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Adding Headlights to HO Scale Vehicles
INTRODUCTION
I am a big fan of lights and animations on my layout. They add a whole new world of interest to a model railroad and to the sense of realism conveyed. Adding lights to structures is very common, and certainly worth doing, if not overdone; ( Buildings with walls that glow from lights that are too bright, buildings with every room lit, light bulbs visible through the windows, etc. But there are other lighting options available in addition to structure lights. These include street lighting, spotlights and vehicle headlamps and taillights. Vehicle lights will be the subject of this piece.
Until recently, if you wanted to put lights in your vehicles, you were on your own. At least one company now offers vehicles with built in headlamps and/or taillights. But these are about
$30 each in HO Scale and the vehicles are generally too modern for my railroad, which is set in the 1920-1940 era. Anyway, they weren't available 20 years ago when I started doing my own vehicle lighting. And even if they were, I would not have wanted to spend approximately $2000 to have the 60-80 lighted vehicles I wanted. So it was fortunate that I was taught a technique to install vehicle lights by my friend Kenny Michaels at the West Island Model Railroad Club in New York about 25 years ago. I have expanded on Kenny’s teaching and now have about 90 lighted vehicles and flagmen on the Gilpin Gulch Railroad.
Busy Night in Bethany
Busy Night in Bethany
Car Show at the Diner
HEADLIGHT BULBS
I will explain the most complicated part of this project first, to get it out of the way: I use Circuitron “Mitey Lights” miniature 1.5 volt bulbs. They are about 1.4 mm in diameter and can be purchased for about $1 each if you buy 25 at a time from their website. They are very realistically sized for HO scale vehicles. Notice I say I use 1.5 volt lamps! The more popular 12 volt lamps would be so much simpler to use because most structure lighting circuits, like mine, are 12 volts. However, the 12 volt bulbs are just too big to fit most HO vehicles and too bright in my opinion anyway. Now, you can always solder a resistor inline with each 1.5 volt bulb and connect the vehicle to your 12 volt structure lighting buss. But, if you opt to create a separate 1.5 volt vehicle lighting circuit, which I recommend, you don’t need any resistors. Why don’t you use LEDS you ask? Good question! I have not not yet found any LEDS that are truly headlight shaped to fit into my vehicles. The smallest white LEDS I have found still have a square base and would not suit my purpose, so for this article, I am sticking with what I know works. You can actually start installing bulbs in your vehicles without making the power decision yet. Just leave all the wires separated and hanging from the bottom of your vehicles
for now. So for now, let’s get some vehicles wired up with headlights! You can get some lights installed before you decide how too power them. The options for creation of your power buss will be described at the end of this article.
EASY INSTALLS
DELIVERY VAN
These types of vehicle are the easiest to light. You can pry or unscrew the base off the body, drill holes for your bulbs where the fake lights are, glue in your bulbs from inside, route the wires through the base, snap or screw it back together, and you are done! You should mark one wire from each bulb with red paint before you install the bulbs however. This makes identifying the positive leads and negative leads from each bulb much easier for powering them up later. There are many HO scale vehicles available with simple body shapes like this, you can often find them for less than $5 apiece from online retailers. But don’t do all your shopping on line! Support your local Hobby Shop if you still have one and can shop safely. It’s worth paying a few dollars more to keep these guys afloat.
So those are easy jobs. but what if the vehicles you need are a little more complex, as is often the case with older model vehicles?
CONVERTIBLE
THREE MORE VEHICLES TO LIGHT UP!
3 vehicles to light up!
CLASSIC METALWORKS TAXI
LET’S GET SERIOUS
Let’s try to add headlights to these three vehicle from my layout. I generally try to add lights to vehicles i already have to keep the costs down, but I will buy new vehicles when I have had a successful experience with a particular car or truck and they are on sale somewhere! Jordan Highway Miniatures are my favorite, but they are the most difficult to light, so leave them until you have experience with some of the sturdier pre-built vehicles. After 50 years as a model railroader, I have about 200 vehicles. My practice is to place vehicles on the layout, live with them awhile and confirm I like the way they look where they are. Once I’m satisfied with their placement, I make a decision whether or not to light them. Once lit, they aren’t going anywhere because you have to drill a hole in the layout for the wires. Vehicles in the road get lit and populated if possible. Vehicles parked or off the road usually stay dark and empty, with some exceptions, just to keep things interesting.
