Operation SD70 is a go!!!
I currently have 6 of these iconic US locomotives and with UP owning in the region of 1200 of these locos I could just just keep going but the wallet says other wise.

Either way I am now in the process of getting all of these harmonised with the same Tsunami2 sound decoders, LED upgraded lighting with a new Technique and weathered.

Currently all of them now have the decoders installed and speakers fitted using a 52 x 16 speaker mounted in the space above the decoder. in the hood.

They are now all fitted with the LEDs par one but here are some pictures of the process.

I first start by removing the factory fitted bulbs or previous retro fitted LEDs and then slightly widen the holes to 1.5mm using an appropriate 1.5mm drill bit and using a slow speed on my dremel. I do this with care so as not to over drill the holes.

I then take my 1.5mm thick Fibre Optic and cut a length of about 15mm or 1/2" and then I bevel one end of the fibre by slowly waving it close to the tip of a hot soldering iron allowing the heat from the iron to soften the end of the fibre. The fibre will naturally form into a lens like curve which will form the detail end of the fibre looking like the lens of the headlight.

The next step is to feed the fibre into the hole for the headlight pushing it all the way down so that the bevelled end of the fibre sits in the headlight surround. Sometimes the bevel is a little too wide and will not sit down fully. In this case I just sand down the side of the fibre around the bevel edge by using a fine file and pushing the fibre along it and turning in the reverse direction.

Now on the inside of the loco I place a little plastic cement glue where the fibre exits the loco shell to secure them in place. I then cut a length of 2mm heat shrink about 20mm long and slip this onto each of the fibre lengths and leave for the moment.

Next I take my LEDs which I get from Evans Designs in the US. I use his because the color grade between all the LEDs is very uniform which is a issue I have had with other LEDs. They also come pre-wired and with resistor wired in. The other handing thing is that the wire that he uses is a single strand wire which is form-able and makes installing them handy.
I take the LED and using thin pliers carefully put the LED at a right-angle the the wire and then feed the LED into the heat shrink around the fibre all the way till it is up against the fibre fully. Using the tip of the soldering iron (also holding the LEDs in place with my hand on the feeder wires) shrink the heat shrink down and this locks the LED to the fibre and holds everything in place. When the heat shrink is still warm I just with my finger or the tip of a flat-head screw driver push down on it where the wires leave the heat shrink and this help lock it all in.

Here are some shots of the final result. The LEDs are pretty bright here and I turn them down a tad.

Next stop is the weathering......