I have been planning to make dwarf signals for my El lines, and today I stumbled upon a commercially available Printed Circuit Board (PCB) LED. With some minor alterations, the 5mm PCB LED can be made to look like a dwarf signal, and the unit cost is only 25 cents. Moreover, PCB LEDs come in red, green, and yellow, and they also come in stacks of two or more.
In the days I rode the NYC subways to college, I noticed that the signals were individual boxes for each color, and stacked vertically similar to road traffic signals. This is the basis of my conceptual sketch below.
I know dwarf signals are commercially available, but I like building my own. I also like building accessories for less $$$, especially since the government is picking my pocket of more and more of my fixed retirement income.
PCB LED
My concept (shown below) is to make dwarf signals from 0.25" styrene square stock. I know dwarf signals are commercially available, but I like building my own. I haven't come up with a circuit to trigger the signals, but my thinking is use the red & green signal with a relay and a isolated section of track, so more to follow.
Hopefully some of the electronics wizards that lurk on this forum will give us a simple low cost way of triggering the signals we can build from Radio Shack parts. Hint, hint!
Dwarf Signal Concepts
