I think I am done with headlights.

[nachoman]

I model 1920, give or take a few years. Locomotives weren't required to light their headlights during the day during that era - and I am guessing that without the requirement, most railroads only switched on the lights at night. Despite that I have known that fact for awhile, I've always put working headlights on my locos. I think it stems back to my youthful days in the hobby when I considered a working headlight a pretty cool feature (especially directional lights) , and I would be upset when the bulb burnt out. And I figured it would be easier to add a working headlight while I was detailing the loco, rather than deciding later I wanted a headlight and tearing back into it. I also thought that when or if I ever convert to DCC, a headlight would be one other thing I could control and make the DCC seem more worthwhile (considering I'm not a fan of sound).

But here's the reality - I'm not going to add all kinds of intricate bulbs into my buildings so I can run trains in the dark. I'm not going to add special blue or dim bulbs to my layout room to simulate night. And I am not going to switch the lights off completely in my layout room - because I want to actually see my trains and the way my switches are thrown, etc. In other words - night operations are never gonna happen.

And adding an LED to a steam locomotive headlight also means running wires to the LED, and those wires are almost impossible to hide completely. So this next loco I am finishing - I'm doing without the working headlight. Just a clear lens in front of the headlight casting.