Model Railroading > Latest run of the Scale Trains HO T4 GEVO's

I picked up 2 of the latest run of the Scale Trains HO T4 GEVO's in CSX in the last few days. As some of you know, I purchased some of the CSX HO T4's from their first run  but eventually returned them due to numerous issues. The issues were allot of glue marks, finger prints, poor fitting windows  and the main issue, poor lighting. 

This is the third run so I expected they would fix all of these issues. They fixed the majority of them. I bought 2 and here are my findings.

The latest run had many highlights.  The fit and finish was greatly improved. Everything looked very good. No glue marks or fingerprints. Windows looked good and all is well here. These units come with the latest ESU Loksound 5 sound decoders and also include power packs. I really could not deceive the difference between 4 and 5 but no worries. I also like that the shell can lift off completely with nothing attached. Very nice. What they did not fix was the lighting. Lighting is still very very poor. Ditch lights can hardly be seen and the main lighting looks like a unit  in dimmed mode awaiting a meet in the siding. Fix this.  The main issue with the ditch lights is they use light pipes to deliver the lighting and the light pipe is not continuous. In other words, in order to provide the lift off shell,  they need to break the light pipe and this design fails. So I decided to rip out the light pipes at least to the ditch lights and install LED's in each ditch light. This fixed the issue for sure but it took about 3 hours to do so.

The units pull well and run well. 

I have a 2nd unit to do now but it will take less time as I had to figure out how to remove eveything and then install new LED's. Intermountain's HO T4 lighting is outstanding and I love their units. The only issue I have with them is the chains to the trucks from the body are attached to the body. If u have to remove those chains, god help you reapplying them LOL. 

Be well. Bruce

The first picture is the following.  1st CSX unit is stock Scale Trains, 2nd CSX(Middle unit)  unit has my newly installed LED's and 3rd unit(BNSF) is a stock Intermountain unit. Digital pictures always enhance lighting. You can barely see the ditch lights on the Stock Scale trains units in person.



 

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detail shots

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more shots

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Last shots. Rear lighting was good on all units.

Thanks Bruce 

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Power packs. Are those similar to keep alive? Wonder if the SD40T-2s recently released have them.

Posted from Android

All of the Rivet Counter locomotives have PowerPacks. 

Power Pack is the current keeper of the ESU loksound world.  Scale Trains includes them in the Rivet counter line. I like the idea. I hope other manufacturers follow this idea.  Bruce

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Power packs. Are those similar to keep alive?
> Wonder if the SD40T-2s recently released have
> them.
>
> Posted from Android

brfriedm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Power Pack is the current keeper of the ESU
> loksound world.  Scale Trains includes them in
> the Rivet counter line. I like the idea. I hope
> other manufacturers follow this idea.  Bruce
>

I like the idea too.

I went back to ST website and didn't see any mention of PowerPacks (or keep alive type feature) in the feature details of the S40T-2.  If any Rivet Counter engine from ST has this, it seems like it would be still listed as it's a good feature.


Cheers, Jim

ScaleTrains absolutely refuses to acknowledge the lighting issue still persists. They claim to have “fixed” the ditch lights between the first and second run but they still won’t say what they changed and yet it looks the same. Intermountain blew them out of the water on lighting with the Gevos. They seemed to have gotten the hint though with the Dash 9s.

RN

Posted from iPhone

So are the ditchlights on the Dash 9's for Scale Trains better?  Do you know how they did it differently?  Thanks Bruce

dal3294 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ScaleTrains absolutely refuses to acknowledge the
> lighting issue still persists. They claim to have
> “fixed” the ditch lights between the first and
> second run but they still won’t say what they
> changed and yet it looks the same. Intermountain
> blew them out of the water on lighting with the
> Gevos. They seemed to have gotten the hint though
> with the Dash 9s.
>
> RN
>
> Posted from iPhone

This unit seems to have good headlights and ditchlights. I think this is from the latest run of T4's

Andy

dal3294 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ScaleTrains absolutely refuses to acknowledge the
> lighting issue still persists. They claim to have
> “fixed” the ditch lights between the first and
> second run but they still won’t say what they
> changed and yet it looks the same. Intermountain
> blew them out of the water on lighting with the
> Gevos. They seemed to have gotten the hint though
> with the Dash 9s.
>
> RN
>
> Posted from iPhone

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Lsst one completed for new ditchlights and the project is done. Now I need to weather them. Received quite a few private emails from folks who are dispappointed in the lighting on these T4's and how I did the work. Scale Trains needs to redesign the lighting atleast for the ditchlights for sure on this model.

