Best lights to use for HO diesel engines

[gregbva123]

What are the best lights to use for Proto 2000 diesel engines, Bachmann Spectrums and Atlas Master engines when using DCC decoders. These are PRR engines too.

Should I use 12 or 14 volts lights or LED's? Or use resistors?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Blake]

Go on Ebay and search for "bright LED". There is a guy who sells sets of 3 for $4. He includes 3 resistors for use with DCC and some gel filters to make the blue cast of the LED's look more like incandecent lighting. He sells sets for DC or DCC. Buy a gang of them.

 

[Pete]

There's also another fella selling bright white LED's in packs of 10 for $10, and 10 with resistors for 12V for $11.

Pete

 

[RidgeRunner]

What about incandescent lights? I tried using 1.5V micro sized lights with a 200 ohm resistor, but the resistor very quickly gets rather hot. Any larger value of a resistor, and the lights dim too much, any smaller and I'd likely cook them.

Would I be better off to just go ahead and pick up some 14-16v lights?

 

[mnguy]

In addition, would folks recommend completely removing the constant lighting board, and wiring the pickups, motor, and LED lights directly to the decoder?

 

[Arlaghan]

Originally posted by mnguy
In addition, would folks recommend completely removing the constant lighting board, and wiring the pickups, motor, and LED lights directly to the decoder?

Absolutely! This way, you can have constant brightness on your engine lights, whether or not the engine is moving.

 

[gregbva123]

I like that you can add 14 or 16 volt lights to a loco, and not having to use a resistor and a light.

Thanks,
Greg