Headlights for Brass Locos

[Railrunner130]

My main sticking point at the moment on upgrading brass locomotives is how in the world do people put working headlights on brass steam engines?

Wiring a light isn't that big of a deal. The problem I see is cutting the hole for it. I have purchased some hollow headlights. But the boiler face hole is the issue.

My thought is to put the locomotive in a vice and take a drill press to it. But that conjures up images of a bent locomotive and parts flying off into oblivion while the hole is drilled. On some locomotives, the boiler front can be removed. This would most likely end up the same way as before, but on a smaller scale. I certainly don't have a drill press, but I do have a few pin vices and a Dremel. I'd expect the same results using these tools....

Is this something I need to take to a professional and have done?

 

[wvg_ca]

Most brass loco's that I have added LED lights to were already drilled, and had a grain of rice bulb previously installed ..
On the ones that didn't, I just used a small carbide bit in a dremel to add a hole to the light casting

 

[Espeefan]

I take the smoke box front off the model and drill with a jewelers drill press. Go slowly. A Dremel is too fast for this. You don't want to overheat the part. The smokebox front should pop right off.

 

[montanan]

Here is an older PFM brass locomotive that I added lighting to many years ago.



Led lights weren't around yet. I used a 1.5 volt grain of rice bulb and drilled a hole through the back of the light casting and then a hole through the top of the smoke box. The wires from the bulb was fed through the drilled holed and then I used a silver lens from MV lenses. A small hold was drilled through the back of the lens in the dead center so it would look like a lighted bulb in the headlight casting. The lens as then glued to cover the head light casting.

 

[Railrunner130]

Thanks for the responses. How do you hold it in place while drilling?

 

[montanan]

The smoke box front is easily removed in my case. All I did was hold it by hand on my work bench and drilled the holes with a Dremel tool, at a slow speed and with a sharp drill bit applying very little pressure, letting the drill bit do the work. My Dremel tool had adjustable speed and it was set on the slowest speed.

 

[Espeefan]

That's also what I did. Letting the drill bit do the work is the key. You might also want to apply some light oil as you drill. Excessive speed and downward pressure will cause excessive heat. The brass will heat up and grab the drill bit, the result being wrenching the part out of your hand, or wrenching the headlight off of the mounting bracket. Neither is much fun.