Painted myself into a corner?

[Denbridge]

Evening everyone,

 

I'm back. Keeping myself busy whilst waiting for things to dry on the other layout, I started drawing some longitudinal and cross-sections of 'Dymented' and I have run into a possible problem in the area of Ledbury station.

 

My original plan had been to construct the layout in modules so that I could build them indoors and then mount them in the barn as and when completed - probably in groups of three so that track passing over joints could be aligned correctly - so far so good. In order that the modules were then aligned to each other (and assuming all the modules are to the same depth), apart from bolting them together, I was intending to set out a pair of parallel beams in softwood (nothing too big - 75 x 25mm say) supported and levelled and then simply place the modules on the beams and rebolt together - sounds OK? These beams would have been at datum level of -100mm, the board tops being 0mm datum.

 

The problem is this:

 

At one end of Ledbury (the west side) the Leadon River over which is constructed the Ledbury Viaduct lies 450mm below the track - not too bad - but at the other end over the Ledbury tunnel are part of the Malvern Hills rising 700mm above the track - on it's own that's OK too. What it does mean however, is, if I follow the plan in my head I'm going to end up with modules that are going to be 1300mm (over 4ft) high and 900mm wide. The hills are not going to be heavy in themselves as they'll be in polystyrene (expanded or extruded), it's the weight of the 10mm ply construction that concerns me. I can lighten it of course by cutting out 100mm diameter holes - but that seems to me rather wasteful.

 

I would rather avoid stepping the modules, as laying them on a known datum (the parallel beams) seems attractive as there is less room for error when it comes to joining them together.

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

Edit: I'll post up the longitudinal section and some cross-sections tomorrow. I need to ink over what I have drawn in order that the scanner can do its job.

dimples. Build the rest of the layout to a set datum and treat this area as a self contained module with datum minus whatever.

[Denbridge]

dimples. Build the rest of the layout to a set datum and treat this area as a self contained module with datum minus whatever.

your datum for that purpose is track level. To be honest, since this isn't an exhibition layout being constantly moved around, you could be over thinking matters.

[Philou]

@Denbridge

 

You could well be right - looking for a solution to a problem that is unlikely to arise! I like your, and Chimer's, proposal regarding lift-off sections as those I shall probably have to have should anything go awry within the tunnel section. Now why couldn't I think of that?

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Edited December 3, 2018 by Philou

[Philou]

Hello chums,

 

I'm back! Just to let you know that I'm still about and now the nicer weather has returned, the 'jobs that must be done' before I can start the layout are underway.

 

Footings for the sundeck were dug and back-filled with concrete over the last couple of days and galvanised steel feet bolted into place. Timber for the decking and its supports is due to be delivered in the next few days, so that will keep me busy for a while.  (The proposed layout hadn't been forgotten as I was able to slip a big sheet of 10mm plywood into the order - can't think how that happened!)

 

One of the barn walls has been partially stripped of its old render ready for jointing - but that got held up a little as I needed some sheet lead to do some flashing - that should arrive too in the same delivery.

 

So, having definitely lost my mojo since Christmas, I am pleased to report that things are on the up!!! Really looking forward to getting these jobs out of the way  and 'Dymented' underway!!

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[JST]

Good news!

 

However, back in SW France I have just had a delivery of stuff from Hattons but I am not allowed to play with it yet as there is strimming, weeding, garden fort building (grand kids coming in summer), pool cleaning/preparation etc. to be done. May get to sneak up to the layout this evening though! 

 

Bon chance!

[Philou]

@JST

 

Murky buckets! At least you do have somewhere to 'hide'!

 

Went to a brocante this morning - the only bit of railway 'stuff' was (funnily enough) at a fishing tackle stand. Märklin 3-rail track and that was it - bit disappointing really.

 

(For our non-French readers - today is a Bank Holiday and it's the real start of the brocante season.)

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Denbridge]

Any progress?

[Philou]

On 10/11/2019 at 10:25, Denbridge said:

Any progress?

 

@Denbridge Hello and welcome! I was going to start this update with a shouty 'I'M BORED!'

 

We've had one week of complete lockdown here and as it was very suddenly announced, it meant that there was no time to order materials in with which I could have a made a start on 'Dymented'. I feel I have a race coming on as I saw yesterday that Ed1234, new of this parish, wants to to do Pontrilas too.

