Those that know me will be more than aware that this is one of my pet moans. There never really was much light from a headcode blind or, for that matter, the marker lights that replaced them. Early headlights weren't a great deal better and even today you don't see much from the front of a class 90 or HST during the hours of darkness (and, yeah, I know the lights are there for the benefit of those not on the footplate!) Ironically, probably the first locos in the UK to have anything like any kind of decent illumination were the Pyle headlight-equipped class 59/0s which, it is said, got their looks from the 'Thousands'. As can be seen in the attached picture even they didn't look anything like a model with LED lights.
Sorry to go off-topic, the Western looks very promising, I wish the project well.