The lack of signals on many layouts and the scarcity of them on others leads me to
believe that their expense has scared people away. For instance, after the expense
of a turnout plus a Tortoise, springing for a working turnout signal as well
may seem like budget busting. And indeed some individual signals are $10, $13
or more. My layout has 73 turnout signals, 3 crossbuck signals, 3 polarity warning
signals, 125 lighting lamps, and 21 two-lamp block signals, in addition
to 34 on/off indicator lamps on control panels. I had no desire to budget-bust
to obtain these items, so I researched it and feel I got nice results. Judge for
yourself.
Turnout Signals
For $1.11 you can make
each turnout have a bicolor signal that's green in normal (mainline) position and
red when switched (or if you'll settle for yellow and green, you can spend as
little as 27¢ per signal). Get SIG 1/8" nylon landing gear clips SH-522 (fig.
1) and drill 7/64" holes through all existing holes, paint them black, and cut
them as shown in fig. 2 once the paint dries. Let's call these signal lamp holders.
Now get 2-lead Linrose bicolor LEDs (4301F1/5, see PARTS LIST) or 2-lead
All Electronics bicolor LEDs (LED-66), ream the signal lamp holders' holes again
with the drill bit—I do it by hand at this stage—to remove paint, and stuff the
LEDs into the holes with the wires parallel with the bottom of the signals.
Bend the wires over as in fig. 2. When installing, drill 1/16" holes in subroadbed—probably
½" plywood—but fan the holes outward a bit so you'll have room to
solder under the layout.
For a cheaper red/green alternative, use All
Electronics' bicolor red/green LED-67, which has three leads and needs to be
wired to one of the SPDT accessory switches built into your Tortoise switch machine
and powered by your 13.8-volt DC switch machine power pack—see below—and wired
in with a 1.3 K resistor. See fig. 7.
If you'd prefer 2-lamp signals,
there are several options: (1) Use All Electronics 8¢ red and green LEDs
with cut-down Bachmann plastic HO block or dwarf signals which come on cards.
(The T-1 sized LEDs are more HO-scale than N-scale, so what holds them will be
a bit over scale as well.) (2) N.J. International #2100 N-scale 2-lamp dwarfs are
very nice-looking and to scale (but expect to spend $12.99 each). (3) Use Tortoise's
built-in accessory switches and your layout's 12-volt lighting system
to power red and green glass-stained (see PARTS LIST) 3-volt Circuitron 1.4mm #7418
lamps ($1.41 per lamp in quantities of 12) with 440-ohm, ½-watt resistors
soldered to one lead, and use Bachmann's #42503 Signal Bridge w/6 block signals
(75¢ each) or N.J.I.'s #4203 signal heads ($2.19 each) to which you can CA your
own dwarf signal bases.
I'll be concentrating now on the bicolor LEDs—which
is what I recommend most strongly: To wire them in, I recommend Tortoises,
13.8-volt DC Radio Shack power packs (to run motor and LED), and wiring the LED in series with the #1 or #8 connection on the Tortoise that
also powers the motor. This beats using the built-in Tortoise accessory switches
because the LED needs no resistor, and this way you won't have to deal with
three extra solder joints on the Tortoise. Also, the Circuitron people that
build the Tortoises recommend this as a good way to do it—I asked them. Make sure you test red or green before
soldering. See fig. 3.
|
