Here are a few more pictures of the signal heads or aspects as they are being assembled.
This picture shows a couple Fresnel lens, the one on the left shows the back side and the pocket that the LED goes into. The lens on the right is the front that faces out. You can see the circular lines. The dime is for size comparison so you can see how small these components are which makes them harder to work with.
This is a painting jig that Alan made to make it easier to paint the heads. Alan's ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. I insert the heads in the jig and spray them black. Then after they are dry, I remove them and send them to my son Jim. He glues the LED assembly into the Fresnel lens and that into the signal head. Then he glues the back of the signal head on and returns them to me to paint the backs in the jig.
This pictures shows some heads removed from the painting jig and ready to send to Jim.
Here is a head that Jim has assembled and sent back to me to paint the back.
In this picture you can see the Fresnel lens mounted in the signal head better. Jim tests all the heads after he has completed this step to be sure the LED's are working properly. We have had about a 4% failure rate, but at least we are finding out before everything is completed. It will much harder to replace after the bridge is completely assembled.
Next I will explain a little about the testing board that Jim built to test signal boards (both the older ones and the new ones), the interlocking boards, and all the signals and LED's after they are completed before installing on the layout. The plan is to build and test everything possible at the work bench before it's installed on or under the layout.
Art
