Williams locomotive headlights

@Steam Crazy, I use these 3 mm LEDs from Evans Designs for smaller lights, such as on Geeps, and these 5 mm LEDs for larger lights, e.g. the Williams scale FA. Warm white for color and 8 inch leads for the close end and 14 inch leads for the farther end. These are separated leads, so you can disconnect them if want to remove the shell and work on the locomotive guts.

@Steam Crazy posted:

Williams locomotives run well and are a good value, but their headlights are dim because the run on such low voltage - 6-10 volts - even with a good load.  I'd like to replace the OE bulbs with brighter LEDs, but the variety of LED bulbs and specifications on the internet make the choice of a suitable bulb difficult.

Your suggestions will be appreciated.  I would like to buy some LED bulbs that will be brighter at low voltage and with a warm color like incandescent bulbs.  Thank you.

John

John- I use 3mm flat-tip LED's, warm white for headlights. I glue them into the lens with some hot glue. Add a 1K resistor and you're good to go.

Bob

I have a couple of Williams FA-1s (Santa Fe and Union Pacific) that use the incandescent bulbs and are the only engines I have that don't have LED lights. However, I found that after wiring the motors in series, the speed slowed down some and the headlight burned brighter, which is bright enough for my small freight section on the layout.

Matt, Bob and Yellowstone, thanks for your response.  Being lazy, I was wondering if there is a suitable bayonet base LED that would be a direct replacement for the OE bulb.  I’ve seen bayonet base LEDs on the net, but don’t know what to choose.

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Matt, Bob and Yellowstone, thanks for your response.  Being lazy, I was wondering if there is a suitable bayonet base LED that would be a direct replacement for the OE bulb.  I’ve seen bayonet base LEDs on the net, but don’t know what to choose.

John

It wouldn't surprise me if there is, but for the Geeps, I just popped out the lens and glued the two pairs of 3 mm LEDs in. IIRC, I had to cut out the middle, because the sides cover the number boards. This was all straightforward and easy.

For the FA, I got the wax that Evans Designs sells and stuck the 5 mm LED directly to the lens, it was a mild pain, because when the wax is soft, it moves easily. However, once it's set, the LED is securely in place. In the future, I may try a hot glue gun.

Both of these solutions are superior, I believe, to an a bayonet-base LED, because the light emitted is directionally focused in the direction of the headlight beam. IOW, it's probably brighter and maybe more realistic.

Thanks again, guys, for your advice.  I agree your solutions are probably superior to bulb replacement, but I think I’d be satisfied with replacement, so I’d like to try that first.

I didn’t mention I made some reflectors out of sheet aluminum and put them behind the bulbs.  That helped, but I’d still prefer brighter headlights.

Years ago I bought a bunch ("100 bulbs - 10 bucks!" or something like that) of 14V incandescent bulbs from Micro-Mark. They probably do not offer them any more. That's OK, because I still have over half of them. Very useful. These are small bulbs; I use them for headlights. In conventional control (rare for me) - or from an ERR command board - they burn at a proper brightness. They are variable in conventional, of course.

You could place one of these in your headlight socket, and power it from the same track power leads that currently power the Wms Big Bulbs, if I remember my Wms wiring correctly. No general re-wiring needed.

Below: This is a recently "conventionalized" (now just has a rev unit) scale MTH ESE Hudson; the headlight is one of those 14V bulbs I mentioned above. Track powered. The brightness seems reasonable, and the color is steam/early diesel appropriate. I have also never had one burn out.

@Steam Crazy posted:

Thanks again, guys, for your advice.  I agree your solutions are probably superior to bulb replacement, but I think I’d be satisfied with replacement, so I’d like to try that first.

I didn’t mention I made some reflectors out of sheet aluminum and put them behind the bulbs.  That helped, but I’d still prefer brighter headlights.

John- Here's one of my LED's in the Weaver RS3 that I just upgraded. Very easy job to install.

I've been using GutReise led bulbs that come in screw and bayonet bases, warm or cool white and several different voltages. The white globe distributes the light very well and I've used a little yellow or orange paint for the "old" look and they are inexpensive. I love Williams locomotives also. Hope that helps.

Bob, I can’t argue with the effectiveness of your solution.  Looks good!  I may end up going that way, but I’m still going to try replacement per suggestions from D500 and Charles.

i appreciate all the advice!

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Bob, I can’t argue with the effectiveness of your solution.  Looks good!  I may end up going that way, but I’m still going to try replacement per suggestions from D500 and Charles.

i appreciate all the advice!

John

No worries John.

