Twin beam headlights for the Trainorama 44.

 

See suppliers of fibre optic cable.

 

Since I fitted the new rear lens for my Trainorama 44, I thought thy looked good with the headlight OFF but I like operating with the headlight on. This looked poor on both of my 44s with either a 3 mm Prototype LED or the original 1.5 volt incandescent.

 

A second method for a twin beam 44/930 headlight is shown below using two 3 mm Prototype White LEDs from Nick on the Yahoo Aus Model Rail group. Thanks Nick for the details and photo.

 

Between the two methods, you can choose one and have a better looking twin beam headlight on your 44/930s.

 

One LED and Fibre Optics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left – shows light not on – a great looking light but I like them on.

 

Right – shows headlight on with the original incandescent fitted lights. Not a good enough effect.

 

So I have added a LED and fibre optics

 

Drill two 0.7 mm holes in the new rear lens in the middle of each clear section.

 

Place 0.75 fibre optic cable through the holes and “mushroom” over using a soldering iron to melt the end and file flat with a very smooth file.

 

Drill two 0.7 mm holes in a 3 mm Prototype White LED being careful not to drill too much.

 

Trim fibre optic cable to about 5 mm.

 

Insert fibre cable with long nose pliers into the LED as shown. 

 

 

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Paint the LED with black enamel paint. Enamel paint is thicker. This is to reduce the extra light shining out of the led and showing through the lens. Pay particular attention to where the fibre optic cables come out of the LED.

 

Trim LED leads to about 3 mm and tin with solder.

 

Locate the LED/lens assy into the hole and make sure the front lens does not push through. You may have to file the “mushroom” heads of the cable.

 

Connect wires to LED and place very close to windscreen divider and secure with Blu Tak.

 

Connect the wires t the decoder or the circuit board with the supplied 1,000 ohm resistor.

 

This is the final product. It looks much better on the layout in real life and what a fantastic improvement. Well worth the effort.

 

Now my 44 looks like the real thing with the twin beam headlight.

 

All up a couple of hours well spent.

 

Thanks Josh Beveridge for giving me the tips on how to do this and now all of us can have the great light.

 

Happy running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Left – shows light not on – a great looking light but I like them on.

 

Right – shows headlight on with the original incandescent fitted lights. Not a good enough effect.

 

So I have added a LED and fibre optics.

 

 

 

Drill two 0.7 mm holes in the new rear lens in the middle of each clear section.

 

Place 0.75 fibre optic cable through the holes and “mushroom” over using a soldering iron to melt the end and file flat with a very smooth file.

 

Drill two 0.7 mm holes in a 3 mm Prototype White LED being careful not to drill too much.

 

Trim fibre optic cable to about 5 mm.

 

Insert fibre cable with long nose pliers into the LED as shown. 

 

 

 

Paint the LED with black enamel paint. Enamel paint is thicker. This is to reduce the extra light shining out of the led and showing through the lens. Pay particular attention to where the fibre optic cables come out of the LED.

 

Trim LED leads to about 3 mm and tin with solder.

 

Locate the LED/lens assy into the hole and make sure the front lens does not push through. You may have to file the “mushroom” heads of the cable.

 

Connect wires to LED and place very close to windscreen divider and secure with Blu Tak.

 

Connect the wires t the decoder or the circuit board with the supplied 1,000 ohm resistor.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the final product. It looks much better on the layout in real life and what a fantastic improvement. Well worth the effort.

 

Now my 44 looks like the real thing with the twin beam headlight.

 

All up a couple of hours well spent.

 

Thanks Josh Beveridge for giving me the tips on how to do this and now all of us can have the great light.

 

Happy running.

 

 

Two LEDs

 

Nick’s Method from Aus Model Rail, alternative twin beam headlight in a 44/930.

 

This photo sure does show how good the twin LEDs are.

 

 

 

 

Nick said on the Aus Model Rail group on 22 Sep 05.

 

It looks good, but the beams don’t look big enough.

What I did is a lot quicker and easier, and probably is more correct, no offence to Marcus, he is a great modeller.

 

With the grey light bulb support, I removed it and machined it flat with a dremel.

Then I soldered two of those prototype LED's together, so the flat side of the led met the flat side of the other led. I soldered those leads together, then wired it all up and sat on top of the original grey headlight support. I then test fitted the body to make sure the LED's were lined up with the beam openings in the lens, and taped them in for good.

 

The result? An extremely accurate representation of the 930/44 class headlight beams. When you look at the real thing directly, the lights are that bright they look like one single beam, that is how mine come out.

However, when viewed on the angle, you can easily see twin beams, like the real thing. Also, at night when running the model in darkness, the headlight does what headlights were always meant to do, light up the track!

 

Regards

Nick.