Jon Fitness Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 Jon, I managed a visit to the Bluebell Rly. earlier this year, and managed to get look inside the lamp housing of a spare ground signal they had lying around: What a small lamp! It looked like a 12v 5W car side lamp. Steve. Ah now what type of G/S is that? I'm guessing SR if its on the Bluebell. It would be lovely if the inside of these LMS ground signals I'm building was hollow and I could fit a lamp that small! All the best JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted December 16, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 16, 2012 Ah now what type of G/S is that? I'm guessing SR if its on the Bluebell. It would be lovely if the inside of these LMS ground signals I'm building was hollow and I could fit a lamp that small! All the best JF Standard SR signal by the look of the disc and various other parts plus it's lower quadrant (of course all good ground signal are lower quadrant ). 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Steve Hewitt Posted December 16, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 16, 2012 Correct gentlemen, SR. I've made a few up from the MSE 4mm kit, and they work very well. I've not yet tried lighting one though. Steve. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 (of course all good ground signals are lower quadrant ). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Managed to finish the double disc with the SMDs. All tested and working fine. The installations reasonably neat and best of all I now get a backlight for each lamp too! A rare bit of sunshine allowed me to get some pictures and boy are they cruel! I didn't realise how poor the top lamp case casting was until now.. Please excuse the appalling paint job too, it doesn't look too bad at normal viewing distance.(honest). I must get a worse camera to hide the rough bits ... More soon JF 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
N15class Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 I find photographing models before painting a great help as it shows up a lot of areas that could do with a little more attention. Also works well after priming. But it is scary sometimes when you think you have done well, then see it 4 times actual size, makes you wonder why you are bothering. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Well the whole thing's only about 25mm tall. Once it's been planted and the ballast gets round it it'll probably blend in.... Merry Humbug Everyone See you all next Year. Jon F. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted January 3, 2013 Author Share Posted January 3, 2013 (edited) Firstly, Happy new Year to one and all. After a Christmas with little or no internet due to an underground cable fault, it’s good to be back online!In between eating drinking and sleeping to excess, some modelling took place!One of the signals from the current batch needed to be a “running line to loop” type. They are of a distinctive type, the most common ones being left facing. This one has to be right facing!I made some masters up a few years ago for these brackets and cast them in whitemetal, but not having built one for a while I hadn’t had a good look at them and when I came to use them I decided that they no longer “cut the mustard”. The melting pot beckons….So armed with a drawing and an excellent picture sourced from Beast’s Signalling thread, it was time to scratchbuild one.Having built post and doll in my usual way, next up was the components for the bracket. The real thing is made up from angle iron and plate and bolted to the main post. In model form this may have been a little weak so I used a bit of 5mm machined brass channel for the main bracket and the post/doll fixings. This would then be supplemented with 1.5mm machined angle. The basic parts were then soldered to the main post and doll and the first pieces of angle fitted to the channel The wiring was then done for the lamp on the doll. All the way down through the doll, feed the doll through the hole on the bracket, back up and out of the side hole, solder the doll to the bracket and add the lower support piece.The wire was this fed along the bracket, through another hole in the main post and out through the base… A quick check with the drawing (It’s not to 7mm scale but has all the important dimensions)The lower angles were then formed up and soldered on. Next up was handrail stanchion supports and some rocker shafting for the shunt signal. The rocker shaft is from some 0.5mm I/D N/S tube with some little operating arms soldered on. This runs on a piece of 0.5mm rod supported on a bracket bent up from thin strip soldered to the trimmers. Detail of the bracket support and little gussets And this is where I’m up to now. Staging and ladders next! More soon JF Edited January 4, 2013 by Jon Fitness 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted January 12, 2013 Author Share Posted January 12, 2013 (edited) More progress to report on the "running line to loop" signal... I realised as I built it that fitting the handrails before final assembly of the worky bits wasn't really possible. As the handrail was meant to be fastened to the post I soldered a piece of microbore tube to the post for the handrail to slide into after painting the main structure. I also masked the top bit of each stanchion to make life easier for soldering the handrails on afterwards Last bit on before painting was the etched ladder hoop. A rare bit of sunshine allowed a quick photo of the freshly painted "bits". After painting and before assembly, the operating wires and cross shaft were chemically blackened with Birchwood Casey stuff. The next job was the wooden staging. This was cut from 0.8mm ply planks and fastened on with superglue. With all the worky bits assembled the final job was fit the handrails The planks were stained with some dirty white spirit and here is a quick pic of the 99% finished article. I'll get some better pics after the final fettling (and weathering hopefully) if the sun ever shines again..Many thanks to beast for the protoype pic tooo! More soon Jon F. Edited January 12, 2013 by Jon Fitness 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
N15class Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Top drawer work as usual. The microtube idea works well. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 Just a few "outside" pictures of the finished signal. Given up on the sun shining! More soon JF 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNERGE Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 I love the circuit controllers! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonME46 Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Some dumb q's if I may? How big are the base plates for the signals? Image some 9g servos, but they seem to be bigger than my current base plates. How do you bed the signals into the layout? I was indexing if they are permanently fixed and ballasted in, or are they removable? Thanks for the inspiration! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted January 14, 2013 Author Share Posted January 14, 2013 Hi Simon, not dumb qs at all! The bases are 50x32 which is just big enough for an SG90 with the lugs cut off to lay flat with a small edge of baseplate to sit the signal in the hole. To remove a signal from the layout takes less than a minute and more important is that it only takes a few minutes to fit it. A little ballast is brushed round the base for effect but this is easy to remove. The bases being this size is ok in 7mm scale but may be too big in 4mm. Cheers jf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonME46 Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 Thanks Jon. Fortunately I'm modeling in 7mm. