Need assistance identifying these O Scale Track Signals and what is needed to get them to operate correctly.

I do not know who made them but the one on the left (black) was common on the New York Central. The silver one is referred to as a Searchlight signal and was more commonly used.

Edit: US&S called them that in their catalog, maybe GRS did also.

You have accomplished the difficult part: identifying the various leads (wires) and how the lamps are wired. Now you just need to take a look at a few websites. There is one by the man (Mr. Terry Christopher) who was the original designer of a line of signals  and whose line of signals and control circuits are now sold by Atlas. 

Depending upon how prototypical you want you operation to be, you can pretty much design your own system of signalling for your railroad.  There are several companies that make signal control circuits or you can design you own.  You can make the system as simple or as complicated as you want.

The signals in your pictures are early NJI   NJ International.

Try Logic Rail Technologies. 

Gentlemen, 

Thank you very much for your responses.

I'll look at each of the companies you suggested.

At least I have a starting point now vs. the entire universe.

Regards.

OK so I went and looked up New Jersey International and Logic Rail.  They both seem to be out of business or they simply do not update their respective websites.  Also they were pretty much "sold out" of nearly everything listed.

I found a very close proximity to the duel headed signal with the black base but it was an HO model.  On the Logic Rail site it stated that either (2) SA-1 or (1) BA-1 controller could be used.  Neither site carried this control board.  They have a "generic" one but I couldn't determine if it was appropriate for the O Scale application.

The Atlas site, was not very productive in my search as it lacks a great deal of product information about their signals and control board.  I was very disappointed that it was so lean on information that directly related to what they were trying to sell.

Maybe someone on their staff may read this and convince someone to improve their sites product information.

So, in a nut shell I've been able to confirm that these were New Jersey International's line signals.  However I don't believe I've found a good source for the needed control board or boards depending if I need to daisy chain them.

What I'd like to learn is where can I purchase the commercially made boards (ebay?) or does someone on this site offer this type of control board but homemade?

Thanks!

I am pretty sure those early models were all GOW bulbs and not LEDs. The triple target SA style used a green bulb in the upper target a yellow one in the center target and red in the lower target. I remember seeing these very early around 1980. The other style you have is preferred to as the “G” style also used red,green,yellow targets, The SA style in real life uses a single lamp housing with a lens that rotates inside to allow each target to illuminate all three colors from one lamp. Good thing about those early NJI signals they were easy to rewire converting to LEDs. If you need help you can reach me at Atlas Model railroad 908-687-0880 ext 7142.

Thank you very much Steve.  I'll be giving you a call concerning these target signals. 

Regards,

I have a Lionel Dwarf Ground Signal on my O27 door layout, protecting a switch on the reversing loop.

The common return just goes to the nearest dropper, and the hot wires are connected to the respective sides of the loop, which has isolated sections powered by the switch - so when the switch faces the main line, it shows green, and when it faces the loop, red. 

To actuate the signal from the trains, you need an isolator Rail. Then you wire the HOT side in common, and ground it through the isolator Rail, and whichever bulb has a complete circuit at the time, is lit. Note that the isolator rails need to be far enough apart, that only one bulb circuit is complete at any given time, or more than one bulb will show. OR, you can wire it in conjunction with your isolated blocks, and it will show which blocks are live. 

Kazar

try Wayback Machine to get to their old websites.

It allows the user to go “back in time” and see what websites looked like in the past.

Alan and RockerShovel,

Thank you for responses, I'll make a note of them and check out the "Wayback" machine.  Interesting!

The company is NJ not New Jersey.   The guys are named Nick and John, I think, and they're from Brooklyn. So try searching for the correct name and you might get better results.

https://www.njinternational.com/

http://www.njinternational.com/activation2.htm

As I offered in my first answer to your first question, you can hook them up anyway you want, now that you understand them electrically.

Have you looked at the Atlas control boards, or the ones offered by Dallee?

https://www.dallee.com/

I didn't know who made mine but they are brass and nice looking. I bought a large box of them years ago at a train show. I use my under table switch machines to operate the lights. Don

NJI was owned by Jack Larussa

By all means do your due diligence and I'm sure there are a variety of off-the-shelf products designed specifically for the application at hand.

That said, and this being a discussion forum, there is a small cadre of DIY enthusiasts here on OGR that might approach it as follows.  First a video showing proof-of-concept. 

The idea is you have 2 consecutive insulated-rail sections that control a 4-wire, 3-aspect signal.  When neither section is occupied, Green.  When the next section is occupied, Red.  When the "next+1" section is occupied, Yellow.  From what I've seen, this is the most commonly used "algorithm" to control a 3-aspect signal on O-gauge layouts.  There are many other algorithms following prototypical practice that you can study to your heart's content.  I'm just saying this is what I see as most popular in OGR discussions.

In the video, you have a 4-wire (1 common wire, 1 wire each for R,Y,G) signal head on the bottom.  You have 2 inputs to the circuit from two adjacent insulated rail sections. This is all described in exhausting and tedious detail in this OGR thread.  Depending on whether you "do" eBay, the electronics can be, say, $5-10 per signal head.  The idea here is we're using generic, general-purpose high-volume electronic modules/components and adapting them to this application.  This gets the cost way down.  The obvious tradeoff is these are not purpose-built signal modules you'd buy from a train supplier.  And it does involve wiring (albeit you should be able to do this without soldering) and I suppose a leap-of-faith!

Anyway, if I am correctly reading the tea-leaves in your other thread about the RoW crossing flashers, if you are the curious type and like to tinker with the electronics as a part-and-parcel aspect of the hobby, we can explore this avenue...even if just to exercise the gray cells!

... which is a good illustration of the limitations of mechanical switching. The wiring on mine works because changing the switch, cuts off the power to one or other bulb. The isolator Rail won’t do this, nor will the Lionel “pressure plate” which was supplied with it. 

The dwarf ground signal would show green only, or red AND green, there’s a thread about this somewhere. It would need a relay to switch between them. 

@Allegheny posted:

OK so I went and looked up New Jersey International and Logic Rail.  They both seem to be out of business or they simply do not update their respective websites.  Also they were pretty much "sold out" of nearly everything listed.

 

Thanks!

Please note. Logic Rail is indeed still in business. Very friendly over the phone. 

There is one for sale on eBay that looks exactly like the white one you have.  There should be a number board on it.  Note: the signal for sale is not mine and I don't know who is selling it.