Might want to check out these folks. I just bought some LED replacements for K-line switches from them.

https://stores.towncountryhobbies.com/

I'm with Matt for headlights.  I use discrete LED bulbs and place them directly in the headlight bezel.

I actually try to use the round-top LED's if I can, they give me a more focused and brighter headlight beam.  The resistor is based on what is powering the headlight, for track power, I use a protection diode (1N4003) and a 470 ohm resistor.  This suffices for track power up to 18 VAC.  For many diesels with 3mm openings for the headlights, I actually remove the plastic bezel and stuff the LED in the hole, that gives me a real headlight beam that looks really cool in low light shining down the rails, just like the real thing.

Its a trade off. Using an LED in the headlight gives the best light but in these Williams engines you loose cab and number board illumination. You can then either live without or add more LEDs to those location. Single light source is the simplest. How much effort does one want to put in these??

Single LED in the headlight here.

Pete

I use bayonet base LED bulbs.  Keiurot 1893 bought from Amazon.  These are cool white replacements for incandescent bulbs.  Quite bright at all voltages.  I'm OK with cool white because it's a tradeoff between voltage draw and color.  Went from 7A to 4A draw on a 7 car passenger train with 3 bulbs per car.

@Norton posted:

Its a trade off. Using an LED in the headlight gives the best light but in these Williams engines you loose cab and number board illumination. You can then either live without or add more LEDs to those location. Single light source is the simplest. How much effort does one want to put in these??

Single LED in the headlight here.

Pete

Pete is definitely right about losing cab and number board illumination on Williams diesels, as his photo shows. That's why I prefer to use the stock bulb and its placement under the cab. I want my added engineer and fireman figures to show up, even if it was a PITA have to cut around that bulb to install the cab interior.

@cbq9911a posted:

I use bayonet base LED bulbs.  Keiurot 1893 bought from Amazon.  These are cool white replacements for incandescent bulbs.  Quite bright at all voltages.  I'm OK with cool white because it's a tradeoff between voltage draw and color.  Went from 7A to 4A draw on a 7 car passenger train with 3 bulbs per car.

And thanks for the tip, cbq.  I just ordered some from Amazon and am curious to see how they do.

More good advice.  You guys have exceeded my expectations!  Pete has an excellent point about cab and number board illumination, so I'm going to proceed with my bulb replacement plan from one of the sources you recommended.  Thank you.

John

This is my solution to the cab and number board lighting. I just replaced the 14v bulb and installed an 18v. Then painted the front of the bulb so most all the light went to side and back. This engine has Lionchief so it runs with 18v on the track.

You can have your cake and eat it too.

Pete

@Norton posted:

This is my solution to the cab and number board lighting. I just replaced the 14v bulb and installed an 18v. Then painted the front of the bulb so most all the light went to side and back. This engine has Lionchief so it runs with 18v on the track.

You can have your cake and eat it too.

Pete

Looking good, Pete.

I think it's a little odd that on the Williams ALCO FA-1s, the numbers are printed on the external face of the number board with an illuminated red plastic stem that gets light from the incandescent bulb in the front lower cab. Sometimes these plastic stems carry the light out to the board and sometimes they don't.

In the photo below, the Santa Fe's red light is not illuminated, but the Union Pacific's is illuminated.

@cbq9911a posted:

I use bayonet base LED bulbs.  Keiurot 1893 bought from Amazon.  These are cool white replacements for incandescent bulbs.  Quite bright at all voltages.  I'm OK with cool white because it's a tradeoff between voltage draw and color.  Went from 7A to 4A draw on a 7 car passenger train with 3 bulbs per car.

Hey cbq, I got curious and ordered these off Amazon and am amazed at the difference. They are white DC 12 volt and I like the headlights better and the way they light up the cabs to show off my separately installed engineer and fireman figures. In the photos, the cabs appear brighter than they actually are.

So, thanks for the tip, cbq and maybe Steam Crazy John may want to try these. 10 to a box and inexpensive off Amazon.

Hey, Yellowstone, just saw your post; I decided to take cbq’s advice too.  I installed the new bulbs today and I’m happy with the results.  The headlights are much brighter!

I’m attaching a photo of one of my sheet aluminum reflectors.  The reflectors not only focus  light on the headlight, they block light from illuminating the front motor and subdue light in the cab for a more realistic appearance.  

The tab on the reflector is attached to the bulb base with duct tape (to make it easily removable).  I make a cut halfway through the reflector to bend it in a concave shape and concentrate the light.

BTW, I like your engineer and fireman installation.  You got me thinking about that!  Thanks again everyone, for responding to my post.

John

Your diesels are looking good. Thanks John.