Mth premier 20-3281-1 0-6-0 cab light

It's probably wired that way or someone was in there mucking around.  The cab light is probably controlled by a mux board if it had separate control.

Thanks John. I was going to open it up and look at the wiring. It wouldn’t make sense for it to be on the remote and not function. If anything it would be wired to the track but going on and off with the headlight looks suspicious. 

Actually, many MTH locomotives have only one control for lighting, and it's not uncommon to see the cab light wired to the headlight circuit.  If this is a model with a mux board, then it would be likely to be separately controlled.

I think I just cracked the code!  Your locomotive has a front electrocoupler, so they used up the extra control channel for the coupler.  I think you're going to find that's the way it works.

Yeah i believe you are correct. I looked last night at some videos and they all are running with the cab lights on. 

Honestly it makes no sense to me because a ps2 3v Diesel you have full control. I would have assumed the boards are the same, steam and diesel. 

Actually, it makes perfect sense when you think about it.

For diesel, everything is in one unit.

For steam, the boards are in the tender and there is a 10-pin tether between the units.  That limits what controls can come to the locomotive.  When they added the front coupler, they lost the extra lighting control.

Never thought of it that way.

I guess Lionel IR link has its advantages then. 

Well, the Lionel IR link is a totally different animal.  It is only a one-way link, from the locomotive to the tender.  However, being a digital serial communications link, you can carry multiple commands to the tender.  Coupler, backup light, marker lights, sounds, etc.

MTH PS/3 has a serial communication link between the locomotive and tender, so control of a lot of extra stuff in the locomotive is easily accomplished with PS/3 steam.

I understand.

As conformation to your theory of the 0-6-0 cab light control, I tested my ps2 3v hudson. Sure enough no electric  front coupler and i have control over the cab light.

Thanks John

I cheated, I have an 0-6-0 with the front coupler, and it has the same behavior.  That's one that I posted a thread about adding a pickup roller.

MTH Switcher Reliability Upgrade

Proto 2 UP Challenger had the cab light on also while running.   Not prototypical but showed cab  ' action ' which is usually hidden when running.   I liked the look well enough that I made Judy's PE do the same thing.

I put a light coat of Tamiya Orange glaze on the bulb to soften the glare .

Joseph, I was thinking of doing something along those lines. I don’t mind it so much but yeah it is very bright. I was also thinking of one of these micro led’s with appropriate resister to replace the stock bulb and mount it on the cab roof. I believe the circuit is 6v.