Backup light

How about the exact product number?

If the board is in the tender, it's pretty easy.  If the board is in the locomotive, a bit harder.

Does the tender have the volume control and smoke switch?

Not sure on the product number but it’s a Proto two engine starter set railking steam engine 2 8 0.

What about the question where the controls are located?  Is there a smoke switch on the locomotive or the tender?

It looks like there’s a switch controls are all on the tender the switch and the volume control

Have you attempted to remove the shell of the tender?  If you post a couple photos of the guts of your specific tender we can identify what needs to be done, parts you need, etc.  This would also let you assess whether the task would be in your comfort zone.

Hope this helps 

That was fast!  

The idea is as follows.  There is a 12-position connector on the larger of the 2-board pair.  A harness connector plugs in that has wires that go to assorted lamps, speaker, coupler, volume control, smoke control switch.  The exact function of each pin can be found in the MTH Protosound 2 upgrade kit manual but the relevant info is shown above.  You are interested in the two pins #2 and #4 to add a backup light.

The housing that plugs in uses crimped pins as shown circled in yellow.  The #2 position will be occupied on your housing but the #4 position is undoubtedly vacant as you have no backup light.  So you would need to splice into the wire coming from #2, and add a crimped wire to pop into the #4 position.  Now you have 2 wires that get powered when the engine is in reverse.  The bulb is a 6V incandescent.  As shown in the kit photo (circled in orange), MTH lamps of this genre typically are on 2-pin connectors.   Note that if the light is mounted on the tender shell, the additional 2-pin male-female connector pair can simplify working on the tender since the shell and chassis would not be tethered.

So it becomes a matter of finding the assorted connecting components in quantity-1 which I suppose could be a hassle. Of course any MTH service tech would have bags/bins of these components but I don't know if/how they would handle your application.

Also confirm there's someplace to put the backup light with clearance.  I'd also think a plastic lens or bezel might be in order rather than mounting a bulb right in a drilled hole.  You might also consider a white 3mm or 5mm diameter LED and a resistor in place of a bulb.  This is a routine DIY modification guys make on PS2 engines.  Same 2 wires.

Very good explanation and diagrams where do you think I could find the components for this to do it myself that are inexpensive and the easiest way to do it   thanks again 

I like the idea of a led light  if you think that would be the easiest to do

But if using the 8-pin plug (presumably co-opting what the kit calls the Marker light), wouldn't the lamp be on all the time and hence not be a backup light?

Hmm, I must be in the twilight zone.     I thought I saw a post suggesting to use the 8-pin connector and responded to that above.  Oh well. 

Yup, it's the logistics of getting quantity-one of this stuff.  These are all 5 cent parts which is the frustrating thing!  I don't know how you'd get 1 crimped pin with 6" (or whatever) of wire on it.  I'd go with a round-dome warm-white 3mm or 5mm LED whichever seems proportionally correct.  I can't recall the resistor value that everyone uses - something like 270 ohms 1/4 Watt (someone will chime in).  Practically speaking, I'd skip the intermediate 2-pin connector and wire directly to the 12-position housing taking care to make the wire long enough to allow you to separate the tender shell from chassis without yanking the LED wiring; after all, how many times are you going to open the tender after this?!

For the LED polarity matters - pin 2 drives the "+" and pin 4 drives the "-".   So, for example, Pin 2 to one resistor terminal, other resistor terminal to LED + (typically the long terminal), LED - (short terminal) to pin 4.

So where do I obtain the parts and how difficult is this to wire your opinion thanks

I have the leads with pin if you need them, also the 6V bulb for the backup light.

stan2004 posted:

Hmm, I must be in the twilight zone.     I thought I saw a post suggesting to use the 8-pin connector and responded to that above.  Oh well.

You did, but I realized that we're talking backup lights, not marker lights.

Of course, it would be easy to add marker lights as well, light up the world!  If you want to use a red LED, put a 330 ohm resistor in series with it and connect it to that backup lighting output.

Refer to the following threads.  Both are same application as yours (adding a backup light to a PS2 engine without one).  Use OGR Advanced Search with the key words and I'd think you might find one where someone who actually did it will identify exactly where they ended up getting the parts.

Here's one describing the crimped pins - shipping much much more than the pin!  You probably don't want to buy a crimp tool for just one application.  You can probably get by using a needle-nose plier to clamp the wires into the crimp but it's a your-mileage-may vary.

Here's one describing using an LED instead of bulb.

Frankly, have you considered groveling/begging!    In all seriousness, I'd think someone who did this before ordered extra parts and they're just lying around!  

I'm sure I have the crimped wires with the Molex connector.  I am sure I could come up with a red LED, resistor, and the matching Molex connector as well.

Let me know what the cost is for three sets of pins, wires and 6 V bulbs would be as I have about three engines to do if I can do this thanks for your assistance

Send me an email to my profile address and we'll sort it out and get you fixed up.  Are they all 3V PS/2?  The 5V PS/2 has the same pinout, but different connectors and pins.  Are you at all interested in adding markers to any of them?  While you're wiring, might as well go for the gusto.

Is the reverse light function standard in all sound/chain files for steam and diesel or will Brian have to change the files with another steam engine that has that function?

The reverse light is pretty universal, I've never run into one that didn't work as expected.