Many manufacturers are using LED's for headlights in their locomotives, and while the LED light is brighter than an incandescent bulb, the result has been less than satisfactory, since most of these white LED's give off a bluish light that is definitely not prototypical even for a modern diesel. In my first article on LED's I mentioned several fixes for this problem which included painting the LED with various yellow hobby paints to tone down the blue effect and warm up the light. When I re-worked my Bachmann 2-8-0 I decided to completely change out the original LED since it was yellow, and once again did not give the proper color light for a locomotive headlight. Yes locomotive lights gave off a yellowish cast in the days of steam, but not this yellow. I found a company on the internet named Miniatronics which produces a warm-white or yellow-white LED. They come in assorted sizes, but I chose the 5 mm size since it is what most locomotive headlights are set up for.
It was a simple matter to clip the leads of the old LED and solder the new LED to the existing wiring harness, which already included the correct resistor. Please make sure you check the polarity of the LED with the circuit, since they are polarity sensitive and will not light if the leads are reversed. When power was applied to the lighting circuit, the headlight came on with a warm bright glow rather than a bluish glow or bright yellow like the original LED. I did both the main headlight and the tender light and was very happy with the results.
You can reach Miniatronics to order LEDs and other components at www.miniatronics.com.
eMail
miniatronics@miniatronics.com
Hours
Monday - Friday
10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. EST.
Phone
1-800-942-9439
1-631-242-6464
Hours
Monday - Friday
10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. EST.
Fax
1-631-242-7796
Mailing Address
561-K Acorn Street
Deer Park, NY 11729