Adding marker lights to mth engine

Lowes2win posted:

I want to add 2 fiber optic green marker lights to my NPR BERSHIRE PS2 ENGINE.

If you are referring to the Classification Lights, i.e. "Class Lights", on the front of locomotives, the color green would NOT generally be correct for a freight locomotive. In the real world of railroading, the color green in the Class Lights, indicated that a Second Section of that train is following. Thus, white Class Lights, which indicate an Extra Train" (not scheduled), would be more correct for the NKP (NOT 'NPR') Berkshire.

I made the fiber optic strands from one 9-18v green led from Evans designs. I would like to add it but not sure which is the correct way. To the circuit board or piggyback the headlight wiring?  I also want to change the warm dim factory old light to a new cool white brighter led which I know is not prototypicaly correct, rather my own preference so it will illuminate what's in front of it better.  As always thanks for any input.   I also would like to do the same with marker lights for the tender which I believe are red? Also how to add them 

 

Hot Water posted:

Lowes2win posted:

I want to add 2 fiber optic green marker lights to my NPR BERSHIRE PS2 ENGINE.

If you are referring to the Classification Lights, i.e. "Class Lights", on the front of locomotives, the color green would NOT generally be correct for a freight locomotive. In the real world of railroading, the color green in the Class Lights, indicated that a Second Section of that train is following. Thus, white Class Lights, which indicate an Extra Train" (not scheduled), would be more correct for the NKP (NOT 'NPR') Berkshire.

I made the fiber optic strands from one 9-18v green led from Evans designs. I would like to add it but not sure which is the correct way. To the circuit board or piggyback the headlight wiring?  I also want to change the warm dim factory old light to a new cool white brighter led which I know is not prototypicaly correct, rather my own preference so it will illuminate what's in front of it better.  As always thanks for any input.   I also would like to do the same with marker lights for the tender which I believe are red? Also how to add them 

 

 

I knew I was going to be corrected on my Nickel Plate Road abbreviaion.  I couldnt remember, i should have looked it up first. That happened last year too. 

I' am not replacing the headlight to green. The 2 marker lights in the front are green from the factory, I just want to light them up. 

Please excuse my lack of wisdom here, I'm working on it. Knowledge is wisdom and that' is why I come here, to learn so I can help others.

HW always comes up with this.  But, on my RR, there is always eventually another scheduled train coming, when it makes it around the loop.  Therefore, the green is appropriate.

Forget the fiber, you have room for a real LED there.

Are you comfortable soldering resistors to LED legs, adding heat-shrink tubing, etc.?

You can attach the Evans 9-18V LEDs assemblies to a PS2 headlight wires (or any PS2 incandescent output for that matter) but it will likely be too dim.  That's because the PS2 output puts out effectively only 6V DC.  It can be hooked in either orientation/polarity since Evans accepts AC so the PS2 DC will work.

Try it.  You can splice it into the factory headlight so both go on/off together.  If LED is too dim, then you need to lower the resistor value in the Evans harness but this is likely difficult to do.  Instead, you need to get a bare LED and solder a resistor and connect to the PS2 output wires.  So you'd be buying a red LED for rear, green LED for front, and white LED for headlight.  GRJ or one of the guys knows the resistor value as this modification has been made by many guys.

The green LEDs GRJ shows are really nice but somewhat spendy.  But they are small enough to directly install.  I like your fiber approach because you can get 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, etc. fiber and share a single LED to drive a pair of marker, classification lights.  The more common LED sizes of 3mm or 5mm diameter are  only, say, 10 cents on eBay.  Resistors are a few pennies each.

Thank you that was very informative. I just need to know the led sizes and resistor sizes and were to order them.  I am comfortable soldering them and have and do use heat shrink tubing.    

gunrunnerjohn posted:

HW always comes up with this.  But, on my RR, there is always eventually another scheduled train coming, when it makes it around the loop.  Therefore, the green is appropriate.

Forget the fiber, you have room for a real LED there. 

That is awesome Thank you.  I' am going to order the red for the tender also but I don' know what resistors to add to them. And were to find them on that site.  I' have been doing alot of soldering and heat shrinking for structres and vehicles with premade leds from Evans designs so this is new to me but this seems to be a much better idea. 

You can use anything larger than about a 330 ohm resistor 1/4W.  For markers or class lights, I'd probably start with around 1K, plenty bright, but they don't look like headlights.

Is there a website where I can by these leds and resistors?

Is as simple as just ordering the leds and the 330 ohm resistors?

Thank you for the valuable information.   The marker lights I want to look realistic and the right brightness.   The headlight I just want to switch to a led and make it brighter than the old ps 2 light but want it also not to look to bright and fake looking. I just want to bring out the details in the marker lights and make the headlight a little brighter. Should I use a cool white or warm white?

Thank you. I will try to order the resistors thete too.

Sorry this is new to me 

If you are referring to the Classification Lights, i.e. "Class Lights", on the front of locomotives, the color green would NOT generally be correct for a freight locomotive. In the real world of railroading, the color green in the Class Lights, indicated that a Second Section of that train is following. Thus, white Class Lights, which indicate an Extra Train" (not scheduled), would be more correct for the NKP (NOT 'NPR') Berkshire.

