Model Railroading > best looking led lighting for 2 bulb light

I have a trio of SP SD45T-2 Athearn which need to be put back together after the decoders (NCE DASR) were installed years ago. They are Athearn 1.5v bulbs now but I may change them over to leds when I move the decoder up to the inside of the roof.

Should I go for small surface mount leds and use one for each prototype bulb or is one 3mm-5mm led for two bulbs just as fine? Should I use DA clear plastic lenses to fill the openings in the castings? Would it be better to build lenses out of fiber optic rod and make each lens extend back inside the carbody a few mm? That way I could put the 3mm led inside a brass tube on one end and the fiber optic rods in from the other end.

Please let me know what is working for you.

Thanks.

Posted from iPhone

It seems like any of those options would work.  I prefer to use two surface mount LED's in series for each bulb. The only downside to this is that if you look closely enough you can usually see the LED's through the lenses.

- Chris
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Call me lazy, but I like to use a 3mm LED for each pair, using clear lenses in the actual headlights themselves. In some cases I didn't even bother with rod etc, but for a couple upcoming projects I do plan to use styrene tube to direct the light a bit. I like to same my surface mount LED for ditch light applications.

Posted from iPhone

For a while I was using a single 3mm LED and Details West 341 lenses. It seemed one headlight sometimes ended up brighter than the other due to the position of the LED, using small lengths of fibre optic fixed this on a couple models. The other problem is boxing in the LED so light does not leak backwards into the cab or other visible areas.

I recently finished an Athearn Genesis GP50 where I used SMD LEDs for each individual light and Details West 341 lenses. I used 0402 warm white LEDs I bought off eBay direct from China. I was really happy with the results as both headlights and the ditch lights were the exact same brightness and color. A small piece of black tape over the rear of the headlight area keeps any light from bleeding back into the cab.

Andrew C



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/15 08:13 by andrewcastle.

My vote would be also for 0402 surface moujnt LEDs  - one for each lens.  Use DW 341 for the headlight lenses and you'll be all set.

Cheers,
Harry