A searchlight story......

[uax6]

This story starts a long time ago, when I was a nipper. My first memory of seeing a Searchlight signal was when the 141's were new, and we had gone to Huddersfield to visit an elderly aunt. We had a day trip out to Leeds, and there, sat on a gantry were a pair of Searchlight signals. The fact that more than one colour came out of the one 'hole' really got me interested in how they worked. I found a drawing in a book that showed a moving vane holding the coloured lenses, but at that young age I couldn't see how the light would go through something so small and become so big....... Oh how I longed to get hold of one to play with.......

 

 

Fast forward to a couple of months back, when LNERGE of this parish visited me in the box and invited me down to 'play trains' in his signal boxes. On the visit I was struck by the fact that he had searchlights, some at home and then lots more at a friends..... Subtle hints where made, and some wheeling and dealing, and then last night this made its way home with me:

 

So this intermittent thread is going to be me, bungling along restoring and getting the old girl working again.

 

Firstly lets have a look at what I've got.

 

The case is a Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co one, with (to my eyes!) the proper style sighting board, with the folded edge, and the classic searchlight long hood. It's not a perfect case, the bracket to fix it to a post is broken and missing, but I'll mount it on top of a post when I'm done. The outer lens is also broken, which is a shame, so if anyone has a spare, that would be a great help.

You'll see my daughters easy to read 30cm ruler in some of the shots, which will help you to see how big this beast is!

 

Now the mechanism:

 

This is a GRS SA type mech. Not the correct one for the case, but again with a bit of luck it should all fit together with some suitable bodging. Its not too critical, for this signal is never going to signal a train again (unlike one of LNERGE's that seems to get borrowed by the Big railway from time to time!).

 

And a circuit controller, just the thing to control the finished job!

 

Now the lamp in the head was blown, so I had a GU10 style LED bulb which could be run off 12v, so that was shoved in the back of the head to see what would happen (excuse the pair of pliers hanging out the front, they were holding the vane over!):

 

Theres a fair amount of work to do to get it working again, but things are promising. LNERGE has promised a drawing, which hopefully will shed some light on the wiring, and I need to find a replacement bulb (I quite fancy an LED in it, so that it won't draw quite as much power, any ideas anyone?), and theres a lot of cleaning and painting to be done too!

 

Andy G

 

Edited May 12, 2016 by uax6

[LNERGE]

The circuit diagram will ok for the contacts but not for the coils. One of these looks to be 110v ac. You will need to feed the local coil directly, using around 12v ac and the line coil via a pole changer of some sort, most probably a relay, at 110v ac I know it's ac but that's how they work. Phases sympathetic on the line will make it go one way and phases opposing will make it go the other. Electrickery at it's best.

Edited June 19, 2015 by LNERGE

[LNERGE]

Oh yes and one other thing... I think you may need a few more hours in Ely North Junction before you can sign it <G>

 

 

Edited June 19, 2015 by LNERGE

[Pugsley]

Cool!

 

I've got a GRS one, complete except for the gubbins to go inside it. I hadn't quite worked out what I was going to do with it yet, but was probably going to rig something up with a stepper motor, with an Arduino to control it.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Pugsley

[uax6]

The circuit diagram will ok for the contacts but not for the coils. One of these looks to be 110v ac. You will need to feed the local coil directly, using around 12v ac and the line coil via a pole changer of some sort, most probably a relay, at 110v ac I know it's ac but that's how they work. Phases sympathetic on the line will make it go one way and phases opposing will make it go the other. Electrickery at it's best.

 

Right, so 12ac (50hz) on the local coil should be easy enough, but I'm not understanding the pole changer bit. Is this equivelent to half wave rectifying the 110v feed?

 

Bang goes my idea of running it off a car battery and solar panels, so it could be lit all the time ;-( It would also explain the buzzing when I put 12vdc on to the local coil.

 

Andy G

[uax6]

Cool!

 

I've got a GRS one, complete except for the gubbins to go inside it. I hadn't quite worked out what I was going to do with it yet, but was probably going to rig something up with a stepper motor, with an Arduino to control it.

 

I know someone <cough, cough> who is going to use the case for Westhouse tunnel on his garden (token carrying) railway.... ;-}

 

You could always make up an led head to sit behind the main lense that will change colour, and you can get some really bright ones too.

 

Andy G

Edited June 20, 2015 by uax6

[corneliuslundie]

20 years too late! I used to have a photocopy of a Westinghouse manual for signals very much like these, a left over from an uncompleted model railway club layout and provided by someone who worked for Westinghouse. But alas it went in the bin before we moved abroad when I really had to thin down my library to manageable proportions. That said, if I had a copy others might have copies too.

