East Coast Circuits Lighting In A BNSF Hi-Rail

I recently got an East Coast Circuits lighting package, which comes pre-installed in a variety of HO vehicles from other manufacturers. This one is in a BNSF utility truck, which would be somewhat similar to a maintainer's truck. In this case, the original model is from River Point Station. These are quite accurate as far as body work, wheels, and so forth, but they're a bit sparse on the railroad lettering. East Coast Circuits adds a label to the River Point package indicating it has added the lights and specifying 9-12 volts DC.

The lighting is quite nice. The headlights stay lit, while there are alternating strobes behind the grill. There is a gumball flasher that blinks on the cab roof, while the tail lights flash a hazard sequence. Here are photos from the front and rear:

The photos couldn't capture each lighting feature in a single exposure. You can sort of see the tail lights partly lit, due to flashing during the exposure.

I was able to light the truck from a port on an NCE Illuminator, which is similar to a Woodland Scenics Just Plug module but powered from the DCC bus. It puts out 12 volts DC. I put my model on the track for the photo -- and prototype hi-rails usually operate all their lights only while running on the track -- but I will probably mount it in scenery near the track, with the lights flashing anyhow.

One thing to note about the color coded wiring is that the red and black on the ECC wires are opposite the red and black on the NCE plug with stub wiring that comes with the Illuminator. Thus you need to wire the red wire from the truck to the black wire on the Illuminator plug and vice versa.

The NCE Illum9inator also allows a port to be programmed individually to turn the lights off and on at random intervals. This may add to the overall interest of the product and eliminate any possible monotony. I plan to experiment with this.

Here's a very similar prototype BNSF utility truck hi-rail that gives an idea of lettering and striping that are left off the River Point Station model. However, this is a feature of the River Point Station product and is not a comment about the East Coast Circuits lighting, which works very well.

The photo also gives an idea of other details that can be added to the model. I've added traffic cones to the beds of several River Point Station hi-rails as well.