One of the first decisions you have to make on a signal system is what style signals you will use. I have always loved searchlights. I checked and all the railroads that I model had them.
A second decision is which type of signals to use? I have a double-track mainline that goes completely around my main or lower level and some areas where there are three tracks. I refer to that as “the race track” a term used to describe the three-track mainline from downtown Chicago to Aurora, IL and the BNSF’s Eola freight yard. Signal bridges are used extensively there and I want them on my layout as well.
As many of you know, there are a few choices for O scale signal bridges, but each as their strong and weak points. I won’t name them all, but they are easy to find.
My layout before starting this new project had a few bridges on it and a few Atlas single target mast signals. My son, Jim, and I talked about how to make our own. He suggested upgrading a Lionel 450 bridge with new LED lights. He did and I painted and lightly weathered the bridge structure. It wasn’t a precision, detailed masterpiece, but it didn’t look too bad either. And I found out after we installed one on my layout that you didn’t spend that much time examining the bridge structure, but it was very cool to see the lights and watch them change as a train passed. Another thing that I liked was that it was a metal bridge and when screwed to the layout was “rock solid”. I liked that, so we built some more. They used detector wires soldered to the outside rail blocks of track. They were powered by relays that Jim installed.
We began picking up the Lionel 450 bridges at local train shows for reasonable prices. We didn’t care if they worked or not, we just wanted the bridge structure.
All this was just setting the stage for me wanting to go beyond this first step. I wanted searchlight signals that displayed three colors, not just red and green. We wanted to know how many blocks ahead were clear or approach lighting.
This will be addressed and explained as we move along, but I wanted to show a few pictures of what the old signals that I just described looked like on the layout.
With the structure of the bridge decided, our next task was to find or make searchlight targets to mount on the bridges. More on that as when the story continues.
Art