 

I'm not really bored as such as I've been doing a lot of reading on RMweb and I pulled out half a dozen or so Parkside wagon kits that were given to me a couple of Christmases ago. I have started on two and now up to the stage of determining what sort of couplings to put and how to fix them. Then there are a dozen or so original Airfix wagons to build plus 20 minerals that require attention (removing the extra brakes on one side for example) and all the other wagons that I built years ago that will need painting - about 50 all in all - so there's no reason for me to be BORED!

 

For an update on things so far: 'Dymented' is still stagnant, but that was down to 'other things must be done' getting in the way. So what happened? In April 2018 I had a rather large wall that needed to be repointed prior to me starting on our decking. The wall was done but it took for ever as here we had a sudden rise in temperature and as the wall is southern facing it gets the full sun. Whilst I may be English (sorry -Welsh), I'm not that mad. Beside which, I have a skin condition that does not allow me to be exposed to the sun. As it was very hot (up to 40°) in our part of the world, as soon as the wall was done, all works were shut down 'til things cooled off - which was early October.

 

In October, it's time for Mrs Philou and I to go away for a week (yeah - to the sun!) and when we got back, it was cold, dark and gloomy. As the barn is unheated, it meant that I had to put things off until Spring.

 

Fast forward to Spring 2019 - I started to hack off the old rending from of the front of the barn, but SWMBO decided otherwise and that I should start the decking toot de sweet. I wasn't really up for it as I wanted to finish what I started. Nonetheless, I did as I was asked, dismantled my scaffolding and started the decking. As it so happened, this worked out very well (pictures to come later) as it allowed me to do honing of my woodwork skills - that are basically nil.

 

I learnt how to handled HUUUUUUGE pieces of timber without hurting my back, I did machine augering for post holes, concrete work, rawl-bolting timbers to a wall, cutting joists and other supporting timbers, wall plating and cutting the decking square, plus electrics and plumbing and I did it all three weeks!! I earned a million brownie points and Mrs Philou was well pleased - I'm quite proud of it too. Unfortunately, that was the start of another heat wave and it meant down tools as it was now too hot even in the barn for doing heavy manual labour. Besides which, due to another project of the go, I have run out of the readies to do big purchases for the mo'.

 

So where are we now? Well, November 2019 came and went and though this winter had been relatively mild, I decided to tackle my other project which has been on and off for over a year, and that I had intended to finish last month, but the Corona virus has put paid to that as it's in Paris. Once completed, I'll have some spare cash to pick up on the layout.

 

First immediate job, seeing as the weather is set fair for the next week and we cannot go out, is to set up my scaffolding and finish the repointing - I have the sand and lime already in stock, so no excuses. I do also have some minor leadwork to do on the roof and that requires dry weather too - so upwards and onwards. As soon as the present hiatus is calmed down, I'll have some additional works to do regarding the decking, as, as it seems we're in for periodic heatwaves, a small pool (2mx3mx1.2m) for the grandchildren to soak in now beckons (hence the plumbing and electrics under the decking last year) - thought ahead on that one !

 

After the picture show (that may be limited to about 2/3 per post), I may have some questions, so don't go away just yet:

 

Footings backfilled with concrete and galvanised adjustable feet bolted in place:

 

Wall plate rawl (or rag-) bolted to wall and joist hangers put in place:

 

Support beam and timber columns in place and joists being laid:

 

Limit of photos reached, onto the next post:

 

 

[Philou]

Next load of pictures:

 

Joists fixed and setting out of decking commenced:

 

Decking finished about 2 weeks after starting the works:

 

Privacy wall going up:

 

Limit reached, next post:

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Phil - Are you not reducing your pictures?   You should get far more than that - unless the limits have been considerably reduced.  What size are your images in terms of pixels each axis and file size (in KB)?

[Philou]

@The Stationmaster Oooh, hello Mike,

 

Welcome back! The images are about 2.5 - 3.5Mb. I did try to reduce the size via the editor but it didn't seem to make much difference. Additionally, as a non-Gold member, I'm limited to 10Mb - hence the small number of photos per post.

 

I've only a couple more to do, so here goes:

 

All done, just the plants into their planters:

 

There was lighting, outside power points and some teeny weeny uplighters added, but I haven't any photos, so you've been spared those!!

