CR Stevens pattern dropflap signals
A pair of these control movements across the trailing crossover beyond the platforms. The Stevens pattern dropflap signals themselves are the 51L etch, I had them powered with a servo via a linkage. It was designed to cope with servo overthrow under transient conditions, but it didn’t. So for quite a while now they have been cosmetic. Time for a rebuild.
The signals are mounted on a bit of double sided copperclad with some 6mm U section brass on the other side. The flap and conterwight are linked with 0.4 wire which passes through the base and two tube guides. An iron nail is soldered to a short length of tube which in turn is soldered to the wire.
The light source is a bi coloured LED. Slightly tricky to flatten the top , drill two holes and glue the fibre optics in. These then pass up into the body of the signal and sit behind the lens.
The servo saddle is soldered up from bits of angle and copperclad. The horns at the top are pb wire and hold the signal down to the ground when in place, the screw just tightens against the U channel. A magnet is fixed to the servo horns, which are a nylon type plastic that doesn’t take glue well so again a bit of copperclad, some wire soldered through and the magnet glued to that. If the servo does overthrow it doesn’t wreck the whole thing.
A short video of them on test.
Ok, that looks like a lot of hassle just to make a ground signal work. I could just sit the signal of a larger baseplate and have the servo fixed to it. Thing is I’m fussy about signals not sitting on large plinths. The Caley sat these on a baulk of wood about the size I have made the bit of copperclad, so visually it looks about right.
Edited by Dave John
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