Real NYC Hudson headlight color

@ffjon posted:

Does anyone know the correct headlight color of NYC's Hudsons? My Lionchief just doesn't look right with a bright white light.

Thanks,

Jon

Should have been the standard Golden Glow reflector with a 32 volt incandescent bulb. Thus the look of "yellow" color when approaching, even at night. They did NOT have sealed beam headlight bulbs back in the main days of steam. Some railroads began up-grading the steam locomotive headlights to twin sealed-beam in the early to mid 1950s.

Jack is correct, and I’ll add, the Central only ever experimented with twin sealed beams on steam locomotives. Never became gospel,....Standard practice was Golden Glow reflector and single 32V bulb. ......this is why some of us hand make reflectors and lenses with real deal incandescent bulbs,......LED’s and toy like lenses just won’t cut it for some of us,....😉

Pat

Thanks and would I'd love to see a "night time" photo of your locos!

Jon

Here’s Leapin Larry’s headlight that was just recently built,.....the glow is like a soft golden glow, not overly yellow, .....

Pat

Very nice, thank you!

Pat, How do you go about making your own? I have a bunch of NYC locomotives and if since this is the case I would love to try and upgrade them. Plus just knowing how to do it would be a learning experience for me. thanks.

@ConrailFan posted:

Pat, How do you go about making your own? I have a bunch of NYC locomotives and if since this is the case I would love to try and upgrade them. Plus just knowing how to do it would be a learning experience for me. thanks.

After work I’ll post the “how to” on this thread, ....it’s not that difficult once you’ve practiced a few times with the tool set....Pete ( Norton ) I believe uses the same procedure, or close to it. Maybe he’ll see this and post up his “how to” as well,....

Pat

Thanks! Much Appreciated!

Here’s how this goes, .....pictured is an inexpensive doming tool set available through Harbor Freight tools, ( maybe others ) .....I pick the best size suited for the headlight bucket I’m working on.....if I’m not sure, I’ll use a piece of aluminum foil to quickly press out a dome that fits, .....then once I know what dome I’m using, I’ll stamp out the rough dome shape in .015 brass......pictured is the rough cut reflector......then I just run that with my fingers on a piece of 400 or whatever is handy sand paper....I’ll do this till I get the depth I want to sit in the headlight bucket. Then grab the reflector with a pair of needle nose, and center punch and drill the headlight hole with a tiny bit, then sneak up on the hole size with a pointy dremel bit till the headlight bulb fits snug,....then it’s time to chrome the reflector,......pictured is the Molotov chrome paint marker,.....the trick is to flow chrome paint into the reflector and then just use the tip to spread it around,....leaving a perfect chrome finish,.....then I install the parts in the locomotive headlight bucket  with a dab of 5 minute epoxy, ......I stamp out clear lenses from pieces of plastic that Lionel freight cars come in, .....I just find tubing that’s the appropriate size I need and sharpen the edges to make a quick punch tool, .....clean up the raw edges on a piece of sandpaper, being careful to just get the edge, not the face,....I’ve refined the lens making process to be a snap in fit, no glue required,...

Pat

Very nifty! I think you told about this in a much earlier thread too, right? So what kind of tubing is soft enough to put an edge on, yet hard enough to punch through the plastic? Honestly, your picture looks like the plastic is closer to plexiglass than the thin plastic I see used as packaging on train stuff, but it's probably just a smoke n' mirrors thing So what's the best way to use the doming set? Do you just whack it once or twice, or apply slow even pressure or???

That sure looks like a fun way to spend an evening with my favorite steamer - or even a General or a docksider !!

Wow!!! All I can say is that is ingenious! Thanks for the detailed explanation. Much Appreciated!

@GeoPeg posted:

Very nifty! I think you told about this in a much earlier thread too, right? So what kind of tubing is soft enough to put an edge on, yet hard enough to punch through the plastic? Honestly, your picture looks like the plastic is closer to plexiglass than the thin plastic I see used as packaging on train stuff, but it's probably just a smoke n' mirrors thing So what's the best way to use the doming set? Do you just whack it once or twice, or apply slow even pressure or???

That sure looks like a fun way to spend an evening with my favorite steamer - or even a General or a docksider !!

I think I might have done a how to back around the holidays??.....

the clear plastic I use is the blister packaging Lionel uses to hold the cars in the box, not the window films,....they’re better suited for passenger car glass,...😉...like you George, I scavenge use out of every bit of what I got laying around!..might as well put it to use,....no??..

I use a small hammer, and tap on the dome forming tool,....these are made from tool steel, and are made for hammering ,.......when the .015 brass is formed in the doming block, it actually becomes stronger than it was in sheet form. Practice with it, and like what you see in the pics, it’ll actually separate itself from the sheet,.....you’re basically coining the reflector, so it’s very strong when it comes out of the die, .....

whatever tubing, small piece of pipe, or anything you have laying around that has the desired ID that will become the lens OD, ....I have tons of different sized steel tubing in all kinds of sizes, I just take a hunk of tubing to the grinder and sharpen the edge to make a cuter,....if it gets dull just cut down the tubing and repeat,.....

Pat

DARN,,,,, now that I've seen this I'm gonna have to try it.

That's really neat.

Great. Thanks for the tutorial.