 

You may well ask, why am I showing you all of this?

 

Because what I did 3 feet off the ground, I now have to translate into work 4m up in the air and I need some clever folks out there to give some useful words of advice how best to get around it. I can get some scaffolding up, though it won't be an option come late Autumn as the floor in the barn will be taken up by my Winter wood supply. Here is my proposed floor plan:

 

 

and I have to remove this lot first:

 

 

 

 

and hence my learning of how to wall plate and doing joist work. Not that I'm scared, but I did pass through the floorboards that were originally on those beams - years of damp and neglect had caused them to go rotten - more than I had realised and a reason why I don't want to keep the existing beams in place. Luckily I spread my elbows out and stopped myself going right through onto a load of scrap metal that was underneath.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Phil,

 

I think there's something in the forum software - have a look at the link below for various links to proprietary software (Irfanview is very good but not available for Mac) If you have a Mac resizing is simplicity itself and can be done in Preview.

 

As far as the 'room' is concerned I would first see if there is any French equivalent to Building Regulations which would give you some standards to work to.  the floor joists set into the wall look much too far apart and far too shallow for my idea of supporting a floor!

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/151253-how-to-add-pictures-in-posts/

 

[Philou]

@The Stationmaster

 

Yes I agree Mike regarding the existing joists, they're approximately 1.2m apart and hence too far spread out. In any case, what is not obvious from the photos, the joist and the supporting beam on the free end falls from behind the camera to a point seen in the photos - the fall being 900mm in all. I can't recycle what is as it stands nor can I just infill with new timbers in between.

 

I did buy some sawn timber in 6.15m and 8.2m lengths by eye with a cross section of 50mm x 215mm that seemed to be 'about right'. Wrong! The only tables I have (now) found are the UK Building Regs ones (that I consider good enough and better than French ones).

 

The span that I propose is on the limit for the cross-section (approx 4.8m) so I'm going to reinforce what I have bought by buying additional timber of the same dimensions, but doubling the timbers every third one - i.e. 100mm x 215mm and all joists placed at centres of 400mm. The 'free end' will rest on a section of 150mm x 215mm supported on posts spaced every 1.0m. The flooring will be 25mm thick formwork panels.

 

Insofar as the wall plate is concerned, I had considered using the existing joists from which to work and even though they are laid to a fall, I have crawling boards. It is a simple case of setting the wall plate horizontally. The downside is that this method raises the new floor (from the existing joists) by 220mm which reduces the headroom at the one end (as seen in the proposed floor drawing in my previous post). The upside of course is once the new joists are laid, I could then remove the old joists from above rather than working from below. For the moment, I cannot measure accurately what the difference this 220mm will make. I estimate that IF I raise the floor, I will only have 1.4m headroom left along the one edge. 1.6m would be rather better. Decisions, decisions.

 

Things to ponder while I await the timber merchants to re-open.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Edited March 24, 2020 by Philou
PS: Thanks for the resizing link. I shall investigate further.

[Philou]

Onwards and upwards - we're into our fourth week of lockdown and I have kept myself busy, some railway related matters too.

 

Despite there being little or no traffic about with about three cars a day though our village, my car is a write-off - or so seems to be the general consensus. Some clown going too fast with a phone in one hand hit the traffic calming measure lost control and swerved right across the carriageway into my car that was parked correctly on the footway (they do allow it here in France) ripping off his and my nearside front wheel. Little other visible damage (slight crease on the wing and a chip on the headlight) but it's pushed all the front end geometry towards the bulkhead by about 100mm .

 

Anyway, nuff of that. I have partially assembled 5 assorted Parkside wagons that were given to me a couple of Christmas' ago plus two very old Airfix mineral wagons that I had stashed away. I also modified 26 that I had built years ago but with brakes both sides. Apparently, the Airfix model is based on a wagon of which was not built in great numbers.

 

I then turned my attention to four assorted Ratio signal kits in varying degrees of ancient-ness for example a kit of four was marked £1.30, probably dates back to the 70s.

 

Mike, The Stationmaster, of this parish kindly helped me in identifying the signals that were around the station area of Ledbury and I find that I can make up 10 of the possible 13 signals that were at one time at the station just using the four kits. With a little juggling around I can do it, with the exception of signal arm which is a slightly non-standard one and I don't think I've any left-overs suitable to fashion it - we shall see.

