Jon Fitness

Now where was I? Oh yes, signals.... Made a good start on the next "West Kirby" signal. This is the inner home; a stop signal with a subsidiary, a theatre indicator showing "1" or "2" and a ground signal at the base of the post. I made up the post and added the arms/pivots to the heights specified so I could work out roughly where the bracket for the theatre indicator goes. The bracket is made from 1.5mm angle brass and scrap etch. A hole was drilled for the theatre LED wires to go down the post. A quick test of the signal LEDs The ground signal. This is from the MSE kit which provides enough bits to make 2 single or one double disc type. The white metal castings are fairly delicate and if soldered together, great care must be taken not to melt them! I used 145deg solder and touched the iron/solder on the model for only a fraction of a second, allowing everything to cooldown between attempts. The castings were drilled for lights and pivots (I have found in my stocks what look to be grain of "something very tiny" bulbs so I will attempt to use these). A quick word on drilling whitemetal. (Handy tip #958365) Never use anything powered to drill it as smaller drills will jam and snap. The soft alloy compacts in the flutes of the drillbit so stop regularly, withdraw the drill from the work and carefully clear the drill tip and flutes of compacted metal before proceeding. You may have to do this several times on each drilling job. The tiny bulbs have bare wires so I stripped some insulation of a bit of normal fine wire. More soon JF Oh and don't worry about the sub arm, it's just one I had hanging about. A proper one with the horizontal white stripe will appear soon...

A little side project. Picked this little gizmo up from Ebay not long ago. Basically, it's an infra red train detector that will change aspects on a 2 or 3 aspect colour light signal for a set timed period when a train passes the sensor then revert the aspect after that time. The timed period is adjustable for between 3 and 20 seconds depending on the functions used. A reed switch is also supplied for situations where IR isn't suitable. As such it's not much use to me as I'm all semaphores but I thought at the price (about £8 from China!) I would get one to see what it could be adapted to do. Similar units are available from UK suppliers but are more expensive. I simply wanted a semaphore signal to be replaced to danger as the train passes and to clear again before the train comes round the layout again. The switching functions of the unit are for red/yellow/green LEDs to be lit in sequence. This isn't much use for my servo operated semaphores as they are operated by on/off switches. Breaking the connection sends the signal to danger and vice versa. A picture of the unit with a few labels. The infra red transmitter and receiver are set side by side and are fed up through the baseboard and positioned between the rails at sleeper height. When a train passes over the pair, the infra red beam is reflected back down to the receiver and activates the unit. Applying 12 volts DC to the power input terminals gives 5vdc at one of the positions of the 3. Apply a green LED to it and that is the normal state of the unit. When the IR sensor is triggered, the 5 volts is switched to the red terminal. After a few seconds to the yellow. A few seconds later we're back to the green. The whole sequence can be stretched to about 20 seconds which isn't all that long but may be enough for my purposes. As the switching method is not suitable I wondered whether I could use the available 5volts to operate a relay rather than an LED. This would give me my on/off function rather than unwanted volts. A quick test with a 12volt mini relay from Maplins showed that the 5vdc available was sufficient to trigger it so fingers crossed, a bit of basic signal automation beckons. You'll have gathered by now that my electronics knowledge is basic/bordering on dangerous but I think I'll be able to get the thing to do what I want, hopefully without setting fire to anything. Anyway that's enough of that for now as I have just received a pack of ground signals from MSE. I really must stop playing about and get on with some work! More soon JF

I showed them the test clip while I was there. They said it was the first one.they'd seen on a 7mm signal! Steve Hewitt's done a few and Derek Mundy was there demo-ing with one. ScaleSignalSupply were missing due to a bereavement though. Hope everything is ok with them. JF

Rod, the bounce will be up to you as you have the option to turn it on or off if you are using the GF boards. JF.

Thanks all! . With the planks now stuck down and stained I can now tick the "finished" box on this one, unless of course any weathering is required (Rod?). I have done a test using the GF controls board just to see how my linkages are for play. Seems OK but I'm not fully convinced by the action of it. I'm glad I didn't have working weight bars as they dont bounce. I've done a video but it's a little too large to be uploaded here (probably could have shaved a few more seconds off here and there) so here is a link to it on Flickr. Bring any memories back Mr Beast? Onwards then to the next one...... Jon F.

The linkages for the rocker shafts etc, having been chemically blackened had to be assembled off the signal and installed as a unit. Now it's all painted tested and ready for the final job of fitting/staining the planks. I cut and trimmed them to length and would have fitted them at work but I forgot me superglue . Heres some pics of the nearly finished signal (planks cut and layed in position). I'll do a vid of the finished article on test using a GF controls servo driver (with "bounce" enabled!) later today. Not entirely sure about the black stripes on the back of the arms. I think they'll get thinned down by half a mill or so... More soon JF

I've managed to get the linkages worked out and functioning. The plate it's mounted on is held on with a couple of 14BA bolts/nuts so the whole thing can be removed for painting. The mainshaft can be pulled out as well, so the mounting plate will be sprayed grey and the shafts/rods will be chemically blackened and the whole thing re-assembled after painting. With the shaft assembly removed for safe keeping, I could get on with the rest of the construction, adding ladders, handrail stanchions and sundry castings. After I took these pics, I decided to fit the handrails, hoping I can re-assemble all the linkages with them in place! The servos were also fitted, but I can't link up and test these until the rest of the job's finished. Each signal has to built in a different way! By now the signal is in the paint shop and hopefully will be finished by the end of today. More soon JF

Now I love that view! Looking out over the roofs (rooves?); very evocative. I'm really enjoying this build, keep up the good work fella! Jon F.

