputs on the board have them already. The instruction/parts sheet that came with the loco also stated no resistor was necessary. Which I read after putting a meter on the outputs to check voltage.
Tilden
P.S I quess I’m gong to have to put “add ditch lights” on my “to do” list.