The taxi is a very popular vehicle. I think it’s from Classic Metalworks? I already had about 6 of these on the layout. The taxi is held together with two phillips head screws on the bottom. The only part you need to work on is the red frame part with the fenders. The fenders have nice big plastic headlights already attached. The headlamp is a big, bulbous thing that comes to a point at the back. Fortunately, its plastic. Use a small file to flatten the point a little to allow you to drill it out from the back. Using a very small sharp drill bit ( #60) in a pin vise, carefully drill out the headlamp from the back. Hold the frame in one hand clamping the headlamp tightly against the frame to keep the headlamp from twisting itself off the frame. If you do this carefully and slowly, you can drill all the way through the headlamp, through the plastic lens, and out the front of the headlamp. Make sure your bit is sharp! If you start to get too much resistance, you will feel the headlamp start to twist and risk tearing it off the frame. You can always glue it back on later, but it’s easier to work with it on the frame. This hole will not be wide enough for your bulb yet. You will have to drill it out several more times with larger and larger drills, ( #58, #56, #54, etc) until the hole is wide enough to accommodate your bulb. This is about a #52 hole (.063”)..You use this stepped procedure of larger and larger drill bits to create the least possible torque on the headlamp. Most times I have done this, the headlamp lens has survived and preserves the original headlamp appearance nicely. If you happen to twist the headlamp off the frame, you can still drill it out holding it in your fingers, if you use the stepped procedure of larger and larger drill bits to create the least possible torque on the headlamp.
Once your headlamps have been successfully drilled out, clean up the holes very gently with a tiny round point file. Slide your bulbs in from the back of the headlamps so that the bulb protrudes just slightly from the front. Secure the bulb from the back with a drop of medium CA glue. Make sure to test each bulb with an AA battery frequently, including before installation. Rough handling can damage the connections on these tiny bulbs. Once they are all glued up they are less fragile. When the bulbs are secure in the headlamps and you have tested them again with your AA battery, route the wires through the frame and put the cab body back on. There is just enough clearance between the cab body and the frame near the front screw mounting post to accommodate the wires. The chrome bumpers get wedged between the frame and the bottom plate when the plate is screwed back on. Mine kept falling out of place, so I glued them to the frame at this point.
At this point, you can re-install the axles and wheels, attach the bottom plate, re- test the lamps, touch up the headlamp with a little red paint and you are done!
PICK UP TRUCK
Lighting the next vehicle requires no disassembly at all. This is a ready-to-roll pick up truck, very similar to Jordan Highway Miniatures models, but a little sturdier. The following technique is also applicable to the Jordan vehicles and I have illuminated many of these also. In this vehicle, a hole is drilled between the fender and hood on each side to accommodate your headlight bulb wires. The wires need about a #50 hole (.070”). (Again use the stepped procedure of larger and larger drill bits to create the least possible torque on the body.)
These vehicle have beautifully detailed little headlamps, but you have to cut them off! I have tried to drill these out many times, but they are just too delicate. Its impossible to drill them out without breaking them. For these vehicles, we make new headlamps for our bulbs by using small sections of 2mm shrink-wrap tubing. This tubing is used to secure wire to wire connections. You slide the tubing over one end of one wire, twist your wires together and solder the connection, then slide the tubing over the soldered joint and heat it with a match, shrinking the tubing tight over your connection. To make our headlamps, you cut a piece of 2mm shrink wrap about 1/8 inch long and slide it over the bulb, leaving the front half of the bulb exposed and covering the wires at the base of the bulb. Then, holding your bulb horizontally to the shrink wrap from falling off, you GENTLY heat the shrink wrap with a small heat source until it shrinks around the bulb.
After testing each bulb again to make sure you haven’t melted it into oblivion, you can route the wires through the holes between the hood and fender and out the bottom of the truck. Hold the head lamp in place where you want it on the side of the radiator and engine hood and secure it with a drop of CA glue. CA accelerator really helps in a situation like this. If you can gently hold the headlamp in place with tweezers during this operation, do that. This minimizes the risk of glueing your fingers to your project. Ask me how I know this! Test your bulbs again, touch up your headlamps and wires with paint to match your vehicle and you are ready for installation on your layout.
ANTIQUE AUTO
Our next victim!
This was probably the least expensive HO scale vehicle on my layout. I think it was one of 4 kits in a package that sold for about $4 total. In this case, the headlamps were attached to the radiator quite strongly, and the radiator just snapped off the front of the car with the headlamps in one piece. This made drilling out the holes for the bulbs easy. I used the shrink wrap tubing again to make the headlamp/bulb assemblies a little sturdier and glued them into the drilled out headlamp frames from the back. This old beauty had quite a bit of space between the fenders and the engine hood, so no drilling was necessary to route the wires beneath the car. With the wires routed underneath, you just glue the radiator/headlamp assembly back to the front of the engine, and you are done with assembly. Touching up the wire and bulb with a little paint finishes the job.
