Bachmann headlights

[hunter2115]

Does anyone know why Bachmann uses yellow headlights? To me, this looks very strange. Is it possible to change to a regular "white" light?

[rich1998]

i can only speak about steam. locos in the 1800s to maybe 1915 had oil lamps. yellowish. From roughly 1897 to maybe 1915 or a little later , many had carbon arc, white, very bright headlights. some had acetylene in the same time period. Do not know what color that would be but I would guess maybe yellowish. From then on, incandescent which were yellowish as I remember from seeing steam locos back in the 1950s at night. if you model steam, no lights during the day unless your railroad runs at night.
i did a lot of steam loco headlight searching. i will have to see what i can find in my notes.

lex

[CNE Runner]

Hunter - I will assume you are modeling diesel power? If not, Lexon is correct with saying that most (if not all) early steam locomotives' headlights were 'yellowish'...that changed with the advent of carbon arc and later incandescent lighting. If you are modeling diesel, you would want a brighter, white light. Most model railroad headlights use a resistor to lower the voltage to the bulb. You could remove the body shell and see if yours has one. If it does, a lower impedance resister will allow more current to flow to the bulb (which may shorten its life). If not, changing to a bright white LED would give a different (more modern) look.

Ray

[rich1998]

with diesel I have read in other forums about too white a white light and want more in the yellowish range. some white leds even have a tinge of blue that bothers people. many online dcc companies are now selling golden white leds or sunny white. below is a link to led supplier i have bought from
store the link
http://www.richmondcontrols.com/
lex

[Jim Banner]

I think Kato was the first to use yellow LED's as headlights.  They knew they were too yellow, but blue LED's hadn't been invented yet so there were no white ones available.  My own preference is "warm white" which is quite similar to golden white.

Acetylene lights have a green cast to them.  We still use the expression about someone being "in the lime light."  This refers to early theater spot lights which were illuminated with acetylene.  As a kid, I had a carbide light on my bicycle.  Just add water to calcium carbide "rocks" and light the acetylene gas that is produced.  Not an intense green, just a subtle one.  Like Mars being the "red" planet but not bright red.

Jim

[lmackattack]

I replaced both my spectrum steam headlights with Led that shine like a real train would. For those intrested you have to take the loco apart to access the hedlamp that is housed inbetween the weight halves. I then remove the stock plastic head lamp and remove the clear plastic lenze to make room for the LED. Now run the wires through the smoke box door that the stock LED reflector tube used. make sure to have the led wires covered so it cant short out on the weights. I then cut the stock led wires and  splice in the new LED with slightly longer wire leads. If done right you can get the boiler off without removeing the headlight. Its kinda a PITA but the results are a much better headlight.

see below some of the misc locos that I have redone... 2 of them are spectrums

[rich1998]

seeing your light i am reminded the some of the bachmann locos have very dim lights, aka yellow. i saw some messages while looking around this forum that people here complained quite a few months ago about dim lamps especially on the 2-8-0. someone had an answer but do not remember who. history repeats itself again
lex

[Jim Banner]

lex,
would this be the post you were thinking of?

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,6421.msg54398.html#msg54398

Jim

[RAM]

Steam locomotives on most railroads were yellow until they started to install seal beam highlight.  Two seal beam lights would fit into the old hightlight housing. This took place in the late 1940s, or early 1950s.  I know the first time I saw one I thought, oh no a diesel.