Lighting on a new Athearn Sd45-2

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have a new Athearn rtr SD45-2 Bicentennial Loco, My question is how to light it properly it has 4 bulbs in the front and unless you have throttle 3/4 up you cant even see them. It has directional lighting with two lights in rear they seem to be pretty bright at very little throttle. E-mailed Athearn what a joke they said because 4 bulbs up front required more voltage and thats how it is. Funny i have an Atlas Sd-24 and it’s light full bright at a crawl So are my Stewarts but they do have led’s. Athearn needs to get with the program and give constant lighting. Anyway anybody have any advice. Thank You all in advance.

2

You could wire in a constant lighting circuit. It’s basically a voltage regulator used with 1.5 volt grain of rice or grain of wheat bulbs. Add a couple of diodes and you have directional lighting, or just replace the bulbs with 1.5 volt bulbs and keep the throttle low. I’d opt for the first. If you’re not into making your own circuits, try Richmond Controls at:
http://www.richmondcontrols.com/

If you’re adept at putting circuits together, here are some constant lighting with our without directional lighting ones.
http://www.mrollins.com/constant1.html

3

Hello Bruce,

Thanks for the heads up. I plan on getting the SD45-2 in the SCL scheme when it is released. In reading your post, I’ll use my friend’s solution and replace them with LEDs (connected to the appropriate resistors), since LEDs require very little juice. I wonder why Athearn didn’t take this route since LEDs are not expensive.

4

Here is a news flash. The Genesis SD45-2 is due in April or May. The locomotive we are talking about here is the Athearn Ready-To-Run SD45T-2 in COTTON BELT Bicentennial Paint Scheme. And yes the bulbs are dim in my loco too! [:(!]

5

The constant lighting board is a good way to keep the bulbs bright throughout the throttle, but I have noticed that the circuitry emphasizes the lighting and retards the current to the motor, which requires a higher throttle setting to move the loco at a desired speed.

6

Thank You for the great info i will give those web sites a try Thanks again.

7

Oops on my part! [:p]

Thanks for the correction. I do wonder though. Other than See thru grills and some more body detailing, are the new Genesis SD45-2s mechanically different from the RTR units? Is the motor a Kato clone or Athearn? I’ve never owned Genesis units, though I’ve heard great reviews about the non-sound F units.

Before I’m chewed out, a year back I posted that my wife’s cousin had trouble with 2 Genesis SD75Ms he bought back in 2004. He paid $100+ for each one.

8

Not sure but I don’t think the new SD45-2s will have 4 headlights like the SP and Cotton Belt SD45T-2s. Only SP and Cotton Belt had headlights and Gyra/MARS lights on their later diesels. Most eastern RR’s (like SCL, Antonio) had just the singal headlight by the time the SD45-2 was introduced. As for the mechanics, I’m not sure, but if the motor’s anything like the ones in the F’s, Challengers and SD70MACs, it’ll be nice (most of them, as with Proto’s, Kato’s and some Atlas’s, just hum a little). I plan on getting one or two when they re-run them in Conrail paint. [8D]

9

The top two lights should be a Gyro light, not a regular headlight. Circuits are available to add lighting to this engine from several vendors. If you use DCC, you could program it using separate LED’s for the upper and lower lights to look correct.

You get what you buy when you buy Athearn. If you keep on buying them, they will keep on building them the same way.

10

Thanks and you are so right Bangert1 this will probably be the last athearn for me this junk cost me more than my last Stewart AB set and Stewart will run circles around any athearn, and it’s light is nice and bright. Thanks for the responses.