I have several unpowered F units that I am ready to paint and detail. My question involves the headlights. The road that I model (Atlantic Coast Line) used double headlights on all F units - two clear bulbs in the lower housing, and a clear and a red warning light in the upper housing. (Some Athearn Genesis Fs have this type of headlight) Can anyone offer any advice about how to model these headlights? They don’t need to operate, but I would like for them to look prototypical.
I presume you mean the headlights were twin sealed beams. It is not something I have actually tried but could I suggest for the lower lights a disk with holes in stuck behind the headlight lens.
I would apply heat say from a match to the end of a small piece of fibre optic to make a mushroom effect which would create a headlight lens by two and locate it in your disk and neatly cut the end beyond the disk. Such headlight plates here in Australia at least were aluminium (aluminum) plate so a tarnished silvery colour would be OK.
Do the same for the top but paint one with translucent red Tamiya or similar paint on the end.
To power mine, I have an old BB power truck degeared which I put in my chassis and coupled up a high intensity LED (warm white about 12,000 mcd), protective diode and load resistor in series with the negative side soldered to the tag for the headlight and the positive side going to the RHS of the power truck, like the taller steel piece that would be connecting to top of the BB motor through the spring sheet metal clip.
That way my lights are on in the dummy after a change of direction. I model CN (loosely) so I only have the one headlight to worry about.
Paint the back of the LED black to mask off any back lighting, the fibre optic should pickup the light and sened it through the headlight cavity
You might want to take a look at the Detail Associates line of detail parts, assuming you are modeling in HO. They have what they call a Pyle conversion plate, Walther’s part number 229-1012. See http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/229-1012 for a picture.
You’ll have to figure out the diameter you need, and then see if they have a suitable colored lens of the right diameter to suit the detail casting you use. There is a partial listing of the available lens diameters and some application data in the Walther’s catalog. It is on page 967 of the 2008 catalog.
The M.V. Products lenses look really good if you are not going to light them. And they come in different colors. They are the replacement for the jewels that were used on early models.
I also model the ACL and have used this part to convert the headlights from single beam to dual beam. Almost all ACL F units eventually received upper MARS and emergency MARS (white on top, red below); F units received dual beam lamps in the door headlight assembly; I recommend obtaining a photograph for the specific units you are modeling, since the orientation of those twin beams in the door assembly varied; some units the beams are left and right; some are up and down. FT’s and F2’s were delivered with single lamps upper and door and the year you are modeling also determines the lamp arrangement.
Well, I always hate to make any sort of recommendation when I have neither done it myself nor have the actual parts in front of me to check. And you should really get a copy of the Walther’s catalog as it sometimes has better descriptions of what things look like.
However, for what it is worth, page 967 of the 2008 Walther’s catalog lists a 6-1/2 inch (scale diameter I presume) series of lenses. It says these measure 0.073 inch (actual) diameter, drill #49. I just went down into the basement and checked, and a #49 drill is 0.073 diameter. I haven’t used these lenses in awhile, so I don’t know if the referenced drill size is a through hole, or is just used to make a small counterbore so that the lens has a place to seat itself. Experts please feel free to jump in with your application comments!
Anyway, I digress. Under this series of lenses they list item 516-18 Six Clear and One Red/ pkg (7 lenses total). Catalog list price is $3.50. The description says that it is for Athearn U-boats, Details West headlight 102 and 1012. Note that it says Details West 1012, not Detail Associates 1012, which is the headlight detail part we were originally talking about. But I think the catalog description is wrong and they really do mean a Detail Associates 1012. I say this because I checked and a Details West 1012 is a flatcar trailer hitch, not a headlight.
So, assuming that the lens set is the one you want, I suppose that you’ll need to find a couple. The Walther’s website says that the 516-18 is not in stock and the delivery date is unknown. I don’t know where you are located, but there is a guy that generally comes to the Timonium Maryland scale train shows.&
The Highliner A shells include the insert for the headlight you need. It also includes the clear lens to go in front of the twin lights. They are the genesis for the Genesis models that Athearn sells.
The inserts were available in brass at one time also from Overland I believe. That may not be an option any longer since they dropped the parts line, but a place like Caboose Hobbies might just have the parts.