Lights, Decoder, ACTION!

[P5se Camelback]

The classification lights need only be lit if you intend to use them. The prototype spent most of it's time with those lamps off. So the option is yours. Plus, you then need to decide what color you want them. The prototype had a clear outer lens, with a plastic lens behind it that could be rotated from clear, to red, to green. Being a Conrail modeler myself, IF I lit them, I would use red, as that was the only color CR ever used, and even then only when on the rear of a train, such as in pusher service or when running light.

Thanks, Dave, I appreciate the help. I'll have to get some info from a couple Reading modelers who I have been in touch with on the Reading Modeler forum to see what their standard practice was.

If access to the headlamp assembly is difficult, you could place a small diameter tube on the roof of the cab that leads to the headlamp housing. You should be able to add this without even removing the cab interior. Perhaps drilling an appropriately sized hole in the rear cab wall. Then you could just slide your headlamp bulb- on long wire leads- into the tube loose, without glue for easy replacement. Of course, this would assume using a larger bulb, not scale bulbs that actually fit into the headlamp holes.

Ah ... I'll have to take a few photos and post them so the situation is more evident. It is a bit of a problem, to be sure, and may delay completing the decoder install, painting, decaling, weathering and then putting this unit into service, but I'll take my time and do this "correctly" and professionally ... I know no other way!

BTW, the 645 sound is correct, remember this is a turbo 645, as opposed to the very similar looking GP38 which is a non-turbo 645. The way you can tell, since I know you are a steam guy, is that the GP39-2 should have only 1 exhaust stack. The GP38/38-2 has 2 smaller exhaust stacks.

The Soundtraxx TSU-1000 #827102 decoder is the one that I got for this unit. From what seems to be the whine of the turbo, I think I have the correct one. As for exhaust stacks, it appears to me to have only one rectangular stack, somewhat forward of the first of three fans. Plus, I kind of trusted OMI when they put "Reading GP39-2" on the label of the box. 8-)

Oh, and isn't this your second diesel since that Varney F3...? Or am I only imagining the ALCo S-2 that you are working on?

Well, sort of. I bought this unit first. It was to be my "easy, first decoder install." Then I saw the Alco S-2 for the cost of an older Athearn
Blue Box diesel, so I got it, thinking that now I could operate a diesel in either of two successive time periods. (The S-2, it turns out, will not be "easy.") So, officially, the GP39-2 is my second diesel (after the Varney F-3) and the S-2 is my third. OMG ... I hope this is not a trend ... what will the Camelbacks think!

Thanks again for your assistance, Dave ... I really do appreciate it!

(I'll try to get some photos today and post them tonight of the "Cab interior" situation.)