I am starting to upgrade my Athearn UP diesel fleet with ditch lights; however, I am running into a few problems. I have everything connected right (bulbs-resistor-decoder) I am having a problem running the wire from the light housing on the pilot to the decoder. I can’t seem to get the shell to fit back on the frame properly. Could someone who has done this before give me a few pointers? Thanks, William
UP,
I had the same problem with a Proto 2000 GP38-2 that I was working on a few months ago. Although I haven’t done it yet, the only solution that I could reasonably come up with was to mill out a slot in the nose section of the frame (for the wires to lay in) so that the shell could close down over the frame. Right now, it’s just sitting on the shelf waiting for the operation. [:(]
Tom
Try looking for some of the thin ‘flat’ wire that’s about the size of a sewing pin.
I usually use a cutoff disc to grind out a grove in the frame, (it’s best to remove the front truck and cover up the rest of the drive to keep out any metal dust from the grinding). Make the groove at least twice as wide as the size of the wire. I also glue the wires to the underside of the walkway with Microscale’s Kristal Kleer to keep them in position over the groove. The Kristal Kleer makes things semi permanent so the light can be changed when needed. Tacky Glue (craft store) would also work.
Sounds like I’m on the right track then. I ground out a groove and then used silicon window sealent to keep the wires in place.
Yep! Silicone works too.
Another method I tried on a Kato SD40-2 was to grind grooves large enough to mount 2 LEDs and used sections of light pipe to bring the light out to the ditch lights, this way the body could be removed without the wire umbilical.