Hi Everyone,
I thought I’d share my most recent project with you in which I used 1/2 mm fiber optics to route light from the rear of my n scale locomotive light to create red marker lights in the front of the locmotive when it’s going in reverse. Using this method allows me to achieve the effect without having to wire LEDs to the DCC PC board.
Not shown here is how i had to do a little milling at the front of the locomotive to create a channel to run the wires in to allow the shell to close all the way.
Here you can see the piece of styrene I glued to the decoder which has 2 channels to hold the cables in place ensuring they’re lined up with the rear LED.
I used a soldering iron to create a permenant bend in the fiber optic wire. To do this you just hold the wire close to the soldering iron and let the heat and gravity bend the wire as it softens. I made sure the cable would line up with the LED before I used caulk to hold it in place.
Here you can see how the light is transmitted to the oposit end of the cables despite the bend I created.
I drilled 2 holes in the light blocking plastic piece in the front of the locomotive to hold the cables in place and help it get directed towards the front.
These next two pictures show the fiber optics fed through the holes I drilled in the front of the locomotive and the light being transmitted. The second photo shows my test of using Microscale Kristal Klear mixed with red food coloring to create a red
