My fathers 151 Semaphore has seen its fair share of abuse and the lamp socket casting and wiring was shot. I acquired a replacement lamp casting with wire and bulb. Of course, I removed the existing one and associated wire to install the new, however, I cannot feed the new wire though (151-20). I am terrified of removing the 151-6 lower bracket to gain access as it is a compression fitting on the base that holds it in. Reference the attached diagram.
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You should be able to connect the new wire to the old one and pull it through....
Marty
You should be able to connect the new wire to the old one and pull it through....
Marty
Marty,
In retrospect, that's what I would have loved to do, but I was a bonehead and completely removed the original casting and wiring, hence my predicament...
bump
I have replaced the wire on postwar 151 semaphores by inserting the wire from the bottom, and using a very small pair of kelly clamps (tweezers) to grab the wire when it went by the hole.
This can only be done with plain wire. The lamp socket,spring, and contact get put on afterwards. Then the excess wire is pulled back, and trimmed.
I feed the wire from a spool, so there is little or no waste.
I have replaced the wire on postwar 151 semaphores by inserting the wire from the bottom, and using a very small pair of kelly clamps (tweezers) to grab the wire when it went by the hole.
This can only be done with plain wire. The lamp socket,spring, and contact get put on afterwards. Then the excess wire is pulled back, and trimmed.
I feed the wire from a spool, so there is little or no waste.
I cannot seem to feed the wire from the bottom into the stalk...
Buler?
It is still sitting in pieces - isn't there any wizard here who could help me get this back together?
Can you attach the wire to a short piece of fine piano wire and pull it through. Yeah I know how are you going top attach it.?? maybe Heat shrink?? Electrical tape is probably too big.
What kind of wire are you using? You might have an easier time with solid wire, say 22 or 24 gauge.
I have a replacement casting with the wire pre-attached. I believe it is 22 gauge stranded. Since it has the fiber washer attached, I tried feeding it from the top to no avail. I then took a naked solid wire, smaller than 24 gauge, and tried to feed it form the bottom so that I could then solder it to the lamp wire and pull it back own through, but was also unsuccessful in feeding it up around the solenoid assembly. I know these are not terribly expensive, but this has been my fathers since he was a kid and to have his childhood abuse repaired would make him all giddy and I would be honored to have it on my layout.
I will see if I cannot post some pictures of my mess later this evening.
So here is the disassembled product. From left to right we have: The lamp/arm assembly with lamp lead, the 151 carcass, the actuator bar, lamp attachment screw, pole cap, return spring, very small solid fishing wire
Here is the underside of the 151 carcass. You can see that the solenoid assembly is mounted by deforming two press points on the base.
I have been unsuccessful at trying to snake the solid wire from the top or bottom just about any way I can imagine. I've also tried feeding the lamp wire from the top to no avail, and I've also used some 22 gauge stranded wire from the top and bottom to no avail.
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