UNDERSIDE OF TAXI
DISSAMBLED TAXI
TAXI FRAME WITH HEADLAMPS
DRILLING OUT THE HEADLAMPS
WIRE ROUTING
TESTING THE INSTALLATION
PICK UP TRUCK
SHRINKING THE SHRINK WRAP
RESISTORS IF WANT TO USE 12 VOLT POWER
HOMEMADE 1.5 VOLT POWER SUPPLY
SCHEMATIC AND PARTS LIST FOR HOMEMADE 1.5 VOLT POWER SUPPLY
POWER TERMINAL BLOCKS
FACTORY SCENE AT NIGHT
POWER SOURCES
There are at least three options for powering your vehicles:
1. A battery circuit
2. Hook up to a 12 volt circuit
3. Create a 1.5 volt circuit.
Option 1: Battery Circuit
Lets say you decide you want to have the simplest wiring for your vehicle lights and you only want to light three vehicles in one area. All you need is an AA battery, a battery holder and an on/off switch. One AA battery can sufficiently light about 6 of these bulbs. Your circuit is done! If however, after reading this article and trying a few vehicle light installations yourself, you decide that you want to have more than 2 or 3 lighted vehicles and/or flagmen or other 1.5 volt powered animations, you need a more substantial power supply.
Option 2: Hook up to a 12 volt supply.
If you want to use a 12 volt supply, you are going to have to solder in a resistor for each bulb. Circuitron has the resistors you need also, for about $.30 each, if you want to go that route. Installing a resistor for each bulb is the simplest way to get your vehicles lit if you only plan on lighting a few, with headlights only. That way, they can be easily connected directly to your 12 volt structure lighting buss. One caution: I have made some measurements with my voltmeter and find that the actual voltage these bulbs receive with the Circuitron resistors in line can be more than 1.5 volts, and up to 2.0 volts. Anything over 1.5 volts to these tiny bulbs will shorten their lives. So be sure of the voltage you are supplying to these bulbs to insure their longest possible life.
PHOTO: LIGHTS 6 ( Caption : Resistors if you decide to go the 12 volt route)
Option 3: Create New 1.5 volt circuit.
When I started building this layout, I wanted to have a dedicated A/C circuit all around the layout just for track power and a separate AC circuit just for scenic effects. This way, I can turn on all the scenic effects separately for visitors and operating sessions and leave the lighting and animation power off when I just want to run trains alone. Or I can just turn on the scenery power when I am working on lighting and don’t need the track power on. I also have a separate A/C circuit for layout room lighting, distinct from the minimal room lighting circuit needed for just passing through the room. So, utilizing the “scenery” power circuit I started out plugging in 1.5 volt AC “adapters” (WALL WARTS) in several areas and creating distinct 1.5 volt, 10-15 foot long power busses for vehicle lighting. These were readily available from Radio Shack, were reliable in their voltage output, and each buss could power 10-15 vehicles with up to 4 lamps each. The voltage at the end of the buss would be 1.2 -1.4 volts with 10-15 vehicles connected. 1.2 volts provides my minimum acceptable level of headlight effect and is well below the 1.5 rated lamp voltage, making for long lasting bulbs. Some of my vehicles have been lit for 20 years, so this scheme is working out. I use a distinct wire code for lighting to prevent my connecting 1.5 volt rated vehicles to my 12 volt structure lighting circuits. Red and white 16 gauge wires are for 12 volt structures and green and white 22 gauge wires are for 1.5 volt vehicle lighting.
This system worked fine for awhile. Then Radio Shack went out of business. I started researching alternatives and could not find a reasonably priced reliable source for 1.5 volt power, which could be switched from my A/C circuit. The power supplies available on line were only available as “variable” units, were poorly rated by users and were not accurate, supplying any where from 3-12 volts at the 1.5 volt setting. My fleet of vehicles kept growing, requiring more vehicle power busses. In desperation I turned to the internet
Homemade 1.5 volt power supply and found a plan for building my own 1.5 volt power supplies. This was about 6 years ago. I sent away for the parts and after a few failed attempts, I was able to construct several of these. I mounted the components on 4 inch X 6 inch pieces of 1/4 plywood. They look ridiculous, but they work. They can be powered by almost any “wall wart" that puts out dc power, from 5-16 volts. The strange part is they all provide exactly 1.48-1.5 volts, no matter what voltage the wall wart supplies. This is accomplished by a small electronic component called a “Voltage Regulator” which actually does exactly that. The other components are a capacitor, a diode, two resistors and a fuse. I wish I could credit the source of this project idea, but I have lost the reference and have only a printed copy. A recent search of the internet yields other construction ideas for variable power supplies, but not this one one.
Power pack as 1.5 volt supply
I suppose you could use an old “Power Pack” to supply 1.5 volts DC, but you have to be very careful that your voltage does not exceed 1.5 volts for your buss. I tried setting one up and at the “12 mph “ setting it put out about 1.5 volts, but the voltage varied from 1.2 to 1.6 volts without even breathing on it. Accidentally cranking it up will blow all your little bulbs with a cute little “pop” and destroy hours of work if you are not careful.
I like to connect my layout wiring through power terminal blocks. They provide good solid electrical connections and make it easy to disconnect individual vehicles or structures for maintenance or updating.
Well, that’s all for now folks! Hope you are encouraged to try adding some lighted vehicles to your layout and find these projects as rewarding as I have!
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