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 Greetings All, I have now been asked to build some Southern Railway "flavour" signals and amongst these are a couple of ground signals. There is a choice of MSE and Scale Signal Supply kits to make these and as I had a few bits to get from MSE (and they have a website to buy things from!) I included them on an order. I expected them to have a cast post and etched discs but they are entirely etched. Even though they are quite intricate, they are not intended to work so a bit of alteration is required. The chap I'm building them for doesn't want them lit and will be taking care of his own method of operating them. First job was a 14BA bolt through each disc, The main post is made up from 3 parts and the central piece is folded One post made and component parts for the second one These are then soldered to a (small) base plate and the pivot hole at the front for the weight bar drilled to take another 14ba bolt. I also soldered them on to a larger baseplate for stability As no provision is made for the disc to pivot, I will add a small length of tube set into the main post. I filed a chunk out of the post to accomodate this. More soon! JF 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 A small piece of tube was soldered on for the disc to rotate in. The lamp case folds to form a box shape and slides down over the post. I will need re-shaping at the bottom to fit round the pivot tube. The lamp top is a curious etch that needs shaping and fitting over the top. I formed it and filled it with solder ready to file to it's final shape The weightbar is soldered up from 3 pieces and I fitted a small length of tube to act as a bearing. It looks rough but it will clean up (honest). Once the lamp top was fitted I filed it to shape and had a trial assembly of the various bits. The drive rod is 0.5mm wire and some re-shaping of the weight bar was necessary so it would hit the "stop". I think it will all work! Other than a good clean up, that's all I can do until the painting is done. More soon JF 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Steve Hewitt Posted February 3, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 3, 2013 Jon, I've made a few of these in 4mm scale. I like your use of a tube for the main pivot. The designer expects you to drill right through the web of the main post, where the etched holes are........ It is possible, but ............. Looking very nice. Steve. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethevans1986 Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Keep up the good work Jon. Gareth 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Painted up the little ground signals now. I'm not sure about the grey; it's only the Halfords grey primer and I'm thinking it's a bit pale. The silvery thing on the baseplate is a magnet and will be painted over when I do the baseplate in track colour. The customer wants the signals removable between operating sessions and will operate the signals manually above the board ! Next up is a railbuilt signal. I'm using the MSE cast whitemetal post for this one. It's a lovely casting, one piece and includes arm pivot and post cap.It's very reasonably priced and nicely detailed but being whitemetal it is a little erm...flexible! It straightened up ok when I removed it from the packaging and soldered it to a baseplate. The pivot was drilled 1mm to take a 14BA axle/bolt. Not having any corrugated arms in stock I decided to cobble one up from bits. A suitable strip of scrap etch was scribed with an OLFA cutter on one side... and 0.5mm wire soldered to the other to represent the corrugations. I modified one of my cast arms for it to fit to but I may end up using an MSE etched spec plate instead....might need a tiny bit trimming off the length too.... more soon JF 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) I decided to go with the MSE etched spec plate for this arm. To me (and I may be wrong) the lens holes look a little small, so I opened them out a little and "softened" the edge of the plate. The real thing is a pressing and has rounded edges to it which isn't really possible with an etch. The corrugated arm blade was soldered to the spec plate, a 14BA bolt provided for an axle and the blade shortened to represent a 3ft shunt or goods line arm. Drilling a 0.6mm hole for a wire arm stop. (Can't be doing with droopy arms!) The weight bar is supported on a small plate/pivot casting on the side of the post. Where a working bar is required I've taken to using Steve Hewitts method of making the pivot casting from a small piece of square brass tube. This was soldered to the plate, drilled and tapped 14BA and some rivets embossed into the corners of the plate. Once the weight bar plate was soldered in position with 145, a quick lash up was in order. Starting to look like a Southern signal! The lampmans staging is an etched item on the MSE signal fret which also includes a shaped handrail to match it. The etch is a bit flimsy so I braced it with some thin strips along the bottom. The staging was then very carefully soldered to the post with 145 degree solder and a suitable length of ladder fitted. And there we have it, my first Southern Signal ready for cleaning up and painting.. More soon JF Edited February 9, 2013 by Jon Fitness 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
N15class Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I am waiting to see how you hide the wires for the lamp. Looks good and I am following with interest as I will need some for my layout. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 I am waiting to see how you hide the wires for the lamp. Looks good and I am following with interest as I will need some for my layout. Ah!, No lamps on this one (customer request) but it would be broadly similar to a lattice one. I'm quite impressed with the castings for this signal and I may make one for myself which will have a lamp and a servo! JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
N15class Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 Just my luck. So you would run them down between the rail posts. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Just my luck. So you would run them down between the rail posts. Hi Peter, Well you would only need one wire down the post as the post itself is metal and can be the return or negative. Fine insulated wire is available from electical specialists, or you could use fine enamelled or wrapping wire. This is the sort of wire used on motor windings and transformer internals. If you study pictures of rail built and lattice or even wooden posted signals that have electrical items on them such as lamp repeaters, contact boxes for the position repeaters, electric drive motors etc, you can usually see wire runs down them so hiding the wires isn't as important as you think! I have even seen tubular posted signals with wire runs down the outside of them! Jon F. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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