I am considering a couple of Intermountain F7's (ATSF "Cat Whisker" freight paint scheme) for my DC layout. For this, Intermountain will factory-install a "DC plug" in place of the decoder. However, doing it this way, according to Intermountain, does not give the locomotive constant lighting capability. The headlight does not come on until the locomotive starts moving. I've converted several other (Athearn, Stewart, and Genesis) locomotives to constant/directional lighting using the old-school 6-diode setup and 1.5 volt incandescent bulbs with excellent results. Has anyone done something similar to the Intermountain units? Also, are the lights in the Intermountain units LED or incandescent, and if LED, are they easily removable? Thanks! John
Glad to see there are still hold outs that still operate DC. I haven't tried to install constant/directional lighting in an Intermountain locomotives, just haven't bought one. I have used the old 6 diode block in a number of locomotives from the MDC Shay, Atlas, Stewart and Athearn locomotives. All of my Athearn had their motors replaced with can motors years ago. The only thing I can think of is that the locomotive starts moving at less than one and a half volts. I keep an ampmeter and volt meter in line and I have a couple of my converted Athersn locomotives that start moving at less than the one and a half volts and needless to say, the lights don't come on until the voltage is at one and a half volts. They will creep along so slowly, but no lights until one and a half volts. Locoman, I still can't think of a really good reason to convert to DCC. I am a lone operator and my layout was built mainly for switching and I rarely run more than one locomotive at a time. I have over 40 locomotives that would have to be converted to DCC which would take a lot of time, plus the cost of the DCC system. I do have a few DCC locomotives, with sound and to tell you the truth, I can live without the sound. It's a nice novelty. If I have friends over who want to see trains run, I will put a sound locomotive on. Really like the BLI heavy mike but after a while I find the sound get annoying.
My thoughts about DC and DCC (oh here we go again lol) is that under both systems, visually the trains run exactly the same. Just less flipping of the A-B block control switches, but the real railroads did have to "flip switches" in real life as well, and maybe a bit more planning ahead when coupling/uncoupling locomotives together. I'm hearing-impaired so do not need or want sound. And like Chet, I have a small fleet of locomotives that'd have to be converted, as well as all my passenger cars & cabooses which have a homebrew DC circuit that wouldn't work with DCC. I, too, use the old reliable 6-diode setup for constant lighting on most of my other locomotives, and either Ibenlite or Richmond Control circuits for the Gyralites. Anyways I've been in touch with Richmond, and he sees no problem in adapting his circuit to the Intermountain units, so I have the F7's enroute now. My locomotive lights come on at about 3v, and do not start moving until 6v IIRC. I do have a handful of friends over every Wednesday for "Operations Night"; last week we ran 4 trains simultaneously without too much ado but, in the word of one of the attendees, "loads of fun". My 20-years-in-the-making 22' x 24' L-shaped layout has the standard A-B cab control, plus A-B-C in the main yard, and a single cab for the narrow gauge branch line. BUT....if I were new to the hobby and building my first layout; I'd build it using DCC. Thanks for the input! John
I am really glad that I probably have all of the locomotives that I really need for my layout. I do see a number of them on the market that do interest me due to the road name or a locomotive that I could custom paint, but it is getting harder and harder to find decent locomotives that are being offered in a DC only configuration. I do understand that DCC is now the big thing but there are still some of us hold outs who aren't interested in DCC.
I just got the F units, factory-converted to DC operations and am real happy with them. The headlight and number boards are all have directional and constant lighting, so no modifications are necessary. John
