Excuses and Explanations
OK,
my skills as a photographer really are lacking,
so you're going to have to use some imagination
here. Below are some photos I took of the
original LifeLike SD7 N-Scale locomotive. This
locomotive served as both an example and a test
locomotive..
The
Original Locomotive
Above you can see the original
locomotive, which came fitted with a bulb at one
end. The light was non-directional (it worked
both in forward and reverse) and was not
externally visible in daylight hours until the
train went mach5. The entire unit is less than 10
cm (4 inches) long! You can see the bulb on the
left, which sits in a groove molded into the
weight/ worm-gear housing.
Our
New Lighting System, Ready to Install
Above you can see the circuit,
already soldered together. I have arranged the
entire circuit to fit in the grove vacated by the
light-bulb. The LED was too big, so it got a
severe filing until it conformed. The rounded
portion of the chips was also filed off
significantly to make the chip flatter. After
this shot a small amount of tape was applied
around the exposed wires to prevent them from
shorting against each other or the sides of the
weight.
Installed
and Almost Ready to Roll
You can see here the dual completed
circuits assembled, insulated and installed. All
we now have to do is snap the shell back on and
we are away. The chip looks to be close to the
brass flywheel in this shot, but there is
actually a small distance separating the two
vertically.
Coming
Down the Line
This locomotive has just started
moving. The light was so bright the camera flash
refused to go off! I inserted a small piece of
paper behind each number board to try and diffuse
the light. I am sure more could be done, but I
will leave that until another day. In this photo
it looks like the light is very localised on the
boards, but it does not look like this when
viewed from the side. In the dark the light cast
by the headlight illuminates a good distance in
front of the train!
With
the dual, directional lights we put in the
locomotive looks equally fantastic going in
reverse!
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