Forgive my public exuberance but after 33 years in N scale, and more recent work in that easier to see and manipulate HO scale, I decided to try to fix the anemic ditch & head lights on one of my Kato SD70ACe's. I dug out the clear replacement ditchlight and headlight clear plastic parts I had ordered from Kato, searched online with little success for tips on disassembling the frame, and went at it. With the help of my Optivisor, which should of been of higher power, I managed to get the shell apart, install the new light bars and lenses, lose and find the headlight surround, get it all back together, and put it on the track. I dialed in the decoder, put power to the track, and had nice, bright ditchlights just like my Kato AC4400CWs. Ha! Ha! I didn't know if I could still this kind of work BUT It WORKED!
It really is worth the effort. I was thankful to have bright, but not over-bearing, ditchlights and headlights but a side benefit in replacing the headlight piece is how nicely the number boards are illuminated.
Glad to hear this works. The dim headlights are why I didn't buy more Aces. Sounds like I need to invest a little effort to get mine resolved as well. Thanks for sharing this info! Jamie Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk 2
It was a pain in the patoot but worth it. Props to Kato for providing the parts after a slam for allowing it to happen in the first place...
Jim, kind of like those dingy LEDs in the Fox Valley GEVOs. It took me about 25 minutes to replace this the first time around. I only have seven more to go. I thought it was going to be a bit more difficult than it was but the Kato designers engineered the shell well. I took a photo using my binary train-room lighting (full on or completely dark ) and I like the number boards: not another headlight but nicely lighted: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/152236/title/kato-sd70ace-w-new-whi/cat/500
