# Question on new Mallet, Pacific, Consolidation



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

For owners of the "new style" locos above (meaning the socket is in the tender)...

Do ALL of your lights in the locomotive itself go out when you put the loco in reverse? i.e. the cab lights, marker lights, number boards all go on and OFF with the headlight?

Just found this on my new Consolidation... 


Greg


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

On my new Mallet, all lights stay on when tender light comes on in reverse.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

So your headlight never goes out? Interesting. Are you running with the DC plug in, or is there something else in the socket? 

Does the tender light go out completely in forward? 

Thanks, Greg


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg. 
If all the lights in the loco go out with direction change, do you know if the load of all those lights is carried via the switching transistors? 
If so, do you know what the total current draw for those lights would be?


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I sure don't tony, but there is a 3 terminal voltage regulator screwed to one pile of weights in the tender. I'll measure voltages and I might test the current draw. 

I don't think there is a switching transistor, I think it's done with simple diodes, but you may be right. I'll "suss out" the circuitry on the tender board. 

This would be 4 bulbs minimum. Will pull the boiler off and take a look. 

I'm surprised that the headlight, tender light and number boards are incandescents, and not warm white LEDs, since the total load might be excessive for some decoders. 

Regards, Greg


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Greg. 
I am concerned of course that the transistors I use for controlling the lighting on my PnP boards can handle the current required for a mixture of incandescent and LED lights. 
I am now using SMD BC817. They are rated at 350 ma. 

I will have a new Pacific tender here this week for conversion so I can at least check out the rear lights load.


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## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

Hi Greg, on my Connie with the Revo installed, loco markers and headlight are always on and the tender light comes on in reverse, is off when moving forward.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Weird... my QSI turns the headlight and backup light on and off properly, but unfortunately, it appears that the cab light, number boards and marker lights are all wired to the headlight. 

The engineer is plenty po'd that the lights go out in reverse, let me tell ya! 

Anyone try this on DC with no decoder installed? 

Greg


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## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

On my new Mallet and Pacific on straight DC headlight, running lights , number lights, and cab lights on all the time fwd or reverse. 
Mallet tender light is directional. Once I install the QSI's I'll let you know how they act. 

Ron


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Dang, the headlight is not directional even on DC? 

I'm going to put my shorting plug back into mine and check also. 

Sounds like only the QSI is able to control the headlight! 

The underlying problem is the 8 wires from tender to loco 
2 - track 
2 - motor 
2 - smoke 
2 - headlight, marker lights, cab light, number boards 

I normally put a 12 pin conector in place, that lets me have independent marker lights, and cab light if desired. 

Normally I leave the cab and number boards on all the time, the headlight is dimmed or off in reverse, and I like to turn on the cab light as part of my startup sequence, matching the startup sounds on the QSI (air pump, dynamo, etc.) 

Regards, Greg


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## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

OK I made the tough call on which engines to take out of service to run my new Mallet and Pacific in DCC with the QSI boards, unfortunately I had one board fail so I ended up having to take 3 out of service







.
On a bright note the new speaker sounds great!!, tons of bass and lots of clear volume, I will not be changing it out







. 
It is also very easy to program the QSI boards now because you just have to use the tender, no need to drag up the engine as well.

First up is the Mallet. Headlight button on QSI Cab turns on/off ALL of the lights, not just the headlight.

Direction FWD, state neutral

Head light - on bright
cab - on 
marker - on brt
number- on brt
tender - dim

Direction, FWD - moving

all same as above

Direction, reverse, state neutral

Headlight - off
cab - on
Marker - off
Number - off
Tender - Dim

Direction Rev, state moving

Headlight - on bright
Cab - on (no brt or dim just on)
Marker - on brt
Number - on brt
Tender - on brt

Next up the Pacific, again headlight button on remote turns off all lights, not just headlight.

Direction FWD , state neutral and moving

headlight - on bright
marker - on bright
cab - on

Direction REV, state neutral

headlight - on dim
marker - off
cab - on

Direction Rev , state moving

headlight - on bright
cab - on
maker - on 

On another note changing the light settings with the quantum programer had no effect on actual light operation.