Got proper stuck in to this signal today. The two dolls had basic preparation work done to get them ready for installation, done as in previous posts. The top castings on the trimmers were drilled for the dolls and the wires fed through and the dolls soldered in. The wires were then fed back up and out through the side holes and across the bracket ready to be routed down the "hidden" side of the main post. Once these were secured, the lower fixings were soldered on. Once I knew where the signal arms sat, I could work out where the linkages for the operating rods were going to go. Rather than fasten everything permanently to the trimmers I make up a seperate assembly with all the rocker arms and pivots on and bolt the assembly to the trimmers. That way if anything breaks or generally isn't right, I can remove the whole thing and sort it out without wrecking the whole signal. Most of my previous UQ brackets have had the rocker arms the wrong way round using pivot tube directly fastened to the trimmer edge with the arms of the rockers facing outward (mainly as its easier, please see previous lazy git comment!!) but this one is being done properly. It looks better and will come apart easier for painting. The first pic shows the pivot posts and next one shows the plate in position with the pivot rod (0.5mm N/S wire) in position The actual rocker arms/shafts are made from microbore tube with arms soldered on each end with the pivot rod slid through in one piece. Easier to illustrate than describe!!! More soon JF

Being a lazy git at heart, I have been using a photo to build this signal, rather than go ferreting through my collection of drawings to find the odd dimension. As previously stated, I took a guess at where the cross braces fitted on the trimmers for the angle brackets to fasten to. Needing to know exactly how said brackets fitted, I bit the bullet and dived into the cupboard to find the right drawing. (which due to copyright I can't post up here). There is a dimension shown from the centreline of the main post to the first fixing bolt on the cross brace of 2ft 4 1/2". I laid my scale rule on the model and checked it to see how my guess work had panned out..... Anyway, it turns out the angle brackets are T section rather than L section and amazingly I found I had a bit in stock. I cut a rather over generous v notch at each end and bent up 2 pieces and soldered them in. 2 castings for the doll bases were carefully soldered 11ft apart on the trimmers using 145deg solder, followed by 4 strips that will support the landing and handrail stanchions. Now I've finished my current run of 12 hour day shifts in the box I should be able to do a bit more at each session now so... more soon JF

Back to the BFB bracket last night. 2 lengths of 5mm machined brass channel were soldered on to the main post to form the trimmers. Looking at the photographs I have and presuming the dolls to be 11' apart, I reckoned the trimmers to be about 13'6" wide and the main post about 18' from ground level to the top of the trimmers. As the two trimmers were only soldered to the stem, I added a temporary brace between them while I worked on the rest of the job or until it becomes stong enough to remove. Next job was the gusset plates. I rooted out a suitable bit of scrap etch and marked it up for the two of them and snipped them to size, again estimating them from the photos. I do have drawings of BFB signals but as there are 3 or 4 different sizes of this design and none of them matched this particular one, I'll carry on as is! Not having a "Hold and Fold" I used my "Bend and Bodge" (vice/hammer) tool to bend them up and bashed a few rivets in to give them some texture. These were then soldered on and some small plates added between the trimmers for the angle iron brackets to land on. I can now remove the temporary brace as there is sufficient strength in the structure. More soon JF

Thanks both...praise indeed. Wouldn't mind seeing that phot Beast! Jon F

Ooooh yes (said in a Churchill dog type voice). I've uploaded a few (but not all) into the thread and the gallery. A sample one....

Ah right.. I think I'm within the 60 degree mark on these! I also fit arm stops to avoid them going above horizontal although careful adjustment of the servo boards is necessary to avoid straining or loading the servos. They're powerful little ######! They do twitch a bit when the power is first applied but the latest version of the board has a mod that reduces or eliminates it (depending on the make/model of servo used) . Thanks for the comments about the pic! The weather was too nice to ignore this morning and yes, this last signal is the culmination of what was quite a large order for a large loft layout (22 signals in all including a gantry ) Jon F.

Ooh I always keep me wires tight missus ! I generally set the test board up give them a good swing, if only to test the mechanical bits. I believe 55-60 degrees is the required arc isn't it? My customer will set them up with his own driver board once it's installed on the layout. I'll be taking this last one down to him personally (by train of course) so I can have a look at his layout. And check if he's put them in the right place........ JF

GWR Postscript Not had much chance to do any signal building for a couple of days but... Had a friend get me some machine cut vinyl chevrons for the distant signal. (he works for a sign making co.) I think they're nearly right, so I took the opportunity to phot the signal finally finished in the sunshine during a break at work..... Look OK to you lot? More soon (when I've finished these 12 hour shifts ) Jon Z.

Not surprised, I bought a Reliant once. Did me no good either, although I got quite good at "2 wheeling" it on corners! JF