On the layout I want to have signals and to have them looking as close to the real ones you might see in the same places you might
see them. As the cost of pre built or kit signals is so high, and they also don't look right, I decided to scratch build them. Luckily for
me Martin Levington had tried to build them from brass and had been
successful so I was able to use the same method for mine.
This is the method here, I won't go into detail with how I made them [i.e. soldering technique] because if you are going to make something like this you shouldn't need me to tell you and I am going to assume a certain level
of modelling ability
First up cut the signal face, and drill the holes for some 4mm brass tube.
This is 0.015" brass sheet, comes in 4"x 10" size.
Luckily for me Martin Levington had built me a jig to cut the holes, seen here, clamped in the vice.
Here we have 2 faces, I was working on 2 signals at the time
with 2 slightly different styles of hood. It is a good idea to
work on a few at a time, as many as you want really.
Next up the brass tube is cut up into various parts.
The hoods are 4mm and for the style I am making about 14mm long, the main upright is 3mm tube and 60mm long.
The collars are 4mm and tube cut to 3mm lengths. What I
hadn't cut here was the platform.
The next stage is filing down the hoods to a shape you want. I am working from pictures on the
My Ramsgate Pics page.
I have then fitted the parts together as a 'dry' run. They are then just soldered together.
Here is a regular signal, with a coat of primer. [Make sure you wash off any flux if you use it before painting] The ladder
is available from various sources, I got mine at a Model rail Ex.
Here is the starting point of a gantry signal, the upright.
Then the cross beam
Finished with handrails[just wire],detailing and a coat of primer, and the hood I was making at the same time as the previous signal.
Here are the 2 4 aspect signals I made at Martin Levington's in place on the layout, but not yet wired in.
Signals with a bit more paint and in place to see
how they look.
LEDs fitted, in the gantry and the 3 apsect. They are simply glued in and the Anode from the top LED is bent over and soldered to the other 2 Anodes.
This is wired with a resistor and the Cathode legs of each LED are wired seperatly. The legs are trimmed
nice and short, and once painted it all looks fine.
Long time has passed since I made those other signals and I still haven't wired up the decoder and got
any of them working!! I have made a few more signals though, some of these pics will add to how they are made.
First up was cutting the tube...
Here is a pic of dimensions, you can work out what each bit is.
All the parts ready to file
After much fettling and filing, the signals are soldered and primed... These are slightly different to the past ones in that they
have side panels to hide the back and the LEDs.
Next for these I need to wire in the LEDs and then the next job will be wiring them
in to the signal decoder and installing that.
Update 5/5/09
I decided to make a feather signal, first up was making the feather, the rest of the signal was already prepared from the last batch. The hoods are 3mm tube and will
house 1.8mm LEDs
This was then primed and prepared ready for glueing in LEDs
Here it is once wired in.. the wiring in is another story
Here is a video of it in action...
The wiring for this signal involved a custom circuit.. seen in this video and build by
Martin Levington
It then involved alot of programming in RR&Co, this was done using marcros to tell the signal what conditions had to be met to [operate] light each aspect. Such that the feather would only light as per the circuit if the routes ahead were
clear... and so on..and so on. There were dozens of commands too complicated to describe in detail
Here is one of the other signals that was wired up...
