Once again, I'll shift topics from motive power to signaling. Thanks for bearing with me as I go back and forth like this!
I've installed more signals on the Kings Port side of the layout. As on the West Mill side, the new signals at Kings Port are bi-polar green/red LEDs intended to indicate the polarity of the track and direction of travel. I've tried to arrange them in ways that not only let me know which way the trains will be going, but also to actually take a role in modeling prototypical operations.
The layout has a mix of signal styles which might not be very protoypical but I decided to use what I had on hand and also wanted to fashion some searchlight signals similar to those I used to see near my childhood home in Upstate NY. (See previous signal blog post)
Starting with those searchlight signals: my dogbone styled track plan creates an illusion of a double track main. Here it is being protected by searchlight signals on the curving grade out of Kings Port...
...and a couple more on the high line above town.
A combination of signal styles illuminated in green and red can be seen in this view toward the entrance to Williams Yard (staging), creating a festive look for the Holidays!
Were I to just start building the layout now I'd do so many things differently the second time around! I'd certainly plan the locations of signals and leave enough space prior to adding any scenery, for example. But, since I'm retrofitting, I'm making do as I can. Some of the track clearances at Kings Port are too tight for a full size signal. Experiments in placing them showed that rolling stock would catch the signal heads as it passed by. Dwarf signals were utilized in these locations where track clearances were an issue. Some were commercially available dummy signals like the cheapie Bachmann signal on the left which I drilled out to accommodate the LED.
Others had to be custom made when test fitting revealed that even the small Bachmann signals were getting knocked around by locomotive steps and boxcar doors because of close clearances!
The two dwarfs pictured above were fashioned out of these electrical components (Arrgh! Can't remember what they're called! Help me!). I pulled the insulation off and sank their posts into the roadbed and fitted the LED bulbs through them so the LEDs were just barely off the ground. All rolling stock rolls safely above them! A little bit of shrink tubing was used to represent the signal head shades.
A couple of examples of the signals taking part in railroad operations: Extra 6554 rolls out of Williams Yard with the red signal near the overpass indicating its approach while a Kings Port & Western RS3 approaches a green indication to the right.
On the other side of Kings Port, a B&O coal train headed by a pair of F7s gets the green to proceed into Williams Yard.
I'm planning to make a couple more dwarf signals for the engine yard and for nearby KP Steel's holding yard.
I hope to film a YouTube video of the signals in action and post it soon!
May you always get the Green aspect!
Once again a great project and blog entry Ralph. You've done a marvelous job building and installing the signals. The use of the "ring wire connectors" to fashion the dwarf signals was ingenuity at it's finest! The Kings Port Division has become better operationally as a result. The signal system adds another level of realism and photographic interest to an all ready photogenic layout. Well done!
ReplyDelete"Ring wire connectors". Thank you! I got the idea to use components like that from this article about making cheap N scale signals. http://www.aglasshalffull.org/N-Scale-railroad-info-and-pictures/article-n-scale-signals.html
ReplyDeleteReally creative -- inspiring to see what you and John R can come up with! I'll be waiting for the YouTube as well. The weathering you've been doing looks really good, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks John! I'm hoping to get the video filmed before Thanksgiving. Always seem to be other things to do around the house!
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