Wondering if anyone has ever found a solution for MV lense’s turning yellow with age other than having to replace them ? love the looks of these good looking lense’s but am a bit frustrated with the yellowing problem.
CB&Q:
Are your headlights actually working headlights, or are the MV’s just in there for ‘show?’ Reason I ask, is that I’ve got several brass locomotives that I bought on consignment that had MV’s installed, with operating headlights, and I’ve noticed a yellowish discoloration, myself. Most of my other brass is unlit, with MV lenses, and I’ve not had a discoloration problem with them at all, so far. I’m wondering if it might be the heat–however small-- generated by the bulb that has an effect on the material that MV uses. It doesn’t really bother me that much, gives the light a kind of ‘glow’, but it’s not very prototypical.
Tom [:)]
PS: That GN 2-10-2 of yours is just a KNOCKOUT! [:P]
Try painting the loco hot pink. When you’re finished, you’ll no longer notice the yellow…
[:D]
Is the lens glued into place? If so, maybe its the glue that’s turning yellow?
“Paint the loco pink” ? I love the pragmatisim but I suggest cautious consideration before implementing. I thought the MVs had a silver colored backing. Unless the glue reacted with the coating, I would not think the glue would show through the lense.
I noticed the yellowing years back on my MV equipped diesel units.
The yellowing ocurrs with age and exposure to light and heat over time on similar clear plastic products. . Modern automobile headlights, which are plastic, are notorious for this problem. I wetsand and buff out the lens with 3M wet/dry paper followed by a powered buffer and a clearcoat. They almost always look new again. All I’m doing is actually removing an extremely thin layer of plastic. and then sealing it.
However, on something as tiny as MV lenses for HO units, this wouldn’t be practical, so I in the past I would have preferred to replace them. However, with today’s technology I’ve decided that in the future I’m going to install LEDs in my units.
The yellowing ocurrs with age and exposure to light and heat over time on acrylic and similar clear plastic products.
As a retired illuminating engineer, I can advise that acrylics, i.e. Lucite and Plexiglas are inherently clear, and do not discolor even under the UV situation found in lighting fixtures with fluorescent lamps. There are no “similar plastics” to Acrylics which are a proprietory product of DuPont.
If you notice lighting fixtures with yellowed prismatic lens covers, they are lilkely styrene, not acrylics for cost savings. That is because the styrene has been treated with an additive that causes it to be clear at the outset, but over the years that material is leached out by the UV and heat and hence they become yellowed.
Because of the huge price differential, it may be that MV used styrene because UV exposure would be very minimal in that application.
If the yellowing can be buffed off, it doesn’t appear that it is the material, but somehow has been deposited on the surface. Don’t ask me how.
I LOVE that loco! And the photo, and the yard!
OK - enough stroking… As to the lens problem. I believe the problem lies in the material of the lens itself. I think the MV lenses are cast/molded of an epoxy resin, which has a tendency to yellow over time. I had the same problem, and simply ceased using the MV lenses. A pity, since they are very good-looking when new, but after a number of years, they look pretty bad. If the lens is not used in a working light setup, then you can simply replace it with a new one.
Ah’ yep these are working headlights though these engines do not have that much running time on them. note the DM&IR yellowstone also has a yellow tint to the lense,though they are glued in believe you guys are correct in the make up of the lense itself being the problem so I’ll just bite the bullet and either replace them or try a 3mm sunny white LCD from Richmond Controls products.
Thanks for all the responses.
