Headlight for dummy F7 loco

[Derek]

Hello,  Has anyone installed a headlight into a dummy F7 loco?  I have heard about lights for carriages that work off internal batteries rather than from the track power supply, and I wonder if there is something similar for loco headlights.

Many thanks in advance,

Derek

[J3a-614]

Derek, I've never installed a headlight in an F-unit dummy, but I imagine I would do so the way I started the installation on an old powered Athearn SD7 years ago.

This wasn't really a big job.  I just found a piece of brass tubing that would be the right size for a bulb, and bent some brass strip to form a bracket.  That bending essentially made two right angles in the strip, one to support the headlight tube, which I soldered on, and the other with a couple of screw holes to attach to the frame.  The frame of course required a couple of holes to be drilled to match the ones in the strip.  A little fiddling and checking got everything lined up well, with the hole drilling being about the last step.  I will mention the holes got threads tapped in--a necessity with a cast metal frame. 

The job never quite got finished--I sold the unit, which was painted and lettered for Baltimore & Ohio to a friend--but other than wiring up the headlights (I did both ends), it was done.  

In your case, with a non-powered unit, adding a small battery bracket and figuring out how to install a switch in an inconspicuous but reachable location shouldn't be too hard; you should have plenty of room inside for anything you want to do.  You should find a lot of things for this in something like a radio or electronics supply shop, such as Radio Shack.

[Len]

You could make some phosphor bronze pickups if you wanted to use track power. Either wheel wipers, or 'shoes' as shown here:
http://www.micromark.com/phosphor-bronze-sheet-5-inches-x-7-inches-pkg-of-3,8335.html

Having some phosphor bronze around can be handy for a lot of projects. But if you don't need that much, Kadee #5 style coupler centering springs are fairly easy to turn into 'wheel wiper' pickups too:


Len

[Derek]

Thank you both for your suggestions... much appreciated.

Derek

[RAM]

One thing that was not asked is this, are you running in DC or Dcc.  I you are running in dc with direction lighting or dcc than run wired from the back up light to the dummy with a plug between the units.

[Derek]

It is running on a DCC layout.  Thanks.