Fitting LEDs to 4mm scale signals

[Philou]

@The Stationmaster Funnily enough, that was my conclusion regarding the platform,for as I mused further up, the lamp-man has to just go up, change the lamp and down again. It's all accessible from the top of the ladder.

 

Thank you for the information too regarding the paintwork. This has been today's signal, though I think I may have the height of the main post wrong ! It was really slow work today as I had to rebuild the lamp brackets and recreate new pivot supports - real modelling for me!

 

Tomorrow will be fixing the lamps and routing the wires. I've also attached a photo of the fixed distance now painted and just the ladder to be fixed:

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

As a PS to the above, the bracket signal is (was) attached to the top of a concrete retaining wall. It will represent an advanced junction signal that was found just at the exit of the Ledbury tunnel on approach to Ledbury station. It has (in my view) unusually short Stop arms. If I'm lucky time-wise, I may get to post a photo tomorrow of it nearing completion. The double signal was reduced to a single arm and eventually replaced by a single three colour aspect which is still there.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[The Stationmaster]

52 minutes ago, Philou said:

As a PS to the above, the bracket signal is (was) attached to the top of a concrete retaining wall. It will represent an advanced junction signal that was found just at the exit of the Ledbury tunnel on approach to Ledbury station. It has (in my view) unusually short Stop arms. If I'm lucky time-wise, I may get to post a photo tomorrow of it nearing completion. The double signal was reduced to a single arm and eventually replaced by a single three colour aspect which is still there.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Phillip, It actually had standard centre pivot arms. (sometimes erroneously called 'centre balanced' - which they very definitely were not!)

[Philou]

Aah .......... yes you did say - sorry Mike - head like a sieve. Unfortunately, I haven't got a pair of centre pivots to suit, so I'm going to have to make do with my shorties! However, as the mechanisms are nowhere near ready, who knows, as I can always look around for something more suitable.

 

I have espied on t'intertubes another old set of Ratio signals at a very reasonable price - slightly more modern than mine as the arms are precoloured but still with in-filled spectacles. IF there's a pair of centre pivots in there - good - if not they'll do for Pontrilas.

 

Toodle pip and take there out there, we're sort of out of confinement but nowhere near-fully.

 

Philip

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, Philou said:

Aah .......... yes you did say - sorry Mike - head like a sieve. Unfortunately, I haven't got a pair of centre pivots to suit, so I'm going to have to make do with my shorties! However, as the mechanisms are nowhere near ready, who knows, as I can always look around for something more suitable.

 

I have espied on t'intertubes another old set of Ratio signals at a very reasonable price - slightly more modern than mine as the arms are precoloured but still with in-filled spectacles. IF there's a pair of centre pivots in there - good - if not they'll do for Pontrilas.

 

Toodle pip and take there out there, we're sort of out of confinement but nowhere near-fully.

 

Philip

Ratio have never done a GW centre pivot arm in any of their signals be they pre-assembled or kits.  I think somebody (Colin Waite??) used to include them in their etched GW signal arms fret but that was quite along while ago.  I don't know if MSE do them?

[Philou]

I advanced more than I thought today in between the grandchildrens' homework and having a look around for a replacement car, I managed to form the new pivots on the dollies, fix the lamps into position and thread the wiring through and they work.

 

I haven't any centre pivot arms but I did have some shorties that fit - just! There is little space between the junction arm spectacle and the gantry footboards. I wonder if this is why they were central pivot ones originally as space savers?

 

Here's today's effort:

 

Pivots rebuilt and lamps in place:

 

 

Lamps wired up and under test:

 

 

Painting and decorating tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Yardman]

Its perfectly feasible to fit LEDs to 4mm signals. The signals shown here have two LEDs for each arm. One showing through the spectacle and one to the rear for the back blinder. Ones for a calling on arm have three LED's the third one has a “C” decal applied that shows when the arm is raised. I wire the LED's for each arm in series and then add a suitable resistor to limit current. All LED's are surface mount types. The hardest part is getting the wires up inside the lattice posts. The post is brass and this is used for the common return for all LEDs. The junction signal shown has a total of 12 LED's installed.

[Philou]

@Yardman I've only put one LED in each lamp with the hole drilled right through. The LED is sufficiently bright to just give a glimmer through to the backlight. Chapeau for being able to put TWO LEDs in one lamp! For my shunt signal I've drilled through at an angle to get the light to shine through to the backplate. I shall then put a sheet of tracing paper over the orifice with an 'S' on it - that's the theory and I may as well start it this afternoon.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

PS: I see your ground signals are lit, do they also work mechanically?

Edited May 19, 2020 by Philou
PS

[Yardman]

1 hour ago, Philou said:

@Yardman I've only put one LED in each lamp with the hole drilled right through. The LED is sufficiently bright to just give a glimmer through to the backlight. Chapeau for being able to put TWO LEDs in one lamp! For my shunt signal I've drilled through at an angle to get the light to shine through to the backplate. I shall then put a sheet of tracing paper over the orifice with an 'S' on it - that's the theory and I may as well start it this afternoon.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

PS: I see your ground signals are lit, do they also work mechanically?

Yes all signals work, driven by servos, automatically controlled via a computer. More photos and video on this link. http://a19modelrailwayclub.org/layouts/alwinton/

[Philou]

Hello chums,

 

Only the one signal construction completed today - a bracketed Stop/Shunt signal.The lights work but the day was so bright and the spectacle so small in the Shunt one I couldn't be sure that the lamp was correctly aligned - if not, I may have to re-work it slightly. Since taking the picture, the signals and yesterday's have started going through the paintshop:

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello again,

 

Little or no activity on the signalling front due to other demands on my time these last few days (grandchildren + home-work + cat + vet + hunt for replacement car) but I managed to erect a Warren-trussed Starter signal and put some other signals through the paintshop. I consider the signals 'finished' but only to a point as all the bracket signals will need their safety hand-rails and stanchions doing, but I shall only do that once I've decided how to tackle the mechanisms. The ladders will need doing too, but these are definitely the last items due to their fragility.

