I am looking at having some beater Lionel 2343 shells custom painted and the prototype had dual headlights on the nose. Has anybody had or done this themselves and have pics to show how it looks. A real F unit has a rounded lip around the headlight in the nose door, is there a detail casting out there or a good way to do this and have it look good? Thanks Mike
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I never did it but you should be able to stack 2, 3mm warm white LEDs,wired in series. For constant voltage lighting, I would use a CL2 -n3 chip. Shown here for 1 LED but 2 in series ( solder + to - the LEDs together side by side,then the remaining terminals to the CL2-n3 chip or resistor) will work the same way as one LED. If you dont mind it dimming you can use a resistor.
Dale H
Or you could use the excellent Ngineering.com MARS light simulator to make one of them a MARS light.
Or you could use the excellent www.Ngeneering.com MARS light simulator to make one of them a MARS light.
I get "server not found" when clicking on the link
Dale H
Thanks Pete, here's the link to the RR Lighting Effects. 
Mike, I did exactly what you are planning to do 10+ years ago.
Here are a couple of pics. The first is an F-2 made from a worn-out 2343 SF shell:
And the prototype:
I used some dental impression, 2-part material to create the mold using the headlight housing of a 675 steamer. Made a bunch of molds of varying depths till I found ones I liked.
Used two-part epoxy to create the headlight rim and mounted them where I wanted them; just drilled a hole and inserted the headlight lens which had to be shortened.
I hadn't had these out in a very long time and noticed a couple of obvious flaws which I'll address this train season.
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