Lots of  freights ran on  schedules as 2nd  3rd and 4 class trains.    Displaying Green is quite appropriate if there's following section.

_______     o    o      what's  the answer?

The answers is....      o   o    __________       What  does  all this mean   ??

You the engineman on a regular time card train displaying green signals, meaning you're running as a section.

If you meet an opposing train it's your responsibility to notify the opposing train that  you're carrying the green by whistling  one long and 2 short    _________ o o.

The opposing train whistles back  o  o ________   (2 short and one long) indicating they acknowledge the  green signals.

If the   crews doesn't acknowledge the green the section must stop & notify the train.

I guess we also  need tiny green & white flags for our models.    Any who that's my story and probably a little more info than needed  on this thread,

Gregg posted:

The answers is....      o   o    __________       What  does  all this mean   ??

You the engineman on a regular time card train displaying green signals, meaning you're running as a section.

If you meet an opposing train it's your responsibility to notify the opposing train that  you're carrying the green by whistling  one long and 2 short    _________ o o.

The opposing train whistles back  o  o ________   (2 short and one long) indicating they acknowledge the  green signals.

If the   crews doesn't acknowledge the green the section must stop & notify the train.

I guess we also  need tiny green & white flags for our models.    Any who that's my story and probably a little more info than needed  on this thread,

Well, that may all be true in your country, but NOT necessarily true on U.S. railroads, especially the NKP, i.e. the Nickel Plate Road. The NKP did NOT run "second section following" with their freight service, back in the steam era, thus the NKP 700 Berks would have carried white class lights for "Extra Train". Since the original poster was asking/referring specifically about/to NKP Berks, that was the reason for my response.

Are you saying the NKP never ran sections with their freight ?  So you're saying you would not find  green class  lights  / flags on their freight Berks?  That may be the case and I have no idea where to find a timetable from that era. However Sections were a great way to get trains over the road  with  limited train orders and less running orders.

When I started in 65 with Canadian National  we used the same rule book as the Chesapeake & Ohio, New York Central and the Toronto Hamilton and Buffalo plus a number of other Canadian railways so we're not that different.

Gregg posted:

Are you saying the NKP never ran sections with their freight ?

Correct.

  So you're saying you would not find  green class  lights  / flags on their freight Berks? 

Nope. Not on the Nickel Plate. Passenger trains, yes, but not freights.

 That may be the case and I have no idea where to find a timetable from that era. However Sections were a great way to get trains over the road  with  limited train orders and less running orders.

I really don't think that the NKP Dispatchers were all that worried about the quantity of train orders issued, on such a busy main line railroad.

When I started in 65 with Canadian National  we used the same rule book as the Chesapeake & Ohio, New York Central and the Toronto Hamilton and Buffalo plus a number of other Canadian railways so we're not that different.

To be accurate, the original poster is referring to an NKP Berkshire, which was handling NKP freights from the 1940s thru 1958. Thus, your 1965 rule book may not be relevant. 

I really don't think that the NKP Dispatchers were all that worried about the quantity of train orders issued, on such a busy main line railroad.

Well, all a regular train (time card train) needs to leave  it's initial terminal is a clearance...

An extra requires a running order  with meets on opposing extras etc...

I disagree with you on that point.  Anyway fun discussion.

Ok I thought I was confused before I got here.

I think I will just leave the lights alone.  Maybe they sell a pre soldered led with the right capacitor for a few bucks. I might just call it the Polar Express 763

I think I'll add flashing green/white lights to the class lights, that covers all bases.

Really.... rulebooks, flags, whistles... dispatchers worries???   Geez, OP just wanted to add some cool lighting....  

I appreciate reading up on the input referring to Leds, resistors, the wiring, different sizes, methods of control, product allocation, etc,...however it seems each time marker/classification lighting comes up, its this off topic rabbit hole of rules, colors, and the such just doesnt help... IMO... 

Moving on..

Your fiber lites look great, and id like to hear more about your chirping birds... im looking into small soundboards at this time..

If anyone knows a source of trim rings, perhaps 3d printed or molded plastic, to put around the outside of the naked Led, or fiber, added to shell, that would really be a nice detail to add as well. Seems Im always adding markers or ditch lites to my diesels and small thin washers or sliced O rings just quite dont do justice

If you're adding them to this locomotive, I just use 3mm flangeless LED's for the job.

eBay: 321186777202 will give you 100 of them for $4.20 shipped.  Tons of other sources, I just hit the first one. 

You just have to knock out that plastic insert that tries to light the class lights, and then fit the LED's into the hole.  At times, you have to slightly enlarge the hole for stuff like this Railking locomotive.  Since you don't have the marker connection in the locomotive (board in the tender), you can power them from the headlight circuit.  Use a 220 ohm resistor and wire the two LED's in series.  The positive lead goes to the purple lead for the headlight, the negative lead obviously goes to the other headlight wire.  The resistor can be in either lead or between the two LED's, they're all strung in series.

Remember, NOTHING goes to frame ground in PS/2, the lighting circuits are totally insulated.