Where can I find a good article relating to installing HO scale marker lights. What is a good method to latch the extra lightings to the shell?
Are you speaking of marker lights, which are typically mounted on the sides of a caboose? Or are you speaking of class lights, which are typically mounted on the front of an engine?
I don’t know about an article, but here’s the Tomar Markers at Walthers:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/81-807
They are available in Red - Yellow - Yellow or Red - Green - Green, depending on your prototype (for example, PRR used RGG while the NH used RYY).
You can search for a magazine article here at:
Looking quickly, I found a mention of such an article in the Feb. 1986 issue of “Model Railroader”. There were others mentioned, too.
Paul A. Cutler III
I can’t speak for the OP, but the topic does raise an interesting question, I myself am very interested in installing tender marker lights. Is this a tedious task?
I’m not a steam guy, nor am I a marker light expert. However, what I do know about marker lights is that they are used to mark the end of a train. So they would typically be hung from the caboose. I believe that the only time marker lights would be used on a tender is if the locomotive were either pushing the train, or if the locomotive was running light and was the “train”. I don’t think that marker lights were permanently mounted. Rather, I think that there was a bracket that was the permanent fixture, and the lights were hung from the bracket as required. Some examples of HO model marker lights are shown at the Bowser website: http://bowser-trains.com/hoother/calscale/Cal-Scale-Frt-Cars3.jpg. I’m sure that there are other models out there.
There are companies that sell lighted marker light kits for cabooses. I think Tomar might be one. Whether they are to scale or not is for the prospective purchaser to decide. I see no reason that a caboose light kit could not be mounted to the upper rear corners of a tender, other than the “is it prototypical to have them there permanently” question.
For a tender, no. Since 99.99% of the time tender markers would be unlit, all you have to do is drill a hole in the rear corners of the shell and attach marker castings, no wiring required and it doesn’t matter what the pattern is because they will be dark.
Whats interesting is that the PRR marker lamps on the tenders of engines like the Q2, T1, and J1 appear to simply rest within little circular impressions rather than in the typical marker lamp posts that you see on most other engines.
I wonder. Do modelers remove/move the marker and classification lights when not needed or the the car/train travels in the reverse direction? Do they change the colors on the classification lights as necessary to duplicate prototype practices? Do modelers only run their cabooses or end-of-train passenger cars in one direction to avoid changing the marker lights? Personally, I don’t put marker lights on cars or bother doing anything with the classification lights on locomotives. Neither do I bother with flags.
Mark
First, a definition:
Train: A locomotive, or locomotives, with or without cars, showing markers.
Markers will be displayed on the rear end of the last piece of rolling stock in the train, whether it’s a caboose, a FRED stuck in the final coupler, the tender of a Y-whatever pushing coal over the Blue Ridge or a red rag tied to the coupler of the car with damaged draft gear coupled to the caboose’s rear platform. It could even be lanterns mounted on the pilot beam of a pusher operating bunker first, or the red ‘now they aren’t’ classification lights of the locomotive during the push phase of push-pull operation.
My coal unit brake vans only display markers when they are at the rear of the train, thanks to a ‘flop’ switch on one axle that turns them off when the car is being pulled in reverse. Most of my brake vans are (somethingorother)-brakes, and have to be turned to keep the brake cabin and markers at the proper end. Pure brake vans have two sets of permanently-installed markers and flop switches so that only the proper set is lit. Since Japanese practice was different from American, there is no call to change marker colors - they are either red or dark.
If you only operate in daylight (layout room lights on) the presence or absence of markers and class lights isn’t obvious. If you ever try night operations their absence would be very noticeable.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with markers that work)
By the way, according to the 4th ed. of the General Code of Operating Rules, adopted by most railroads worth two hoots in the US unless they upgraded to the 5th ed., any light on a trailing engine can be a rear marker, even a headlight on dim. lanturns work two, but even a straight headlight does the trick.
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Sncw we;re on the topic, the ZTomar markers that i’ve seen are desing ed to be mounted to the sides of a caboose, does anyone make them oriented to go into the ends of a car, say or the Spec. Doodlebug?
Also, does anyone know of “teardrop” class lights for steamers?