Way to make Williams headlights brighter?

Hi,

 

I bought the warm white 3mm leds from Evan Design:

 

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html

 

 I found that in the Williams F3s, Sharks, E7s, and Scale GG1s, there is a cavity behind the lens of the headlight and the Led fits nicely in there. All you need to do is remove the shell, slip the led in the cavity, secure it with some tape, the led is prewired, just cut the led wires into the existing wiring for the bulb in the cab and your done. I left the bulb in the cab lit as it still gives a nice glow to the cab. I also added MTH crew figures to the cab, 3M double sided tape secures them nicely to the shell of the loco. 

 

The led headlight and crew figures add alot to the already nice Williams locos.

Thanks Craig! I am jumping on this right now!

Are these the ones?

 

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/bl-212.html

There is another even simpler way to do This. Check with a meter what voltage your engine cruises at. Then go find a light bulb that is close to that range. Others may tell you to re-wire the motors in series. Either works.

Rob

If it is a diesel with two motors, you can wire the motors in series.  That will increase the light brightness with the added benefit of better low speed performance.  It is an easy mod, <15 minutes.

 

Earl

I go with the LED solution.  I'm a cheapskate and I use discrete LED's with a resistor and a diode.

I go with both. I wire the motors in series and install Evans LED's marker lights and head light. Much less power consumption with the LED's as well.

Chipset,

 

Yes, those are the ones. 3mm warm white is what you want.

One way is shown here

 

http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowThread?id=619&categoryId=

 

Dale H

I use a Town and Country bayonet warm lamp LED.

If wiring motors in series increases light brightness, how will that additional brightness in the lit cab look? Will it be overly, unnaturally bright for a cab? What if you also splice a 3mm led onto the wires going to that cab light, what effect, if any, will it have on the cab light's brightness? On the led's brightness?

I like the LED option. The existing cab-lightbulb in a Williams loco isn't going to be terribly effective as a headlight, since all the light it produces is being spread out in all directions, with some of it managing to leak through the headlight lens (and most of it through the cab windows--it's a wonder the engineer can see anything at night with all that glare ). 

 

An LED mounted in the lens gives it a light source that goes mostly in one direction--right through the lens. Lights up the track much better that way .

 

---PCJ

I'm converting a Williams A-A set to PS/2, here's what I did for the headlights.  All the light goes out the correct place, forward through the lens.  This works with incandescent or LED lighting.  The sleeve is secured with JB-Weld, and then I hot-glue the bulb in so it's easily removed if necessary.

I would go for either the LED light or a lower volt light bulb for more brightness.

 

From my experiance with Williams engines, why would I want to re-wire the motors to series when most of my Williams run at a decent speed now? That for me would be like replacing a turtle with a snail, as far as speed goes.

Also I had to add a motor set to one of my diesel consists, an ABA Santa Fe, for more power to pull the El Capitan passenger set with better speed.

FYI, I am using a postwar ZW, a KW, and a Z, so there is plenty of power to the track.

 

Lee F.

First thing to go in any locomotive with the bulbs in the middle like the Williams are those bulbs!  They're useless, and as others have stated, the light shines everywhere except where you want it.   I also put cab figures and cab lighting in the conversions, so I need to have separate controls for cab lighting that's only on when I want it on.

You can take silver paint and paint the bulb like it has a football helmet on it and that will re-direct the light where you want it. Very simple. A new bulb is about 50 cents. That makes more sense to me. If you put a regular bulb inside a sleeve you may melt the cab. The LED is ok.

Rob

The voltage will approximately double for the same engine speed.  Most complaints for Williams engine have been poor low speed performance.  Wiring the motors in series significantly improves low speed performance and is very simple to do.  None of my Williams engines have cab lighting, so I can't comment on that.  However, if the cab lighting does not have a voltage regulator, the brightness will also increase.

 

Earl

The "regular" bulb is this conversion is the MTH 6V 60ma bulb, which dissipates 1/3 of a watt.  No melting is going to take place.  If you put a higher current bulb in there, it might be an issue, but normally I use LED's.  The bulbs are what comes with the PS/2 conversion kit.

 

Painting the bulb won't really direct the light as intended in this particular case, since the bulb is far away from the headlight lens.  It probably would help, but it's hardly an ideal solution.