 

I've attached a couple of pictures of work in progress that has been mainly drilling the lamps out to take some pico-LEDs and opening the spectacles to be able to put in some gels. The LEDs and gels I have to order having none in stock. I am also ordering some blue gel as this was used in the original signals to counter-act the yellow colour of the flame of the original oil lamps. I shall try to recreate the same effect.

 

What I will probably find the hardest will be to mechanise the signals so that their not only lit but working. I understand that the older Ratio signals are a pain to make operational - why make life easy, eh? What I have found is some of the older plastic is rather brittle.

 

Anyway, starting with something small - drilling out the lenses of the oil lamps:

 

 

and then opening up the base to take the pico-LED:

 

 

Then I opened up the spectacles as they were solid:

 

 

Getting up a good head of steam now, different style being prepared:

 

 

Onto the next post ....................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Philou]

Just a general idea of one of the signals - an off-set bracket with a Home arm and a subsidiary shunt arm below:

 

 

Getting cocky now - a Backing signal modified from a spare Home arm with its Theatre box:

 

 

.......................... and then poo happens:

 

 

I did say the plastic was brittle. In being over-enthusiastic in opening up the hole the bit caught in one of the little guide holes and twisted the arm that I was holding down with my finger and snapped along a line of weakness. It's all glued back together again and I'll be more gentle tomorrow and remove the surplus bits first. Once sufficiently opened, I can file using a little diamond rat-tail.

 

If anyone is reading this, would you have a spare one of these? There was only one amongst all the bits I had and I need two to make an advance junction splitting signal - special signal at Ledbury Tunnel exit:

 

 

Anyway, that was enough fun and games for today,

 

Cheers everyone and keep safe,

 

Philip

 

 

 

 

[Philou]

Thinking overnight about my broken signal - I have no need to repair as it's intended to be a fixed Distant and therefore no need for a spectacle nor moving arm, just the lamp showing yellow - job jobbed!

[Philou]

Despite receiving a letter from my insurers that the car is economically unrepairable (a difference of about £450), I must have been on a roll, as I managed to jiggle the signal arms about and I now have enough for all the signals, plus, with some of the posts that were left over up popped the final signal - so a full house!!

 

I didn't take any pictures today, but I've been opening up the lamps for some ground signals and putting appropriate sized holes in the discs so hopefully I can get those lit too. Three down and two to go. I'll do one photo of them and post it up tomorrow.

 

Anyone out there have any ideas of how to approach the mechanics for these signals so they can be made reasonably sturdily but not rip the arms off, for example?

 

Cheers everyone,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Bit of a slow day railway front as this morning was an appointment with our insurance lady (despite the lockdown) where I went armed with a load of second hand car ads showing that the value they put on our car was not enough to buy a similar model of similar mileage and wewouldlikethemtofindthesamecarthankyouverymuch. We might just get the value upped enough to allow the repairs to go forward. 

 

It was then a case of tackling a minor water leak in a quarter-turn stop valve that was under the floorboards in our kitchen - put off for ages as despite leaving a trap to get to the stop valve, the trap is under one of the kitchen units. Fine for turning the valve on and off but not enough space or height for dismantling the joint (bloody French fibre washer jobby). In the end the bit was ... er .... bitten and I cut into an adjoining board to enlarge the trap. The job was done in about 20 mins all told including cutting the new trap. We can now have water to the garden back on permanently.  I was quite surprised when Mrs Philou said she couldn't see where I'd done the work. I just need to find a way of supporting the new cut, it's tongue and groove oak flooring.

 

It was a case of finishing off the tiny hole drilling in the signals and ground discs. I'm reasonably pleased that it's worked out well. Over the next few days it's going to be finding fine steel/nickel silver wire to start making the arms operate and fixing the arms to the posts.

 

Here's a picture of them and one of the proposed fixed Distant signals using the remodelled arm. I'm not sure that the 'smiley' faces are exactly right but once in place it's only the effect I'm after:

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

 

 

 

[Brassey]

On 17/04/2020 at 20:40, Philou said:

Anyone out there have any ideas of how to approach the mechanics for these signals so they can be made reasonably sturdily but not rip the arms off, for example?

