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MV Products marker lights lenses: to peel or not to peel? Locos and rolling stock
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Active Member 40 posts ChuckG-EDO Active Member 40 posts
ChuckG-EDO

Good Evening:

I've purchased multiple packs of .052" MV Products clear lenses. For those not in the know, these are just about marker light or class light size lenses. I'm looking for tips on installing these.

For headlight applications I've seen recommendations of just drilling a small hole and affixing the light/LED/etc. right to the back of the lens; in almost every case it said that drilling a small hole was enough. I'm wondering if the same applies for a marker light lens, or would you all recommend that I peel the entire foil backing off of the smaller lenses for use in marker lights? 

I've included this photo which shows the hole drilled out for the marker light lenses:

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To answer your question, yes; these are Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Trainmasters. And they answer to no man.

CDMV

 

 

Chuck G.

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Nick Santo amsnick MRH Advertiser and MRH Author 2,819 posts
Nick Santo amsnick

Thought for you.

n LED only for heat level produced.  You will need some resistance in line if your decoder doesn't have it built in.  The foil will probably be best removed.  The LED size looks like a 402 would work best.  I like the pre wired LEDs best, being slightly lazy.  It would attach to the lense with a clear glue,  My glue of the moment is Formula 560 canopy glue.  I've yet to try the Loctite GOTO glue but I bet it is good too.  The canopy glue can be used to secure the lens to the body also and has the added benefit of being a reversible process; you can break the bond with a little force.  After it sets you can paint the whole assembly with a flat black so light only exits through the lens.  If you have room, some people also use a piece of heat shrink for a light shield instead of paint.

If you want to go crazy (like I did) you could wire each light type to a different function on the decoder and turn each type on separately and separate each end of the locomotive too!

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Headlights were individual 603s in series and number boards we're some big honkers I salvaged from an old LED lamp I ripped apart for parts.  I'll find them and measure them if anyone is interested.  They did size out nicely.

Looks like you have a good start.  Keep going!!!

Nick

Nick

https://nixtrainz.com/ Home of the Decoder Buddy

Full disclosure: I am the inventor of the Decoder Buddy and I sell it via the link above.
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ChuckG-EDO Active Member 40 posts
ChuckG-EDO

great stuff, Nick

Thanks for answering the question and providing some additional experienced experience! What you've summarized here is pretty much the direction I think I'm going (after reading and viewing an endless number of 'how-to' pieces and deciding what info to retain and what to discard).

I'll post some updates here once I get to wiring so we can see if I can hold a candle to your work on that geep!

CDMV

 

Chuck G.

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