I was unhappy with the headlight on my Athearn Challenger, since it was orange, not slightly off white or al least yellow.
This is an easy task to fix the lights and if you care to change your’s also. Purchase a 3mm diameter LED Ultra Bright Minatronics Part # 12-300-02 or you can get one of the Golden Bright 3mm from Loy’s Toys.
Anyway, if you want to know what is involved in this 30 minute replacement, let me know and I will put the directions on this Subject.
By the way, the number boards look great also if you install a 560 Ohm resistor on each wire lead. The results are really fantantic.
I would appreciate knowing if you are unhappy your Challenger lights and want to fix them.
I have copied a web page from a friend that shows the results of this replacement. He repairs and modifies model trains, but you can see the results. It is not linked, but you can copy and paste it .
Bangert1 - Thanks for the link - I have a couple of these. I took one to an operating session yesterday and everybody was impressed with the detail and pulling power and throughly unimpressed with the headlight/marker boards. One guy asked me if I had put in orange christmas tree bulbs. I would be very appreciative of instructions on how to remedy this. Also, did you have any problem getting the address changed from 03?
If you use your exploded view of the Challenger along with these instructions, it will help you to understand how the engine is put together. The exploded view for the LED replacement is on page 16 of the manual.
The headlight assembly can be removed by gently pulling up on the assembly. It plugs into the air pump compressor shield.
Remove the air pumps next. They have small tabs and can be removed by using a small flat screwdriver to pry them gently off of the front pilot assembly. The tabs are the key to lock the shield assembly onto the chassis also. After the right and left side air pumps are removed, the air pump shields can be removed by separating the tabs from the pilot assembly. If you look at the exploded view of the running gear, you will spot the tabs. Do this carefully since no glue is used in these applications and you must reassemble the parts after the LED replacement. When the air compressor shield is lifted off of the pilot, the LED is exposed in center the front engine frame. I was surprised on how clever the engineers were to design this model to be taken apart so easily.
Any 3mm LED can be soldered into the spot where the original LED is located. I like the Golden White ones better than the Sunny white LED’s, but anything is better than the one that comes with it. If you lift up the LED with the small circuit board attached, you can normall
I ended up replacing the “green” LED in my 2-8-2 Mike with a 3mm T1 golden-white LED this past evening. It was actually a very straight-forward install.
I popped off the front cover, unsoldered the green LED, soldered in the golden-white LED, insulated the bare wires with heat shrink, popped the front cover back on and - Wallah! - brand new head light! Let me tell you:
IT ABSOLUTLY LOOKS GREAT! [:D]
I thought I might have to replace the resistor that was on the circuit board but the LED is working fine. The difference between the two is no comparison! This is a definite must have in either the Mike or Challenger.
I don’t know if the same will be true for the Challenger, but, as I said already, this one was a piece of cake to replace. I picked up my LED at Litchfield Station for $1.50, when I was ordering the decoder for my S1 switcher. You can probably fiind one at a Radio Shack in your area.
IMHO, the golden-white LED actually looks closer to being more prototypical than either the blue or bright white LED’s, or the 1.5v bulbs on the steamers. Definitely moreso than the green. (The newer diesels might be a different story.) The LED’s are also at FULL intensity, ALL THE TIME vs. the 1.5v bulbs changing intensity due to the amount of voltage being regulated through the track on DC.
The resistor that I installed in the Challenger was to lower the brightness of the number boards only. The two LED’s for the number boards are built into the number boards and can’t be changed out. If you lower the voltage on them, they really look good.
The headlight does not have a resistor in the circuit and you are correct, they really look good when they are replaced. I am sure it was a great improvement on your Genesis 2 8 2 also. It is an easy change on most engines, but the Challenger is a bit more difficult because of the location of the LED in the front engine chassis.
You are correct that colored lights in general were not prototypical. The railroad used brass reflector plates in most steam locomotives and they would have a slight yellow tint, but the yellow LED’s are really yellow and do not look like the real thing.
Markers lamps were in color on some railroads to show extra board and second sections and other orders that pertained to that railroad.
The LED that is known as Golden white has a slight yellow tint and looks to be about right to simulate the brass reflector in most steam locomotives.
The sunny bright simulates the sealed beam type of headlight, which many of the later steam engines and all of the diesels used. I believe the first FT’s used bulbs and reflectors, but that was very early in the forties.
If you look at Loy’s Toys web page, you can see the difference. Click on
Products listed by type, and then click on decoder installation Accessories and then on bulbs and LED’s
You can view the different types on the same page.
I looked at my Santa Fe Diesel book Vol I and the S1 when fairly new at least had a chrome reflector and a bulb. The ones I have pictures of were built in 1944 according to the book. This would have been fairly white so the Sunny Bight LED should be correct. Remember, depending on the era, many of the early diesels like the FT I mentioned before were upgraded to Sealed beam. It all depends on the era. I am not aware of the S1’s being upgraded since they were yard engines, but they still would have been Sunny bright. The Golden whites really simulate the brass reflectors plates behind the bulb.
Good modeling to you and I too am saved by the Grace of God.