Large Scale Central

Dash9 Ditch Lights

Hi Guys,

I have the battery and Revo installed in my Dash 9, and I’m not overly happy with the lights. I wouldn’t call them blue, but they are very white.

Changing out the head and tail lights for warm white would be easy, but I’m not sure about the ditch lights. I removed the back of one, and I can not tell what type of LED it is currently using. I don’t think I can look at it any closer without cutting the wires. Has anyone else modified their ditch lights?

Shane

I hear a vignette calling

Ditch light no, headlight yes.

I took a yellow magic marker and coloured an LED headlight that was too bright and had that blue tinge to it, so now it shines a warmer colour and that blue tinge isn’t noticeable.

Tamiya clear yellow (their transparent paint) is a easy way to tone down bluish LEDs, saves you taking the ditch lights apart.

Rooster is having hearing problems, ignore him.

Greg

Good ideas, thanks Guys.

For Rooster…

Definitely better!

I still dunno why you wanna light up the ditches. All you are gonna do is aggravate the drunk laying in them.

If you wanna change out the LEDs that’s your call…however my approach would be a sharpie but you know what you’re doing and I’m enjoying following along. I personally like the white ditch lites and feel they should be brighter and whiter than the head lights if you are gonna get that anal on us . More into the other details myself if that is what you are asking Shane? Outstanding work as always !

Greg Elmassian said:

Definitely better!

Which is ?

The ditch lites or the headlights ?

I read it twice from the original poster (as suggested by you) and his query was about ditch lites from my understanding? However I don’t mean to stalk you Greg!

No real experience with Aristo Shane but you could just make your own ? Ain’t that hard with your experience and all about the look you are personally after?

Just something else to add to my list which is getting far too long. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)Rooster, did you catch the vignette effect I added to the photo just for you. I know it’s a little hard to see on a dark photo. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Shane

Shane Stewart said:

Just something else to add to my list which is getting far too long. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)Rooster, did you catch the vignette effect I added to the photo just for you. I know it’s a little hard to see on a dark photo. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Shane

Shane,

I did catch the vignette however I find it troubling! The ditch lites on the “Unit” to the right are a quite a bit higher than then “Unit” on the left . Have you checked the back to back spacing and proper ditch light height? If not I believe there is a TOOL that can tell you how to do so.

Not sure if Aristo made a ditch lite Tool but Kadee may have not real sure though!

I could throw a wrench into things and do a BC Rail unit with additional rock lights. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

My wife heard me talking on the phone over the years, but she thought I was saying “bitch lights”…

Ok. If you are doing the ditch lights, why not do the lights that are in the car-body above the trucks. I dunno what they are called, but I see them on the locomotives at night as they roll by.

Then there are the coloured indicator lights on the operators panel, as well as the gauge back-lights, and then there are the indicator lights on the equipment on the rack/bulkhead behind the driver, and the glow of the driver’s cigar, and…

Greg, I believe those are red. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

David, those are ground lights, and will be on all of my locomotives. They are extremely important when you are lifting an ugly train in the dark. Sometimes you only know you are moving ( hopefully not backwards (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)) by focusing on the terrain, and these lights make that possible.

I’ve thought about doing a fancy control stand, but if I do, I would probably only do one, and it could star in all of my night photos.

Shane

It turned out I needed to rewire the ditch lights to work with the headlights, so I swapped them out. The ditch lights are 3mm round LED’s. Looks much better with the new LED’s. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

Shane

" Rooster " said:

Not sure if Aristo made a ditch lite Tool but Kadee may have not real sure though!

Yes, I understand that they made a ditch light “Tool” and I thought you were the designated tool??