# "Portable" cab lights



## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

I've started running trains more and more at night this past summer, and the lack of lights in buildings, cabooses, etc., has really become noticeable. Putting lights in the cabooses and passenger cars is fairly simple. A small flashlight shining through the back window of a passenger depot gives adequate light to give that scene some life. Alas, however, the cabs of my locomotives remain dark. I never installed cab lights when building them, as it just never seemed that important to me.


The lights inside a steam locomotive cab would not be overly bright for the same reason we don't drive with the dome lights on in our cars; we need to see what's ahead of us. However, unlike a car, the engine crew needs sufficient light to see the gauges, knobs, and other things. In the "electric light" era, there would be small, low-wattage lights over the important gauges, etc. I model the pre-electric-light era, where the light would come from a lantern hung from the roof of the cab or some such. Anyway, after running so much at night this past summer, I decided that I definitely needed to retrofit my cabs with cab lights. The problem is, I haven't the slightest desire to take the darned things apart to install such a feature. Well, on a trip to Lowe's today, the proverbial lightbulb went on in my head...

Make a "portable" cab light that I can just stick in the cab of whatever loco I'm running. 











I found a small package of "warm white" LED replacement bulbs from GE--the same ones I've been using for all my lights for the past few years. These give off a warm glow similar to an incandescent bulb. (They're in the caboose in the top photo, in the interiors and the markers, and are also in the headlight of the loco, illuminating the track ahead.) At $1.97 for a package of 10, I figured this saved me having to buy the entire string of lights only to throw out everything but the lights. At only 20 cents per bulb, that's a pretty good deal. I then went in search of a small key-fob LED flashlight, preferably one with an on/off switch. The one I found is made by "Task Force," and ran me a whopping $1.87. It's essentially two small button batteries with the LED leads attached to it. 

You can see the LEDs as the come out of the card, with the plastic "bulb" removed, and the LED pulled out of the socket. It's a 3mm LED. 

To make the light, I just soldered wires to the LED, then ran the wires into the key fob where the original LED leads went instead. The power switch turns it on and off. 

I found the light to be far too bright when first placed in the cab, so I painted over the LED with some brown paint to tone it down. 











It's actually not _quite_ this bright in reality. It's a nice warm glow to the cab that gives enough light to see that it is a cab and that there is a crew at the controls, but it doesn't illuminate the landscape around it. I can just stuff it in whatever loco I'm running, and I'm all set. No need to rewire any of the locomotives. I'm thinking now I need to go buy some more to do some similar lights for the buildings. It wouldn't be hard at all to find an inconspicuous spot to drill a small hole to insert an LED, then have the key fob on the backside out of view. 


Later,

K


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't know if ALL Accucraft locomotives come with cab lights. But when Jonathan Bliese from EMW, delivered my D&RGW #346 to me a couple of years ago, he had cab lights and the classification lights all wired AND controlled by Airwire. It's late now, but tomorrow I'll get a photo of the lights in my cab and post. I like what you did Kevin.


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## Bill Martinsen (Mar 4, 2008)

Great idea, K. Thanks for posting it. I intend to give it a try. 

Bill Martinsen


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

Sometimes the simplest solution is the most elegant. 

Great idea Kevin! 

Chas


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Very clever idea, especially the way you can twist the wire to put it where you want it. 

Greg


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## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

Smart thinking! It's a good idea for life steamers as well I think. 
Great picture of that caboose btw!


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

As promised a week ago, here is a shot of the cab and lights, in my Accucraft #346.










Gives a nice glow at night.


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## MikeK (Jan 3, 2008)

Inexpensive ingenuity...I like it. Thanks for sharing your idea, Kevin.


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