Mounting and Attaching Ditch Lights, and other questions as well.

Sorry, I am at it again, and the search still doesn’t work for me.

I have numerous Diesel locomotives that I am plainning on putting working ditch lights on. I was gonna use the details west parts for the ones that are to be mounted on top of the deck. How would I wire those to hide the wires? I can always mount them under the deck, but its not quite right… Also, what is a good glue to use? I seem to have issues with both the tubed glues, and the brush on glues. It just seems to flow on and then multiply in size exponantially leaving that big glue spot. And suggestions on not only glues, but gluing procedures? Also, I bought so Athearn Blue Box well cars a while back, and I used the Floquil Spray cans to try to paint one… It didnt seem to like sticking to the plastic. Do I need to prime them first?

Have you seen the latest copy of MR? They have a very informative article on this subject! You might try using “Zap” in the green label bottle. Its a good “gap-filling” cyanoacrylate glue .

One more reason I am glad I model the PRR!

Aren’t the Details West lights just a non lighted casting? Can you drill your access hole in the bottom so you won’t see it? Can you replace the wires with that 30-40 gauge lacquered armature wire?(that’s barely noticeable) Are you really gonna be able to see the back of the ditch lights once they’re mounted? What about using fiber optics instead?

Don’t really have an answer. Just throwing out some options.

Hi Mini

As for the ditch lights look in the Feb MR for a great article useing the parts you mentioned. For useing tube glues or even gell type ACC glues I squirt a little on a plastic coffee can lid and use a tooth pick or a needle to apply. Great control and never globs anywhere. When the glue dries just flex the plastic lid and your ready for more. I have made headlight lenses and windows that way so the glue sometimes doesnt go to waste. The liquid solvent type glues with the brush on the cap are the best to use for styrene plastics. When I get a new bottle the first thing I do is remove the brush/cap and let the glue dry on the brush for about ten minutes and take a sharp #11 blade and trim an angled point on the brush. When it goes back in the bottle the brush goes back to normal and applies the glue more easily.

Have fun

Pete

I use the plastic lenses from detail associates and build my own ditch light boxes from styrene.

First, i drill a hole in the deck at a 45 degree angle and file away enough metal in the frame for the bulb lighting to fit thru into the inner shell. Then i take a lens and drill a hole in it with a 256 bit and then cut the styrene plastic to form a box. I build 2 of them for both ditchlights using a good CA glue to hold it all together. Then i’ll glue on the lens to the box center, re-drill the hole with the 256 bit thru the styrene, glue it to the deck, and let it all dry.

i’ll then feed the wires thru the lens , frame, and then connect it to the decoder light leads. Since i use 1.5 grain of rice bulbs, i also have to put in a 820 ohm resistor one on side of the bulb leads if the decoder has a 12 volt connection for lighting . if it’s a 1.5 volt lead no resistor is required. I then use clear silicone caulk to hold the bulbs in the ditch light box and let it dry overnight. i paint the box and wahlaa. ditch lights. here is photos of the ditch lights i scratch built and installed on this NS C30-8. click to enlarge

Why do you need to hide the wires?

Quite often the prototypes wires are ‘exposed’ in a 3/4 or approximate sized conduit or flexible metal tube.

Could easily be simulated with a piece of colored shrink wrap tubing…

Good point. I think we sometimes forget that the real trains are mostly electric and have hundreds of feet of conduit connecting everything. It would be more prototypical to let the wires show. [;)]

And… on that note… Flashing ditch lights? LOL! Lucky if we can get them to turn on sometimes. [:-^]

I use SMT white LEDs for my ditch lights. Nothing brighter, and they last 10000 hours (unlike the 1.5 bulbs).

David B

Hmm Thanks for the Info guys… I actually hadnt thought about leaving the wires visible as “conduit”. I am wondering though… Are the ditchlight housings deep enough to hold a bulb? Most of the wiring out of the lamp is quite long on most bulbs…

I used some small strip styrene to hide the bulb wiring however, if you drill the anticlimber at a 45 degree angle the bulb will disappear from sight behind the box if you use the miniatronics 1.5v grain of rice bulbs. They are very tiny and situated in a place on the locomotive that stuff sticking from the back of the lens really isn’t an issue because you can’t see it anyway.

Does anyone have close up photos of the frront walkway/anticlimber showing what they did?