 

Jonathan

[LNERGE]

Right, so 12ac (50hz) on the local coil should be easy enough, but I'm not understanding the pole changer bit. Is this equivelent to half wave rectifying the 110v feed?

 

Bang goes my idea of running it off a car battery and solar panels, so it could be lit all the time ;-( It would also explain the buzzing when I put 12vdc on to the local coil.

 

Andy G

The lamp will be 12v for sure. The pole changer is simply something to put a cross in the linewires. If it were DC yellow would be given by + to line one and - to line two. Green by - to line one + to line two. Do the same but with AC.

[TheSignalEngineer]

20 years too late! I used to have a photocopy of a Westinghouse manual for signals very much like these, a left over from an uncompleted model railway club layout and provided by someone who worked for Westinghouse. But alas it went in the bin before we moved abroad when I really had to thin down my library to manageable proportions. That said, if I had a copy others might have copies too.

 

Jonathan

I have one scanned but the file size is too big for here at present. I will edit later and post if anyone is interested.

[uax6]

The lamp will be 12v for sure. The pole changer is simply something to put a cross in the linewires. If it were DC yellow would be given by + to line one and - to line two. Green by - to line one + to line two. Do the same but with AC.

The lamp isn't that much of an issue (except finding one that will focus correctly and be low powered to be left on all the time.. maybe an led brake lamp?).

 

So I'm just flipping the AC line wires over? I suppose it must work, but seems a bit odd!

 

I'm guessing the 110v supply is a mill-amp sized one, but I guess a 110v tool transformer will be ok to test with?

 

Charles, any info you have will be gratefully received please!

 

Andy G

[uax6]

Today I had a tiny bit of time to play with the toy, so it was time to take the case apart. I'm a great fan of Mr Whitworth, and his thread design, as they wound out with no issue, after I don't know how many years, unlike the smaller screwdriver headed set-screws that had to have a disc cutter put through them.

 

The component parts of the case:

 

The lenses were held on in the following way. Thin steel securing ring, broken exterior lens, ally spacing ring, thin steel securing ring, inner lens and then case extension. These were all held on with set screws that I cut off, and on taking all the layers apart discovered that the ally spacer had actually corroded all the way through, and so came off in sections. I don't think this is going to be a big issue, as unless I can get hold of an outer lens, there is no point in re-fitting it.

 

The inner lens is quite a piece of glass:

 

The case is now much easier to handle:

 

The front part where the lenses fit is screwed on. Theres no real reason to remove it, except that because there are now cut off threads in various places, it would be quite handy to be able to put something small and manageable under the pillar drill:

 

Note the holder, which I presume is for some sort of 'close up' lens, but which is not used as the main case lens has a diffraction moulded  as part of it.

 

I have been doing some investigation work into lamps for the mech. It would appear that normal 21W indicator bulbs fit, as do 5W side and tail lamp bulbs. I'm off to the auto factor tomorrow to get some oil, so will pick up a 5W tail lamp as well. These draw about 0.4A and it will be interesting to see if I can focus it up in the reflector. If I can, I may well put a 100 ohm resistor in series to reduce the brightness and lengthen the lamp life. Some fun to be had tomorrow!

 

I'll also get some wire brushes to start cleaning bits up with. What colour should I paint it? The case shows evidence of both black and silver paints. Does the sighting board want to be painted gloss, satin or matt black? The post will be painted white I think (Does anyone know where I can get hold of one of those nice cast bottoms that these posts had please?).

 

Today also saw the delivery of some 5.5" steel tube (for a flue), but which has some left over to make a post for this beauty.

 

Andy G

Edited June 21, 2015 by uax6

[beast66606]

Splendid stuff Andy - you're braver than me, my Mrs would kill me if I was to have a signal in the garden.

Mind you, she hasn't seen my collection of block instruments yet, I've still to move them down here.

[uax6]

She said of the BR LNE ground signal, and I quote 'I've noticed that piece of railway rubbish' and hasn't said anything more about it, although I'm sure shes saving it up for something. Another signalman I know would like a signal, but when he told his Mrs that he was coming to look at mine she said don't get any ideas! Heres a view of the garden:

 

A bit closer and you will be able to see that the Dod is lit. Annabelle my daughter has noticed this, and asked why it was lit, my reply of 'All signals are lit all the time' was readily accepted and nothing else was said. You will see the solar panel on the roof of the little shed just above the washing line, that charges a car battery to keep it lit.

 

 

Interestingly my railway corner hasn't been commented on... yet!

 

I'm hoping to put the Searchlight behind the dod (I need to find a green lens for that too!)

 

Andy G

[uax6]

Oh, she doesn't know about it yet, it'll be a present from someone, when the time comes to plant it, my friend was blamed for the dod!