Take Care. Bruce

brfriedm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So are the ditchlights on the Dash 9's for Scale
> Trains better?  Do you know how they did it
> differently?  Thanks Bruce
>
> dal3294 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > ScaleTrains absolutely refuses to acknowledge
> the
> > lighting issue still persists. They claim to
> have
> > “fixed” the ditch lights between the first
> and
> > second run but they still won’t say what they
> > changed and yet it looks the same.
> Intermountain
> > blew them out of the water on lighting with the
> > Gevos. They seemed to have gotten the hint
> though
> > with the Dash 9s.
> >
> > RN
> >
> > Posted from iPhone

From what I've seen the dash 9s are SM LEDs now with uniform brightness across the front headlights/ditch lights. 

RN

Thanks for the info. That is good news. I plan to buy a few in future runs and did not want to deal with this again. Bruce

dal3294 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> brfriedm Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So are the ditchlights on the Dash 9's for
> Scale
> > Trains better?  Do you know how they did it
> > differently?  Thanks Bruce
> >
> > dal3294 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > ScaleTrains absolutely refuses to acknowledge
> > the
> > > lighting issue still persists. They claim to
> > have
> > > “fixed” the ditch lights between the
> first
> > and
> > > second run but they still won’t say what
> they
> > > changed and yet it looks the same.
> > Intermountain
> > > blew them out of the water on lighting with
> the
> > > Gevos. They seemed to have gotten the hint
> > though
> > > with the Dash 9s.
> > >
> > > RN
> > >
> > > Posted from iPhone
>
> From what I've seen the dash 9s are SM LEDs now
> with uniform brightness across the front
> headlights/ditch lights. 
>
> RN

I got several requests to describe how I added the LED's into the ditchlights on the T4's from Scale Trains. I did not take any pictures doing this to the 2 units I did but I can describe it. So here goes.

• First remove the shell 
• Then take a small pair of needle nose pliers and grab each ditch light casing from the top. Rock it gently back and forth and the casing will come free. You will see the ditch light bars sticking out of the deck now.
• This next part is trickey. Take a dremel knife and gently pry up the deck flooring around the light pipes and then take that small needle nose pliers and grab the light pipe and gently pull them out. Gentle.
• Now go to where the LED's are for the ditchlights in the lower front body. There is a small black casing and it pops out. You need to trace the wires from that casing back to the Loksound board and desoder them from the board. There are 3 wires. 1 for each ditch light and one for the common for both ditchlight LED's. Document where they go.
• Take the ditchlight casings and clean up any old CA if there is any from them and test fit them back in their openings. You may need to do some light filing to make everything smooth. One note, the 2 ditch ligth casings are different so document which one is the right and left.
• Now take your SMD LED's with wires attached and test them and then insert them into the casings. Make sure the LED is centered in the casing and it is facing forward. Then take a small drop of CA and add it to the inside wire so it stays in place. I use CA accelerator to have it dry quick.
• Test LED's again and make sure they look good and work
• Pull wires through old light pipe tunnels and then test LED's again. Notice a theme!
• If all is well then CA ditchlights back in their openings
• Pull wires back to Loksound board. It is pretty obvious the route they need to take
• Solder to board and test them. If they work, tuck extra wire into open area ahead of cab and tape down. When removing and installing the wires there will be some factory tape holding down the wires. You will have to remove the factory tape and then install new tape to secure everything.
• Put shell on and enjoy a tall beverage of your choice. Single Malt Scotch was my choice!
• It took me several hours to do the first one and 1 hour to do the 2nd.

Hope this helps. Bruce 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/19 14:11 by brfriedm.