Semaphore Signals - 4mm Scale (Mainly)

[Jon Fitness]

Fantastic work Steve! I struggle to get my cranks and links that neat in 7mm never mind 4mm scale.. 

JF 

[Steve Hewitt]

Thanks Jon, your models always inspire me.

 

Steve.

[Pannier Tank]

Hi Steve,

 

I was only recently thinking I've not seen your thread appear in RMwebs listing for a while and here you are! Great work, as ever.

[Steve Hewitt]

Great day at the NRM, York yesterday. 

Attended the L&Y Society meeting and greatly enjoyed two half hour sessions on the Signalling Training Layout. 

 

 

 

The gauge 1 Layout was used at Manchester Victoria to train L&Y then LMS and BR operations staff from 1913 until 1995 when it was superseded by newer technology. 

 

Many thanks to the L&Y Society, NRM staff and Volunteers for their enthusiasm, time and patience.

 

Steve

[mark axlecounter]

A few of us (relief signallers) went to York to watch it but ended up playing operating  the frames. Its better than what we have now  

[Steve Hewitt]

Completion of the GWR batch.......

 

First I apologise for not keeping my RMweb posts up to date.

However, I have now completed the batch of four GWR Square Post signals is have been building since the start of the year.

Sorry there aren't any step by step pics, but the methods used have been seen many times previously.

 

The four signals have now been mounted on their "Transport & Test" frame as seen here:

 

 

This how the servos are mounted.

 

The Transport frame represents the layout baseboards, so the signals can be tested on delivery and then transferred easily to the layout at any time.

 

A batch of LMS/BR signals for a new Club Layout will be next...........

 

Steve.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Steve Hewitt said:

Completion of the GWR batch.......

 

First I apologise for not keeping my RMweb posts up to date.

However, I have now completed the batch of four GWR Square Post signals is have been building since the start of the year.

Sorry there aren't any step by step pics, but the methods used have been seen many times previously.

 

The four signals have now been mounted on their "Transport & Test" frame as seen here:

 

 

This how the servos are mounted.

 

The Transport frame represents the layout baseboards, so the signals can be tested on delivery and then transferred easily to the layout at any time.

 

A batch of LMS/BR signals for a new Club Layout will be next...........

 

Steve.

Steve, I've seen photos of backing signals where the back of the arm has a vertical black stripe between the two holes, like the one on this page:

 

http://www.roscalen.com/signals/Wrexham/index.htm

[Steve Hewitt]

Thanks for the info.

I'll attend to the Backing Arms before they are delivered.

 

Steve.

[iands]

10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Steve, I've seen photos of backing signals where the back of the arm has a vertical black stripe between the two holes, like the one on this page:

 

http://www.roscalen.com/signals/Wrexham/index.htm

Some nice photos St Enodoc, thanks for sharing the link. I particularly like the photo of Croesnewydd North Fork signalbox and the gates in what appears to be 'pink primer' (possibly the gates have just been renewed). Try modelling that and avoiding the "tut-tut, not prototypical" type comments!

[The Stationmaster]

On 03/05/2019 at 01:51, St Enodoc said:

Steve, I've seen photos of backing signals where the back of the arm has a vertical black stripe between the two holes, like the one on this page:

 

http://www.roscalen.com/signals/Wrexham/index.htm

It was the standard way of painting the enamelled steel backing arms and probably had been the same on the earlier timber arms (older photos indicate wooden backing arms were painted in that way).

[Steve Hewitt]

On 02/05/2019 at 23:34, Steve Hewitt said:

 

A batch of LMS/BR signals for a new Club Layout will be next...........

 

Steve.

 

At long last, here they are:

 

There are three LMS/BR Upper quadrant signals.

 

And a total of seven Ground Discs.

 

There are three "Doubles" and four "Singles"

Each was made from a Palatine Models etch.

 

All the signals in the photos above are mounted on their Transport & Test Frame.

The servos have all been set to mid-position by the GF Controller's "Safe" function.

This is why they are all somewhere between "On" and Off".

 

These two pics show one of the Double Ground Disks more clearly:

 

 

And here is the signal under test

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry its been such a long time since I posted on RMWeb.

 

Steve.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Steve Hewitt
Photos out of sequence

[Jon Fitness]

Absolutely beautiful Steve. Those groundsignals look the absolute dog's and that LMS bracket is just so characterful. Lovely stuff. 

JF 

[Steve Hewitt]

Thanks Jon, praise indeed.

[Jon Fitness]

Yeah but yours are in 4mm scale! I can only just manage 7mm scale.. 

JF 

[Schipper]

Greetings Steve

Being full of admiration for your work on these pages and having seen the results on Liverpool Lime Street etc I am aiming to steal some of your ideas and methods including fibre optic lighting of the lamps (and some buildings) but I see that Helmsman, source of your nice coloured LEDs), have ceased trading. Do you know of an alternative source of this colour of LED or have a spec so that I can search Rapid Electronics or similar, please?

 

Euan

[Steve Hewitt]

16 hours ago, Schipper said:

Greetings Steve

Being full of admiration for your work on these pages and having seen the results on Liverpool Lime Street etc I am aiming to steal some of your ideas and methods including fibre optic lighting of the lamps (and some buildings) but I see that Helmsman, source of your nice coloured LEDs), have ceased trading. Do you know of an alternative source of this colour of LED or have a spec so that I can search Rapid Electronics or similar, please?

