Genesis GP15 Ditch lights

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am not happy with the ditch lights of the Athearn Genesis GP15-1 in UP paint. The ditch lights shine through the gray plastic of the shell. That is not beautiful at daylight but looks awful at night.

Is there a better fix known and tested than an extra thick coat gray paint?

2

Faraway,

I had the same problem with a sd75m Athearn… I removed the bulbs in my case and covered them with heat shrink tubing. Black of course., just so the end was visible, reinstalled them and that worked for me. I had to enlarge the hole a little used a #11 Blade to do that… It’s been 10 yrs and they still work.

Good luck…

Cheers Frank

3

I have also painted all but the very front of the bulbs with silver and enlarged the holes slightly. Concept being that the silver paint reflects the light forward.

Richard

4

I don’t know about the reflecting qualities, but the silver does a good job of blocking the light. I would paint the ditch light housings silver which should kill the shine through, then paint them gray after the silver has dried. The silver I have used is the Testors brand in one of those tiny little bottles. It’s solvent based paint which I think has more metallic particles in suspension which should provide better light blocking capability. I’m not a chemist but I did stay at a Holiday Inn.

5

Thanks for the suggestions. Widening the hole and painting the hole and/or bulb black/silver sounds simple but… I did convert some Athearn from bulbs to LED some time ago and learned that the glue holding the bulbs is hard to predict. Some bulbs came out easy others did not survive.

That experience stopped me to simple remove the bulb, paint it and put it back.

6

I would just paint the outside carefully with Polyscale steampower black, (maybe even 2 coats) then finish off with some UP grey. Use a small brush and don’t over load it.

7

Your suggestion is so straight and simple I had to give it a try. It works great! Thank you.

ps. Have no UP gray at home, had to mix a similar gray.

8

how many gp15 do you have?!?!?!?[:|]

9

All my Genesis UP GP15-1 are on the photo. No hidden machines[:)]