 

Anyway, a photo or two:

 

 

 

Regarding the bracketed Starter above, the original had a stay attached to the top and raked back into a near-side embankment. This I shall replicate once the signal is in its final position.

 

Cheers and stay safe (we're out of confinement as of Monday - certain restrictions will apply),

 

Philip

 

[Philou]

'Allo 'allo eet eez mee a-gaine,

 

Another signal out of the worshops, this time a split junction Starter. The original was short-ar$ed, but I think I could have lost another 5mm off the main and dolly posts. It should have had a centre-pivot arm for the 'Main' but I had none in any of the kits I had. This signal is a little different as it had a repeater back in the box - hence the 3 isolators at the top. They're not directly attached to the finial but onto a mini-platform at the back. The signal requires painting, but it was undercoated after the photo-shot:

 

 

Just as an aside, the signal repeater was probably provided due to poor sighting of the signal by the bobby as there was a footbridge with its canopy, platform canopy and a water-crane within the sight-line. Interestingly enough, the footbridge had a port-hole cut out of it at about 18" above its deck. I speculate that this was provided to assist the bobby. Despite everything above platform level having gone, the footbridge (minus its canopy) is still there today including the port-hole.

 

Tomorrow's foray will be painting and then starting the Backing signal and Theatre box. I'm debating as to whether I should provide some sort of moving shade to the lamp illuminating the back of the box so that I can make it look as if it is actually calling-on. On the other hand, perhaps not!

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Edited May 31, 2020 by Philou
Gran'ma error

[Philou]

The split Starter junction was painted but there was a slight miss-hap with the repeater post when taking the photo. A drop of superglue got it together again:

 

 

A start was made on the Backing signal - but I'm finding that the glue I'm using (Tamiya liquid poly) takes forever to go 'off' and attaching platforms and the like takes time before another part can be fixed - hey ho.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Hello chums,

 

I got the backing signal done today but it proved to be harder than thought and it wasn't any more difficult than the previous ones. When I started it on Friday, the day itself was baaaaad - a one step forward three steps back sort of day.

 

I decided that I wouldn't try to be too clever by making a working shade for the light but to make it 'on' when the signal was 'on' too - that'll be simple wiring up through the eventual servo. I did, however, discover that my pico-LEDs do NOT like power without a resistor - even at a very low voltage - EEEEEK! Two burnt out and lesson learnt.

 

Insofar as making a working Theatre box was concerned, I thought the simplest way to do that was to stick a piece of tracing paper with the word 'Goods' printed on it and then stuck to the back of the original plastic screen. As you will see on the photo, the original plastic is too thick and the word can't be seen. I don't particularly want to have to re-hash the thing, though I have a spare Box, as the support is quite flimsy. I may not have the option but to do some surgery - ar$e!

 

Oh and just to put the cherry on top of this signal being a 'Friday' one, the photographer wasn't up to much either - ar$e!

 

Here it is (I think it looks OK painted up and lit).........................

 

 

Just a historical note - the station at Ledbury never had one of these as the original was a standard Stop signal with Theatre box. Mike, The Stationmaster, kindly suggested that I could do a Backing signal with its box as an alternative - which I think makes an interesting variant.

 

Cheers everyone, keep safe. We're out of confinement, but restrictions are still in force.

 

Philip

 

 

[Philou]

Following my previous post, I decided to do a hackathon on the signal by cutting off the Box and then modifying the spare that I had. I removed the opaque plastic screen of the spare, taking care not to break the side supports due to the brittle nature of the plastic - one did! I used then a piece of tracing paper cut to size so that the side supports were also made good and then stuck with cyano. Tests showed that two thicknesses should stop the word 'Goods' showing through - well, sort of. A further piece of tracing paper with 'Goods' printed on it was then stuck on the reverse. When the Theatre light is on, 'Goods' shows through.

 

Here are the results. I'm happy ..................

 

 

 

I've gone for 'Goods' as the signal will cover movements into the sidings and in real life there was a GWR railcar that arrived 'wrong sided' when the near-by branch-line junction was singled and it laid over in one of the yard sidings. I don't know if the actual signal showed 'Bay' or 'Main' or others as I have no photos showing the Box in operation - but there may have been movements from the Branch towards Malvern - I simply speculate on that one.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Edited June 9, 2020 by Philou
Fingers'n'thumbs

[Philou]

Hello chums, hello Mike,

 

The last of the signals were put together, there were four single ones but only three ground signals to do as I ran out of pico-LEDs due to the magic smoke escaping from two of them. There were two 'standard', one tall and one extra-tall done and painted. Next step is to put some mechanics to make them function. I have as yet no idea how I'm to do that.

 

One thing that I shall have to remember for the next lot of GSs is ensure that  the lenses are drilled out a little more accurately as to ensure that everything lines up pivot-wise. Nonetheless, I'm quite happy with the results so far.

 

If anyone is interested, I can post up the track plan showing the signals as they were on the prototype at Ledbury, from which Mike, The Stationmaster, was able to identify the signals and their function.

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

I did say that I would supply a track plan showing the signals as on the prototype. The layout is of 1948 - the one I shall model. Here we are:

 

LedburySignalsA.pdf

 

Cheers,

 

Philip