44 Ton Switcher lights

[Train-gang]

Are the directional lights in my new Spectrum 44 ton Switcher designed to light up the back end of the locomotive in relation to the direction of travel? Mine does.  I was thinking they should be lighting up where it's heading but than again I do not know that much about Switcher's.

I am running a Lenz DCC system using a Bachmann decoder in the Switcher.

Bob

[Guilford Guy]

Did you solder in the headlights backwards?

[Train-gang]

Well, I wired the lights per the diagram that came with the decoder and double checked using the decoder installation pictured on this web site. 

Would you agree that the lights should be lite in the direction of travel? If so I can reverse the wiring hook-up for the lights.

[mattallen37]

Would you agree that the lights should be lite in the direction of travel? If so I can reverse the wiring hook-up for the lights.

Yes it should be lit in the direction of travel.

                                                Matt

[Train-gang]

Thanks for the feedback.  I will do another inspection of the wire terminations and make it work.

[kevin2083]

There is a little hard to see arrow on the cast frame that points forward (on the fuel tank area)

[Train-gang]

I pulled the Switcher apart and checked the wire hook-ups.  Found all connections to be per drawing but reversed the wires for the lights and solved the problem.  I don't know if the issue originated in the Bachmann decoder or the Switcher. 

The decoder was a tight fit so if I had to do it again I would get a smaller/n-scale  one.

[r.cprmier]

If a switcher is working-say-the night trick in switching duty, then mightn't both lights be lit, to eliminate that consideration in addition to the others going on in and about the locomotive. 

Union Freight Company in Boston, used to work nights almost exclusively, and I had seen both ends of locomotives lit during that type of operation.  Mind you, switching was taking place both in the yards, docks and streets, so it could get pretty hairy.  An engineer could be dealing with a cut of cars around Atlantic Avenue, the dock area, and that was a pretty active place, with truck movements, cars, etc. happening around the warehouses.  I bet a lot of those 44-tonners could have been called "Rat Crushers"-literally!


Rich
The Old Reprobate