Ron


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Ron, 

Thanks for the test, but if you looked closely at the markers, you would see that they follow the cab and headlight... the wiring shows this... of course different track voltages will allow some lights to get dimmer than others, just because of the bulbs used... at first I thought the cab light went out, but it just gets real dim. 

I'll try reprogramming, the QSI should be able to change the lighting, what CV's did you try? 

I'm rewiring my Consolidation, and the cab, marker and headlight will be separated... I ripped the electronics out of the tender today and there is a nice big speaker in the tender now. 

Greg


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

I have just finished installing an RCS PnP ESC into a Pacific tender. BTW, this is the tender with the pcb that had corrosion on it. 

There was no back up light on the Pacific tender. 
I did locate the two terminals where the rear light would be hooked in and connected a warm white bright LED to them with a suitable dropping resistor in series. 
When the power was turned on the rear LED came on and would not follow direction change. It was on the whole time. 
I have no idea why and I cannot be bothered tracing out what looks like another AC pcb wiring screw up. 
So I rewired the LED to my own lighting outputs. 

I did not have the loco so I could not test what the lights did on it. 

My PnP ESC's work perfectly with older AC and all Bachmann sockets.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for the info on the Pacific Tony! 

I tore the circuit board out of my Consolidated yesterday, and put a nice big speaker in there. The decoder is going in the boiler, and when I'm through, my lights are going to work like a real locomotive. 

Greg


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg,
Haven't communicated with you for awhile about these locos.
I have my first loco about done. Everything in the boiler. The vandy tender is basically just a battery car. I sold the Aristo tender. Headlight moved and lamp replaced with led. The classification lights are also incandescent and probably would look better if replaced with leds. It will take some pretty small ones to do it. I also added marker lights to my vandy tenders. All the lights work as they should and can be controlled from the Airwire xmitter along with on/off for the TAS smoke unit. I do have a problem with the chuff leads from the Phoenix P8 and the chuff leads from the TAS unit not working when I turn off power to the smoke unit. Kind of weird. John at Phoenix is looking at it. I could solve it old school by using a small reed relay to isolate the smoke unit leads when power is turned off but I will wait to see what John comes up with. I should have a set of turned wheels back this week. Also,Ace hardware has some 3mm x 6mm .50 pitich stainless screws that are a good replacement for those soft headed screws that Aristo uses to hold the wheels. 21 cents each, probably a good investment. If track tests go well I will tear into the second loco. Both of them will look very much S.P. when done.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks Paul. 

The headlight, backup light and cab lights will be LEDs, but I don't know about the marker lights, need to understand what color they need to be. I could be cool and make them change from green to white from the front... need to know what is prototype... Will be adding an FL4 to do this. 

Are you turning the backsides of the wheels, or the fillet and flange from the "front" side? 

10-4 on replacing the crappy Aristo screws... would not be so bad, but just removing them usually trashes the slot. 











Greg


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Marker lights are on a caboose, those are class lights on the loco... 

Second sections were green most others were white, I think; fuzzy recolections from a fuzzy old man.... 

The Ol' Sourdough


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg,
The classification lights are realy pretty simple for color.
No lights would be a regular scheduled train.
Green would mean a second section following of the same train. Not really something that happens in the model world,but green is nice looking though.
White would mean the train is an extra.
Red would not be used as a classification light. 
They usually would use flags during the day and the class lights at night.

I put marker lights on my tenders with red facing to the rear. I think they would only be used if the loco was acting as a helper at the rear of a train or maybe running light. If it didn't have them then the helper would need to be cut in ahead of the caboose. I noticed on the photos of the S.P. vanderbilts that they had hangers for them on the rear of the oil bunkers even though I didn't see many photos with the marker lights. I like the bright red lights so I went ahead and installed them. They are running off a TCS FL4 decoder and assigned to to a function key as are the loco classification lights.

The wheels are being turned from the front. Still not sure what the metal is. He says it looks kind of like aluminum but heavier. They will turn though. More on this when I get them back. The jury is still out.


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