 

Euan

 

Hi Euan,

 

Thanks for your kind comments.

It was news to me that Helmsman had ceased trading, and as yet I don't know what the future will hold for the several excellent products they sold.

If you see their website at http://www.helmsmanuk.co.uk/ you will see that all inquiries are referred to Peco.

In the short term I would suggest you do that.

If the situation becomes any clearer with regards to supply of the LED's I'll let you know.

 

In the meantime, I hope you have success with building your signals.

 

Steve.

[Schipper]

Thank you Steve.

I'll be pleased to know if you find an equivalent colour LED on the electronics market since Peco seem to be still assimilating their purchase and I had the impression that their main interest was controllers.

 

Meanwhile, don't hold you breath for my signals ! Thank you for your good wishes.

 

Euan

 

[Stephen Freeman]

On 27/10/2019 at 09:03, Schipper said:

Thank you Steve.

I'll be pleased to know if you find an equivalent colour LED on the electronics market since Peco seem to be still assimilating their purchase and I had the impression that their main interest was controllers.

 

Meanwhile, don't hold you breath for my signals ! Thank you for your good wishes.

 

Euan

 

I use Bright Components for LEDs, some tricky soldering is involved with the very smallest of course.

[Stephen Freeman]

Just a couple of points. AFAIK the back blinders on GWR/WR signals should be black (easily rectified of course), secondly I also much prefer Ralph's (Palatine Models) Ground Signals.As they are all Nickel Silver etches, they are much easier to put together.

[The Stationmaster]

4 hours ago, Stephen Freeman said:

Just a couple of points. AFAIK the back blinders on GWR/WR signals should be black (easily rectified of course), secondly I also much prefer Ralph's (Palatine Models) Ground Signals.As they are all Nickel Silver etches, they are much easier to put together.

(G)WR back blinders on semaphores were always black in my experience and old photos suggest that was the case going back a very long time.    However the back blinders on ground discs were at various times painted white or aluminium varying coincident with the use of those colours on steel post signals. 

[Rowsley17D]

Just an update on where Steve gets his nickel plated pins. The web address is

 

www.djhornsby.co.uk

 

Just spoken to a nice lady there who will send out my order and I pay later by cheque or bank transfer. What good old fashioned service.

[Steve Hewitt]

Here's one I made previously..........

 

I recently completed a few more signals for Carlisle, which included a Banner Repeater.

This was unusual in that it will be installed on an existing Signal Gantry which already carries Colour Light signals.

 

The signal is made from an MSE kit, but I turned a more robust bezel as the etched one in the kit is a bit of a fiddle to use.

 

I also illuminated this signal with three tiny LEDs, buried in the white metal casting.

 

The signal is mounted on a piece of copper clad to facilitate its installation on the existing gantry.

Double sided adhesive tape on the underside of the copper clad will allow the signal to be fixed in place on the Gantry.

 

To simulate the Gantry, and its height above rail level, I used a piece of MDF.

 

The copper clad carries the fine wires from the LEDs in a conduit of brass tube.

The Banner is operated by a servo motor mounted under the baseboard in the usual way, with a crank mounted on the copper clad to transfer the wire pull along the Gantry.

 

You can see the 30k resistor in the heat shrink which gives a much less intense light than would otherwise be the case.

 

I have a few very shaky video clips on my phone, which I'll try to edit together and post on YouTube...........don't hold your breath.

 

 

Steve.

[Jon Fitness]

Lovely stuff Steve. Love the idea of a turned bezel too.

JF

[Michael Edge]

Great job as usual Steve, now I just have the fun job of installing it - in the middle of a baseboard about 8ft wide. Then I've got to link it in with the colour light signal at the north end of platform 4 and I've no idea how I'm going to do that.

[Phil Bullock]

My Christmas project is the signals for Abbotwood Mk2 - which includes Norton Junction, so a mix of UQ and LQ. Given that our premise is that the line via Toddington closed then the Abbotswood up siding has become an up goods loop - and distants have been added before the Gloucester MAS scheme has taken hold. OWW is Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton, B&G is Birmingham and Gloucester. For those not in the know I will do a diagram when I have a bit more time ... and sorry if the terminology is confusing but an up OWW train travels in the same direction as a down B&G - and vice versa! Time period is late 60s up to 1971 when the OWW was singled.

 

First off the stocks were Nortons  LQ Up (OWW)/Down (B&G) starters - thats Abbotswood's distant on the RH doll.

 

Then UQ Up B&G Starter for Abbotswood - down advanced starter is same configuration.

 

Also need Nortons down (OWW) home, starter and distant, plus up (B&G) Home which are all LQ - and Abbotswoods Up Starter (OWW), Down Home (OWW) , down starter (B&G), down goods loop starter, all single arm UQ dolls.

 

Which leaves the Up Main and up Goods homes. Having them on seperate posts on the Mk1 layout looked a bit of a mess - see https://youtu.be/V2gBs5eoKM0?t=61 and sighting would not have been good.

 

 

Components are from Wizard Models/MSE - all controlled by 9g servos and ESU switchpilot servo controllers - the notion is to have them all done and good to go so that they can be installed when the track is laid to ensure there is plenty of space and no fouling....

 

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Phil Bullock
Photo added