 

 

I have used MSE parts supplied by Wizard/51L.  Their range includes 1/16" tube and rod for making the bearings.  I coupled this all together with guitar string operated by a servo under the baseboard.  The unit I use for holding the servo is also in the MSE range.

 

The electrickery employed is the same as used on the Lime Street layout and has a safe mode and is adjustable so it shouldn't rip off the arms

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Brassey

[Philou]

@Brassey Thanks for the link - I've only read a couple of pages so far - all I can say is 'hats off'. It shows what you can do AND there seems to be a distinct advantage in working in brass rather than plastic. Solder and I are pretty well restricted to doing copperwork - as in plumbing - which is definitely on the bigger side!!

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

Edited April 19, 2020 by Philou
grammar manglement

[Philou]

Hello chums - moi again,

 

A parcel arrived from Amazon this morning, that surprised me a little as it was only posted day before yesterday, containing a selection of coloured photographer's lighting gel - eight different colours and two of each in a 20x30cm format.

 

I now have a question regarding the use of the gels: Do I cut them precisely to fit the spectacles, not forgetting that some are tear-drop/kidney bean shaped? Or do I cut them oversized and glue them at the back? The former would no doubt be better, but the latter simpler. Simple circle shapes I can probably manage as I have a leather hole-punch with assorted sized hole cutters, it's the rather more complex kidney-bean shape that I'm not sure how the start. Just go for it with a sharp X-acto type blade or snip away with some fine scissors?

 

Can anyone advise why it is that the older signals have a very large red spectacle, whereas the more modern ones it's reversed (you can see the difference in the light coloured and black arms above)?

 

I'm aiming to make a start on them tomorrow if the hiatus over the car settles down. SWMBO let rip at the insurance agent and her boss and the assessor's secretary, an action that I don't think is going to end well for us .

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Apart from a wasted morning nodding sagely towards SWMBO (and cringing internally) whilst she was venting off at the insurers, I had another waste of time this afternoon hunting the dead body (not SWMBO's!).

 

Our guest room had started to 'smell a bit' with the arrival of nice warm weather (30° in the shade yesterday) and I'd been hunting around for the source. Today it was simply awful so as a matter of urgency I started pulling bookcases away from the wall, looking behind curtains, in the corners but to no avail.

 

Next up: ladder from the barn and into our loft space (just got TV, phone and electric cables in it - no headroom) and really nothing of real evidence though there were some droppings in there from dormice - the edible ones - apparently. I decided that I would air the room and opened the windows wide and in flew a gang of bluebottles that settled on one part of the sloping ceiling to the room.  'Aha', said I 'that's where the dead body is', stuck between the ceiling and the insulation in that part of the slope.

 

Got a neighbour who's an ex-gendarme to have a 'sniff'. He confirmed it was a dead cert that there was a body 'somewhere' in the room.

 

Steps and a keyhole saw, and up the steps I went. I must say the ceiling smelt awfully bad just where the flies had been. Five minutes later a nice large hole with a lot of plaster and glass wool dust (most of it on me) and big lumps of pooh but unfortunately no body. It's going to have to be a case of letting whatever is up there dry out and air every day until 'it' stops smelling.

 

A smidge of plastering  to do tomorrow to hide the cuts where I put back the piece and a ceiling repaint which was going to be done away during this lockdown. I shall have to do an external check under the roof eaves to check for any spaces by which the 'beast' may have entered. There's chicken wire just about everywhere except for one tiny tiny hole that wasn't done.

 

We suffer a lot around here from 'fouines', collective French word for weasels or stone martens. The martens have an interesting heart shaped white mark on their Ar$e as one 'mooned' me once whilst it was sat on our Velux. I did find under the bonnet of the car one day, a half baguette and an egg!!! It was quite at home as it had torn an amount of under-bonnet sound-proofing and made a nest next to the water pump!! Other neighbours have had rubber pipes and windscreen surrounds eaten by the little b .... b .... dears. Apparently they're protected.

 

Life in the countryside.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Philou]

Today was a good then bad day: Plastering all the cutting I did in the plasterboard yesterday plus some minor repairs before rubbing down tomorrow ready for painting. Had lunch - rather nice mini-barbecue as it was 30° again today in the shade. Then it all went ar$e about face as the afternoon was spent on a brown tailed moth caterpillar hunt. Spotted some in a privet-type hedge so it was all men to the pumps as they were only a day or so of leaving their cocoons. I think we had them all as the hedge wasn't very big - and so into a bonfire they went.

