Just got one of these off ebay and is a total basket case. Got it cheap and is very fixable. Guy took it apart and took out the dcc board and stopped there. My question is the front door on the nose of the cab is seperate so it can be opened but I am not sure how it goes back on. The directions with it were for the low nose cab not the wide safety cab and does not show that.
Also this is the california amtrack model. Did it come with ditch lights? Mine has ditch lights but am not sure how to put power to them. I also can not figure out how the air tanks are attached. They are dual tanks with pins but it does not seem to fit the holes.
So any help would be appreciated. I checked ho seeker and it has the same directions as what I have.
The doors on the front of my Dash 8 safety cabs are indeed separate but mounted flush into the nose. Mine were glued and had black paint inside to shield the nose light.
Ditch lights can be micro LED’s that are very popular now. When I put my Dash 8’s together, I used the 1.5 volt Miniatronics 1.2 MM bulbs. To get them to fit, I cut the back two thirds of the ditch light lenses off. The bulbs then slid in nicely. You will need to use dropping resistors to match these lights to your track voltage. Mine are still working well several years later.
As far as the tanks go, there are several holes in the frames for these to mount into. I’m not sure what you mean about the pins not fitting. On my Amtrak Dash 8-32BWH’s the tanks go right behind the front truck. You may need some pictures of your California unit to place the fuel and air tanks properly. If things still don’t line up, check and make sure the frame’s arrow is pointing forward so everything is oriented correctly.
Mike was there a pin or something that ran throught the front door to make is swivel? Or was it glued in place like I just did?
My ditch lights look like factory items. The blue plastic on the light looks just like the blue in the engine. they have a double prong copper strip that is glued to the under side of the plasti sill. Would I run a common and a blue/or yellow to both sets of light then join up at the board? Is yours dcc? If so what decoder did you use?
I ended up drilling out the holes a tad bit as they were too small for the pegs on the air tanks. Got that all figured out. Thanks for the help on this. All I need to do is put in a decoder and wire up the lights now I guess. I do have some pics on found on the internet and will do a light weathering on the trucks.
Yes, the doors were glued on so you’re good there. The lights were too blue for me so I replaced them. There should be resistors inline to the ditch lights on yours. You can hook up the wires to your board but keep in mind some resistor will need to be added if the originals are not present. For LED’s 560 ohm seems to be a good starting point. I do not use DCC so I can’t help with a number, but a standard Atlas plug and play board with the motor terminals on the side will fit right into this unit. Keep your weathering light, they tend to keep these units fairly clean. It sounds like you have a good plan, enjoy!
Whoever had this last took everything out of it. Board resistors and such. The lights are there but nothing was hooked up to them. I am not sure if they are leds or incandescents. I usually start with 1k 1/4 watt resistors and work my way to a good looking glow. Better to be on the safer side I always say right.