USA Trains F3 Headlight Upgrade

[supagav]

Hi,

I just wanted to share another quick project I have been thinking about over the last month or so.

Whilst I love the model itself, I was never really happy with the look of the nose mounted headlight on the USA Trains F3s. On the real thing they had a large reflective lens which was an essential component in the overall look of the locomotive. USA Trains made a mounting which was just about the right size for a 5mm light or LED, but the remaining space around the bulb was simply filled in with black plastic. Here is a photo showing the original light fitting to better explain what I`m talking about:



I decided to get hold of some Mini Maglite spares as I thought these would help to create the look of the real F3 headlight. I was able to source some lens covers and reflector parts on Ebay for the AAA sized Mini Maglite:

 

[supagav]

I then carefully removed the existing headlight fitting from the locomotive and began test fitting the new Maglite reflector.

This needed some gentle drilling and filling of the headlight cavity to accomodate the new part, but eventually I managed to get a nice snug fit inside. I gently widened the hole for the bulb and used a clear warm white 5mm LED. I was careful to not push the whole bulb through the hole as it just looked too big inside. The whole thing was secured from behind using a generous application of Hot Melt glue. I quickly touched up the nose before gluing in the lens cover. For this I used special Clearcoat which is designed for model glazing and kit built aircraft canopies, as it dries completely clear and leaves no blooming or residue effect that you can see if use superglue. The last thing was to paint the hot melt glue flat black to avoid any light spillage into the body of the loco, and a little weathering to blend it all in.

Here are some photos showing the finished result:

 

[supagav]

Thanks for that Ross, I will definitely bear that in mind for the next one! Your reflectors look much neater as whilst Maglite ones do the job, they are more crude and needed a bit of work to get the LED inside.

I have another Southern unit like this to do which is currently being bashed in to a passenger F3, and then I have a pair of SP F3s which I'm hopefully going to bash into F7s when I finally get round to them......!

 

[3Valve]

Absolutely massive improvement.

 

[supagav]

Thanks Gareth!

 

[Richie]

Nice one Gav could do with a mars light on my SP Daylight set , by the way did you get those SP Black widow F3 ?

 

[supagav]

Cheers Richie.

I completely forgot to thank you for that! Yeah we managed to get them in the end. I was away at the time but my dad very kindly kept his trigger finger over the mouse button to make sure they didn't slip away. They will be a project for a rainy day in the future, but I am really looking forward to getting round to detailing them up.

Thanks again for that as without your message I would never have know

 

[Richie]

Cheers Richie.

I completely forgot to thank you for that! Yeah we managed to get them in the end. I was away at the time but my dad very kindly kept his trigger finger over the mouse button to make sure they didn't slip away. They will be a project for a rainy day in the future, but I am really looking forward to getting round to detailing them up.

Thanks again for that as without your message I would never have know

Fantastic glad to have helped look forward to there make over

 

[supagav]

Whilst I had the F3 up on the bench, I decided to do a few more detail upgrades. I had recently been reading up more on these units and realised I had missed a few wee bits and bobs on the front end of the loco and the trucks, so I thought I`d share a couple of pics. I also replaced the USA Trains pick-up skates with set of Massoth ones as the slightly larger size helps power pick-up as well stop the skates catching on the frogs of our larger radius pointwork.

New details include fully detailed truck frames (sand lines and brake cylinder piping), nose mounted MU connection, pilot mounted MU hoses, train line brake hose, and finally 0.05" Titchy Train rivets to complete some of the missing detail on the pilot:

 

[Richie]

Lovely looking up grades Gav

 

[Zerogee]

Nice one.
I sell loads of small reflectors for 5mm and 3mm leds. 12mm bowl diameter and about 12mm front to back.
Modellers use 'em for Nav lights and landing lights on their model planes.
A 5mm white LED I have, has a 140 degree angle of view and in a reflector has to be seen to be believed for intensity when going at its maximum MCD rating(5000).

[attachimg=1]

Remind me of your website for these, Ross?

Jon.

 

[supagav]

Thanks Richie!

I would be interested too please Ross. The mini maglite reflectors still needed a wee bit of modifying to get a 5mm LED in so I'd really prefer something that would be a more exact fit. Any cutting or filing seems to risk damaging the shiny surface inside.