# HO ditch lights



## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I have my DCC system now and the plan is to start adding decoders to my non DCC engines soon. As I add the decoders it makes sense to me to replace bulbs with leds while I am in there. I think I will be ok with that. The part I don't know about is I want to add ditch lights also. These are HO engines. I would like to ask these questions. Any help would be appreciated.

1. when did the railroads start to use ditch lights?
2. are they going to be hard to mount?
3. I know I will need to drill holes, does a clear lens go over the holes? I will use a pin vice for the drilling.
4. what type of led should I use?
5. should led be in a small box to keep light from flooding the area?
6. should I forget these?
7. am I right, ditch lights are smaller holes than headlights.
8. do they make kits for the ditch lights?

And this question also. Some of my engines have headlight only and I would like to add rear light also. Might as well use most of the functions of the decoder. Any insight on rear light would be helpful also.

Glad you guys don't charge by the question. Thank you.

The engines would be athearn bb and proto 1000 & 2000 and bachmann plus & spectrum


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## New Berlin RR (Feb 11, 2012)

mopac said:


> I have my DCC system now and the plan is to start adding decoders to my non DCC engines soon. As I add the decoders it makes sense to me to replace bulbs with leds while I am in there. I think I will be ok with that. The part I don't know about is I want to add ditch lights also. These are HO engines. I would like to ask these questions. Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> 1. when did the railroads start to use ditch lights? not entirely sure here...
> 2. are they going to be hard to mount? depends on the engine in question really...
> ...



Answers are in *RED* Oh and that will be $100 plus tax for the answers...


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

See, I was wrong already about the not charging. 
Can I run a tab cause I am sure there will be more questions.
Thanks a bunch for your answers.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I am thinking (always dangerous) that if I get small enough diameter leds that
they could just be pushed through the hole I drill and won't need a box around them
and paint the base of led black. They would appear to have a lens. I am not worried
about rocks flying up and breaking them.


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## New Berlin RR (Feb 11, 2012)

can also use the narrow beam types, may not look as great as the wider spread counter parts but would, IMO, give a look more like you want. might just be enough anyways.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Why screw around with lenses. You can mount 2mm LED's and just cut the 2mm stem to fit, then polish the end.


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2012)

As Far as I can tell the Burlington Zephyr's added a second headlamp in 1937 and that is considered the earliest form of ditch light. In the forties and fifties rotating beacons where used but the cost and effort to maintain them was too high.
The ditch lights as we used them today started in the seventies in some railroads and progress though the eighties. As far as I see ditch lights became law in 1994.
I hope this helps
Art


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## Rangerover (Feb 8, 2012)

I bought the clear 2mm leds with resistors, a package of 50 for $12.00. When I installed them, I set them with clear silicone adhesive. The ditch lights are turned on and off, flash, left and right using a TCS 4 function decoder.
leds on ebay: 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/50pcs-2mm-t...878?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c631b59d6

TCS A4X, 4 function decoder:
http://www.tonystrains.com/products/tcs.htm

All the popular decoder's sell decoders with extra function applications, but I like TCS. 
Jim


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

I use the LED's that Rangerover suggested, they are called tower LED's. Those are a little strong on the blue side but the do work well, I turn them down to be about 1 MM to directly fit into the holes on the Athearn BB units. I install mine with a little quick set epoxy then paint the backs black to keep reverse light bleed threw to a min.
Just remember one resistor per LED and they need to be directionally wired and Blue (common) is + and white, yellow, green, violet and others are -.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Wow, thanks for all the info guys. Helps a bunch.
They are cheap enough. I have not worked with
leds yet or decoders. Sean, how do I tell which is
+ lead on led. Blue is split to both + of leds? I am
ALMOST embarassed to ask this. But I don't know.
I think I know resistor has to go in one direction.
How do I tell which end of resistor goes to led. I can
solder(LOL). Also, the tower can be ground down some?
And shortened?


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## New Berlin RR (Feb 11, 2012)

IIRC the Anode is the longer wire/lead which is your positive, shorter is negative...see image below...hope this helps


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Resistors have no polarity, they go either way. Diodes and LED's have polarity.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

You can cut down an LED to right before the Electronic portion is exposed.
On the tower LED's it's not the length I cut down, it's the dia of the tower. 
I put the resistors in the - line,
Always check the polarity of the LED's because I have several that are the reverse of what they should be! I just use a AA battery to test, also test after any cutting down just to make sure that it's still working right!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I use a hefty (1k) resistor and 5V from a bench supply to check polarity of LED's. As Sean says, it's not ALWAYS the long lead that's the anode.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

That all makes it clearer. Really. Sean, I did know you meant dia. of led
not length. I guess if they do stick through too much just back them off
a little. I was really wrong on resistors being directional. I did mess with
a few leds years ago and blew them as fast as I could pick them up.
Thought I was using a resistor but maybe not. I blew 4 leds and never 
messed with them again. The battery test sounds good. The resistors
that come with those leds say for 12 volts. Is that about what a decoder
puts out for lighting? My track is at 15 volts. Thanks guys. You are very 
helpful. I have a bunch of non DCC engines and I need to be able to do
this myself.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

I use resistors from 470 ohms to 1K ohm. Normally the 470 ohm ones work great.
LED's are a lot more stable than standard incandescent lamps, with a proper resistors it's really hard to burn them out!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

The easiest and fastest way to blow LED's is to connect them to power without a current limiting resistor. A blaze of glory and they're gone!


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

DO NOT release the magic smoke!


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

Yankeezephyr said:


> As Far as I can tell the Burlington Zephyr's added a second headlamp in 1937 and that is considered the earliest form of ditch light. In the forties and fifties rotating beacons where used but the cost and effort to maintain them was too high.
> The ditch lights as we used them today started in the seventies in some railroads and progress though the eighties. As far as I see ditch lights became law in 1994.
> I hope this helps
> Art


Mars lights, gyralights and other rotating warning lights are NOT ditchlights, and do not serve the same purpose. They're to make the train more noticeable to people and vehicles on the ground.

Ditch lights illuminate more along the sides of the tracks for the benefit of the train crew. Canadian railways for sure did some early experimenting with removeable ditch lights on trains passing through the Rocky Mountains as early as the 1950s, but permanently mounted ditch lights really started showing up in the late 1970ss, becoming common through the 1980s and required by the 1990s.

I think the current rule in Canada is that a train that does not have ditch lights displayed to the front of the movement is restricted to something like 15MPH over public grade crossings, which would be the rulebook definition of "SLOW" speed.


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## manchesterjim (Dec 30, 2011)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> The easiest and fastest way to blow LED's is to connect them to power without a current limiting resistor. A blaze of glory and they're gone!





NIMT said:


> DO NOT release the magic smoke!


I _did_ release the magic smoke once.......it was FUN!


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## manchesterjim (Dec 30, 2011)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> I use a hefty (1k) resistor and 5V from a bench supply to check polarity of LED's. As Sean says, it's not ALWAYS the long lead that's the anode.


Amen to this.....nothing more frustrating than getting everything installed and connected...only to find out you got the polarity wrong!


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