The New Oakville Sub

I have read silver has finer pigmentation and will block light better, David.

John, the housing has a lens. If I can get it off, I'll try painting the inside of the housing. I do plan on painting the LED sides and back.

This will be done on 147 - I'm gonna leave 129 as is for now, and if my experiments are successful, I'll go back to 129 and rework it. If I do, that will mean losing a couple LEDs because they're glued into the housing.

 

True, silver is more reflective, but it is also more opaque at the same time, because it's pigment is actually finely ground particles of metal. When I want to light-proof a body shell or a building, I first spray the inside with silver, then flat black, before putting on the interior and exterior colors. If a light interior color is to be used over the black, a light coating of flat light gray primer keeps it from looking muddy due to the black undercoat. Painting the ditch light with flat black, then silver, before adding the finish coat should do the trick. Doing the flat black first should prevent any problem should the silver be electrically conductive and you get any of it on the leads, and the silver under the red topcoat shouldn't need a primer to prevent discoloration of the finish color.

Bill in FtL

 

Makes sense, Bill. Thanks.

 

Really lost myself in all those pictures... your layout is fantastic!

but I must ask.... How on earth did you DCC the Athearn SD75M/i's?
Ive got a SD70M and Two SD75M (ATSF with two more on the way) and was curious on how you did it.
I know eventually ill get around to putting LokSound Select Micros in just about all of my locomotives, but looking at the Anjin frames and boards.... I just think it would be darn near impossible... (I have all three variants)

I would love to visit that layout of yours but the drive from MO in gas just might kill me and take up my MRR budget LOL

 

Thanks for the kind words.

The SD75s actually used a Digitrax decoder made for a Kato unit - and I don't remember which one and the units have been sold off, sorry. My 75s were from the first run, and you could probably figure out which decoders were made at that point and narrow things considerably. But the DCC conversion went easily, and the 75s were some of my best locos.

I'm most always up for visits, and the price of gas hasn't been this low in years...for those who are curious, I'm about 35 minutes south of Nashville along I65. But I wouldn't want to encroach on your hobby budget

 

Lol you wouldn't want some of my stuff lol, I've got a BNSF ACe I've weathered and a few freight cars that have been weathered and tagged, and another 20-30 waiting for a similar make over. Wouldn't want you to try and dust them off

That and I only have a limited number of DCC locomotives anyways, plus one DDA40X that is sound equipped.

 

I am still upset that I cannot simply drive over and experience the railroad and the company of Jim that goes with it, but it looks like you need some SP units in the system running through that stellar scenery.

 

John, sadly my layout is in the present/future - although I think there are a couple of unpatched SPs running around, just as the famous CNW "twins". I could have the heritage unit on occasion...

LED update - prepared an LED, dressed the leads, painted black on five sides followed by silver, now no light leakage and when the LED is installed in the housing there's a lot less glow. Still have to paint the housing, though, to kill the last of it. Also removed the lenses before install, kind of like the look but will probably reinstall them. Definitely on the right track.

 

Here's the final version of the LED ditch light equipped GP60Ms.





Writing the procedure now; I think I need a couple more photos before I put the tutorial up.

 

They look great Jim! Want to do mine?

 

Nice results.

 

The FVM GP60M is a wonderful locomotive with the exception of the ditch lights. Their illumination is virtually nonexistant. This will remedy that issue.


You will need the normal complement of tools, and the LEDs and wire for them, and a function DCC plug in decoder.





I used the Ngineering N-1018 Micro Super Incandescent LED, and their #38 Magnet Wire with solder-strippable insulation.


Additionally, since the DCC decoder for the GP60M (and indeed all FVM locos to date) is the six pin decoder (Digitrax DZ126IN), there are no functions available. But Digitrax has taken care of this with their DZ146IN which has wires for two functions. (We'll need only one function for the LEDs.)


You'll prepare the LEDs per Ngineering's instructions. WARNING! This is VERY fine work - but if I can do it, so can you.


You will need to have both wires exit the LED on one end, since you will be inserting it into the hole on the underside of the porch formerly used by the light pipe.





After soldering the wires in place on the LEDs you will also want to paint the LED with first black paint (to insulate), then with silver to mask the light output. You will paint five sides, leaving only the front unpainted - again, very delicate. If you don't paint, the residual light from the LED will cause the ditchlight housings to glow in a very unprototypical manner.







Also, test the LEDs at every step. Nothing is worse than having one or both not work when everything has been put back together. I use a 1K resistor both for testing and as a final resistor for both LEDs.


You will want to dissassemble the loco removing the walkway from the body. When you remove the "front porch" and ditch light pipe, you may discard the light pipe.


What you will have then is the front porch and front railing, with the ditch light housings. The housings have a hole where the light pipe used to go. One of my locos had that pipe glued in but it drilled out easily. You will need to enlarge the hole so the LEDs will slide in - I find a #55 bit works. You will likely have to go a little deeper so the LED goes completely in - you'll know when if you have the LED lit when inserting. You don't want to see the top edge of the LED.


Ngineering has recently changed the size of these LEDs, enlarging them slightly. A #60 bit used to do the job for the old version, the new requires a #55 hole.


Once you're happy with the position of the LED, glue it in place with some Aleene's Tacky Glue (or your glue of choice; I chose Aleene's because if you need to remove the LED after the glue has set you can do so fairly easily).





Although the pictures show the ditch light lenses in place, I have removed them on the final version. I think it looks better.


Route the wires toward the back and use a spot of glue to hold them - there's a molded channel in the walkway piece, try to route the wires so they will be within that channel when the assembly is put together.


continued

 

Do the second LED in a similar manner.


You don't want a bunch of blobs of glue. The Tacky Glue will flatten nicely. If you have excess you can scrape it off.





Now you assemble the porch to the walkway using the guide pins. I put a very small amount of container glue in the middle to hold it until reassembly is complete. Don't forget to place the handrails where they belong on the loco front.


Connect the two LEDs together and test. Note I have used Tacky Glue again to insulate the wires.





After testing, put the body and walkway back together. When dry, tuck the wires into the nose and route the wires as shown, gluing as appropriate. I usually glue to a spot about halfway back.





Note in the picture of the decoder that I have placed the resistor sideways at the rear of the board on the blue (positive) wire. Cut the resisitor leads very short, just leaving enough to solder. The green wire is Function 1, negative, and you can see how I've routed it. Cut and insulate the end of the purple (F2) wire so it's out of the way. I tuck the resistor under the decoder and the green wire bends around and comes out on top, but whatever works for you. I also used Kapton tape to insulate both sides of the decoder.





Tuck the chassis into the body being careful that the wires are out of the way, and you're good to go.


continued

 

This whole procedure is easier than it sounds. The hardest part is waiting for the Tacky Glue to dry so you can go to the next step. And you've just made a great model better!

 

Nicely done Jim, thanks for the walk through.

 

And here's the last of my FVM GP60M LED Ditch Light locos.

 

Inspiring as always Jim.