Need light advice re HO DAR RDC

[Angus]

I want to install rotating lights on my DAR HO RDC. I believe these lights were called either Mars or Gyro Style.

I was thinking of using one of these products -

http://www.ngineering.com/lghting%20eff ... ilroad.htm

Can anyone suggest which product would best represent the DAR rotating lights and what is the correct term for these lights?

[stem]

What RDC 1 do you have? The reason I ask is that 9057 and below were the "Version 1" RDC1s and 9058 and above were the version 2 RDCs. What's your paint scheme? Warpaint, Hockey Mask or CP? Only 9058 & 9059 were lettered "Dominion Atlantic". All the rest are Canadian Pacific.

[DAR9058]

Hi, Angus.

The CP and DAR Budd Cars had Gyralites on the front doors, not Mars lights...

In HO you'll need either Miniatures by Eric part #L25 (http://www.miniaturesbyeric.com/itm00143.htm) or the Custom Finishing casting (Walthers part #247-341 - http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/247-341). I've successfully drilled out the Min. by Eric part to accept a miniature bulb.

Any DCC decoder with lighting functions can be programmed to recreate the Gyralite function. I'd recommend the Digitrax DH163 decoder. While you're at it, you may want to discard the factory circuit board in the Proto RDC and wire the bulbs directly to the decoder. Be sure to use the proper limiting resistors for each bulb (1K ohm would be a good start!).

Hope this helps.

-Jeff Keddy
Winnipeg