04-17-2014, 02:28 PM
Athearn's current RTR SD40-2 has the usual bulbs and the black cables running from the bulbs in the shell in artful loops to the PCB. I had a look at the overall design of the model when I replaced the bulbs with LED and installed my standard DCC decoder. The PCB with the voltage regulators for the bulbs was of little help and got replaced with a little scratch board.
Next topic was the installation of the LED. I was surprised to find out that Athearn has all necessary support already build into the base casting of the model. Front and rear LEDs could be easily installed into locations of the casting that look like supposed to be support LED.
It is amazing how the model is intentionally spoiled with bulbs and lots of rattling cables while a clean solution is already built in.
![[Image: IMG_3232_zpsb66778f8.jpg]](http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae149/faraway52/Misc-3/IMG_3232_zpsb66778f8.jpg)
ps. only external required add-on are front ditch lights. A nice looking and running model.
Next topic was the installation of the LED. I was surprised to find out that Athearn has all necessary support already build into the base casting of the model. Front and rear LEDs could be easily installed into locations of the casting that look like supposed to be support LED.
It is amazing how the model is intentionally spoiled with bulbs and lots of rattling cables while a clean solution is already built in.
ps. only external required add-on are front ditch lights. A nice looking and running model.
Reinhard