Model Railroading > Locomotive Headlight Operation

Okay, Lets talk about the correct operation of locomotive headlifgts.  In other words, in a multiple unit consist, the lead unit headlight is on regarless of direction moving and the rearmost headlight of the consist can be turned on and will remain on until the operator turns it off.  The hradlights on the intermediate units are OFF.  In the Model Railroad world headlights are on in the direction the locomotive is moving.  That drives me crazy.

Does anyone have a solution to the headlight problem?  More than likely it will involve CV settings.  I sure would be iinterested in your headlight settings.

Fred Cheney
Iowa City, IA

The GCOR for headlight use on locomotives starts at Rule 5.9 (Headlight display) at https://www.up.com/ert/gcor.pdf   
Most locomotive consist routines accommodate proper lighting for leading, trailing, and stopped units. 
Lines using the Consolidated Code ( http://www.sbs4dcc.com/therulesccor1959.html ) have lighting regulations around Rule 17.

When initially setting up your DCC locomotive consist, it should be as simple as turning off and/or leaving the headlights off for all your intermediate units before consisting. The lead unit should end up being the only unit with forward headlight control. Depending on the specific decoder you're using, or any other special CV programming you may have added to your locomotives, there are ways to independently control the rear locomotive headlight(s) while operating your locomotive consist. If your consist is connected to freight/passenger cars that rear light would typically be turned off.

~ Mr. MRL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/23 21:32 by MrMRL.

As both a engineer and a model railroader, having the headlights automaticlly switch directions doesn't bother me on models as it's confirmation that the locomotive got the command to switch directions. This was much more of a issue when using the Digitrax radio controllers as they were VERY unreliable, particulaly when it came to switching directions. My TCS wifi throttle is so much more reliable. But still when you are distracted talking to other club members at the club, you will forget which direction you last had the locomotive set for when switching, so a quick look at the locomotive headlights will tell you which way it is set to move.
Running a locomotive in 1:1 scale, you are in control of the front and rear headlights of the consist IF the consist was setup correctly and there are no bad MU cables. Usually the headlights in the primary direction of travel are left on and the other direction is turned off and on as needed. If coming into a yard or meeting another train they can be dimmed unless you are about to cross a crossing. Lite engine moves should have the rear headlight on dim. It's fairly easy to setup locomotives to have user controlled headlights by programming the CV's, and with advanced consisting CV's the headlights on the rear locomotive can be controlled at the same time you are running the lead unit in the consist.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Set CV22 to zero
This causes non-leading locomotives in consist to NOT follow the headlight commands sent to the lead loco.

Not to steal the thread, how about number boards? Are trailing units number boards to be lit? 

Mike ONeill
Parker, CO

No. The lead unit number boards were to be the only ones lit in order to direct your attention to it as the identifying unit.  In rare cases where there was a mix-up on the lead unit and it ended up trailing in the consist but train orders had already been issued then you would see number boards lit up on a trailing unit instead of the lead unit.  You could issue an order saying "No 39 has eng 327 instead of eng 1313" but if opposing trains were already out and running and too late to get that order to them, then light up the number boards on the identifying unit in trail. 

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mcdeo Wrote:
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> Not to steal the thread, how about number boards?
> Are trailing units number boards to be lit? 

> Set CV22 to zero
> This causes non-leading locomotives in consist to NOT
> follow the headlight commands sent to the lead loco.

I'm assuming this is done for the lead unit after the power consist is built?
steeplecab

For all locos.
Then you create a consist.
Then you command the lead loco for horn/bell/lights.
The others just follow.
I'm referring to "advanced consisting" where the system uses CV19 to assign the consist to each loco when you build the consist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/23 19:45 by KA7008.

Continuing on with the discussion,  I must say that most of my locomotives have NCE Decoders thus do not have sound which lets me use the "Bell" button for the rear headlight.  Here are the CV's that I use to accomplish the headlight operation on a single unit that I want:  CV 21=9; CV 22=0; CV 33=1; CV 34=0; CV 35=2; CV 120=32; and CV 121=32.  The Headlight button turns the front headlight on and off and when on, it stays on regardless of direction.  The same apples to the Bell button turning the rear headlight on and off.  
I admit that I have not gotten sound locomotive headlights to operate the way non-sound headlights do, and then there are the other non-sound decoders that some work my way and others not so well.