 

I may make a spectacle of my self this evening.

 

Going to pop over to not see how the SWAG virtual model railway show will not be getting on today. I shall of course miss out yet again by not being able to come. Nor shall I spend some money that I haven't got on things I don't really not need.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

 

[Philou]

Not much activity on the rail-front over the last couple of days as an appointment with a huge tub of Aldi's best brilliant matt white emulsion had to be kept (and very good coverage too from this paint - not to be sniffed at €17!!).

 

I did not come and have a look at the SWAG virtual exhibition at lunch time - some cracking layouts and pasties were not on show. I shall not be turning up next year either.

 

Today having cracked on with more painting this morning and finishing off another wall this afternoon, as the weather was hot and sunny, I thought I would make the most of it and tackle a signal in the shade.

 

Yesterday I did do a glue test of the gels that arrived earlier - Tamiya liquid solvent simply has no effect but superglue held good. I decided that I would glaze from behind, not because it was easiest, but the gel would consolidate the flimsy and brittle plastic spectacle.

 

I simply traced around the outside of the spectacle on a piece of paper, placed each of the gels over the trace in turn and marked the outline with a craft knife. The rough cut was done with a pair of scissors. I considered it essential that there should be a straight edge on each of the cut gels so that they could butt each other along the division of the spectacle itself. Before glueing anything, I used a marker to blacken the inside edge of each of the lenses.

 

Using a cocktail stick a drop of superglue was run around one half of the spectacle and a piece of prepared gel 'floated' into place with the straight edge towards the centre. The gel was lightly pressed down while the glue went 'off' and allowed to dry for a few minutes before doing the second gel.

 

Once the glue had set, the excess gel was sanded off using some diamond coated swiss-type files that I had, taking care not to drag or catch the gels. Once happy, I then set about painting the signal arm - in this case a stop one.

 

I have some photos below and as proof of concept (for me), I am pleased with the overall result - it is my first ever signal - can you believe in 55 years modelling I have never, ever painted let alone built a signal!! In this case the painting is a severe let down as the only paint I have is acrylic. As the signal is plastic, I find that acrylic does not adhere nearly as well as enamel that I should have preferred. I should have thinned the acrylic slightly and painted several coats, but being on a roll, I wanted to finish it quickly. 

 

The next signal I'll try thinner coats and see what happens, and if the results are better, I can remove the excess paint with a fibreglass brush and redo.

 

For those that may just be joining at this point, The gels used are red and BLUE, deliberately so to represent an earlier age when the glass lenses were back-lit by oil-lamps that generally burnt with a yellow flame (and we all know blue + yellow = green). I do have green gel as well for variety.

 

Also a point worth making is the superglue does cause slight fogging on this particular gel, a problem that I understand affects a lot of clear plastics. However, as these gels are coloured the fogging is imperceptible.

 

Some pictures:

 

 

The rough cut gels in place. The black smudging is felt-tip over-run that will disappear with painting.

 

 

The gels sanded to shape with just a little paring to be done near the pivot.

 

 

Front face painted ..................

 

 

................. and its back-side. The finish is carp and the painter's trainee's apprentice will have to try harder .... much harder!!

 

I'll try thinner coats next time, but as mentioned above, it was a rush at the end just to complete my proof of concept. However, overall I am quite pleased with the result.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

[Harlequin]

Hi Philip,

 

On the old pattern, wooden-armed 4ft and 5ft running signal arms (which you show in your photos above):

• The upper, red spectacle is bigger to allow for the settlement of the boss plate on the arm stop over time. (The boss plate, the down rod and the balance weight at the bottom are all supported by the arm stop when the signal is resting in the Danger position. The spring in the arm stop would slowly become permanently compressed and it's fixings might move or loosen, resulting in the arm pointing slightly upwards and the spectacle slightly downwards.)
• The glazing was fixed into the front of the spectacle plate, which was basically just a length of angle iron bent to a curved B shape on a jig.
• A 1/4 inch by 1 inch steel strip was screwed to the back of the arm, about one to two inches from the end, to stop the wood splitting. It was painted white but either it or the screws rusted so there's often a rusty brown streak there.
• The front of the boss plate should be painted the same colour as the arm, i.e. red or yellow.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Harlequin