Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Nirvana...

Got the pinout from Bowser for the three connectors furnished with the BCR shell, so now I know where to break in and attempt to combine lighting functions...  The connectors are built for at least a 6-function decoder for lighting.  I have 4...  I plan on headlight + numberboards/taillight for 2, ditch lights as the 3rd, and the class lights for the 4th...  Each connector has it's own + supply voltage line for the lights, so I'm going to combine all three into the 6-pin connector that plugs into my circuit board, pin #5.  The headlight line (pin 2) will have to be broken into to add in the number board lights, the taillight (pin 3) should already be correct, and then I'll add the ditch light line to pin 1, and the class light line(s?) into pin 6.

I dug into each available lighting wire after combining all of the + supply lines (which were all wired with red wire).  The front and rear headlights, ditch lights and the white classification light were already wired into the 6-pin lighting connector, so most of the work was already done.  After a little trial and error, I found the appropriate lines for the front number board lights (a black wire), and joined that to the front headlight.  The ditch lights are wired to F2, which on my Prodigy Express DCC system is NEVER a latch and hold function (sound decoders apparently leave this one as the default horn) - I would have to hold F2 as long as I want ditch lights on, which isn't too annoying.  I did look into changing the function map to change the violet wire to look to F3 for a command, and even though I think I mapped the changes, the ditch lights continue to respond only to F2.  If it continues to annoy me, I'll dig into it further.  I was hoping that the class lights were all on the same circuit and that additional pushes of F1 would change from white to green to red, but nope - separate line for each color.  I'm good with white, which generally denoted and "extra" train.  Red was typically for the rear end of the train in pusher mode, green for an additional section of a train.  So, I'll just leave the green and red disconnected.

Still haven't seen the new trucks arrive in my mailbox, so I still haven't battened down the shell for good.  We're getting close to bringing this effort to a conclusion.  I'm looking forward to seeing this unit pull some freight...