 

Andy G

[synthnut]

Out of interest, what diameter is the outer lens? They look very similar to those used in certain types of stage lighting fixtures, specifically the ETC Source Four PAR.

 

TTFN,

Ben

[PatB]

I'm finding this very interesting. Searchlight signals are still common on WA's network of rural lines (or were the last time I did any serious country driving) and I've always wondered how they worked.

[LNERGE]

What's that green stuff in the foreground and surrounding the washing pole?

[uax6]

Thats something with is very strange to you, its called grass, and the nice thing about it is that it neither scratches or stings you when you touch it!

 

Andy G

[uax6]

Some time today to play with the head. I picked up a 5W tail lamp, and compared with the original bulb (which looks to have been bodged to fit!) its a lot shorter:

 

Anyway I popped it in and tried it with an old Hornby controller giving 12V for it:

 

Using the wall to see what its like, and giving you an idea of where it is in the focal range available I got this:

 

Not the brightest in the world. So I put it as close to the body of the lamp as I could:

 

Looks much better, but I think the lamp is still not quite in the focal point of the reflector. Having said that I don't know what the beam should look like!

 

Andy G

 

[uax6]

Out of interest, what diameter is the outer lens? They look very similar to those used in certain types of stage lighting fixtures, specifically the ETC Source Four PAR.

 

TTFN,

Ben

 

Going off the earlier photo, as the head is round a friends (so I don't get found out!) I make the lens diameter about 8 inches. Do stage lights get that big?

 

Andy G

[synthnut]

Going off the earlier photo, as the head is round a friends (so I don't get found out!) I make the lens diameter about 8 inches. Do stage lights get that big?

 

Andy G

Yes, they certainly can be that big, and much bigger too, especially film lights!

The Source Four Par is unusual in that it uses interchangeable lenses similar to car headlights. They are a developmental improvement of the PAR (Parabolic Aluminized Reflector) sealed beam They use a PAR 56 size lens, where the number is the diameter in eighths of an inch. So, a PAR56 is 7" diameter. They make a flat glass, a clear domed, stippled, and a number of lenticular versions.

If it happened to be the right size, then it would be an easy option for a replacement!

 

TTFN

Ben

[uax6]

Small amount of progress today, but no photos as I forgot to take my camera. It was a game of wire brush in angle grinder to get rid of the rust and take bits back to bare metal. I did the sighting board and brackets and the top alignment bracket. These are now sitting in red oxide, and thursday they will get a coat of grey undercoat. I'm going to do the whole head gloss black.

 

I then looked at the case. I'm coming to the conclusion that it might be better to leave it all as one piece, and just drill and tap the holes with a hand drill, as getting the steel screws out might be a non-starter.

 

This then leaves the adjuster and bracket screws to undo. Heres an old picture to show you what I'm talking about:

 

I fired up a big blow-lamp and aimed it at the nut on the adjuster bolt, and left it for five minutes, while I found a spanner to fit it (7/8th whitworth). I had already removed the paint from the thread with the wire brush on the grinder, so it was a case of hammering the spanner to crack the nut off, and then a case of lubricating and turning the nut off, tapping the spanner all the way. But she came off ok. The top nut was left alone for the minute, as I want to see how it is held in the case.

 

The blow lamp was then moved across onto the main bracket nuts. There are two of these, secured with a split pin. The pin was ground off and cut to match the threads, and then a spanner put on the bottom nut (41mm this time). With a couple of taps the nut was loose, only tightening up where it passed over the split-pin remains. The main nut came loose quite easily, but had to be wound off the whole way. This now allowed the remains of the cast mounting bracket to be re-moved, except that it didn't want to play! It took about 5 mins of hitting it back and forth to slacken it off the bolt, and then I punched the bolt through the middle slightly, and the bracket suddenly became loose and was removed to the scrap pile.

 

Next time I hope to wirebrush the case down, and look at the fittings for the access door.

 

Oh, and guess what, I didn't measure the size of the lens!

 

Andy G

[LNERGE]

Did the few pages i emailed help you understand how it works?

[uax6]

I don't know I haven't read them yet! I'll take them to work tonight.

 

I don't suppose you have any drawings of the fitting that allows the case to sit on top of the post do you? Even good photos would help, as I will have to make the fitting.

 

Should the hood be steel BTW?

 

Andy G

 

(Did you enjoy your emails?)

[synthnut]

I'm guessing the lens is 8" diameter, so that's PAR64 size if so. There's a fixture called a Spectra PAR made by Altman that uses interchangeable lenses but they've been discontinued I think.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/494583-REG/Altman_18_SS_8_W_Wide_Flood_Lens.html

There are some film lights that use them too...

 

TTFN

Ben