Trackside signal cases and bungalows

RRman, I Agree!! I once contacted Atlas O for some signal houses (or whatever they call them!), but Atlas O wouldn't sell them. I wonder could these signal cases be made using a 3D printer?? I wish one or all of the 3-rail manufacturers could make them as a separate sale item. What I've been doing is purchasing the old trainmaster TMCC direct lock-on, remove the electronics and use the housing as a signal structure.

Thanks RRMAN for bringing this subject to light.   I have been wondering to myself if any manufacturer makes a realistic: relay case (especially the ones with a riser and double weather head), a battery well, pole mounted DS phone, tie mounted switch contactors, etc.  These easy-to-add features make a correctly profiled R-O-W look even better.

Decades ago, Bruce Chubb (modeling HO) submitted an excellent article to MR magazine on this subject.  The article included information and photos of the numerous types of fixtures and appliances that can be found alongside ABS or CTC track. 

Yes there is an O scale mfg that makes single and double door relay cabintes.

Goto crow river products website and look under resin details. The part numbers are O-108 for the single door relay box and O-109 for the double door box. As far as the equipment sheds well you will have to find extra parts from Lionel's fastrack locon or Atlas O signal sheds.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Yes there is an O scale mfg that makes single and double door relay cabintes.

Goto crow river products website and look under resin details. The part numbers are O-108 for the single door relay box and O-109 for the double door box. As far as the equipment sheds well you will have to find extra parts from Lionel's fastrack locon or Atlas O signal sheds.

Thanks!. And this site never showed up on my google searches.  Guess that has to do with the "tags" (if that is what they are still called) used by the website search bots.  Nice reasonable prices.  Too bad you can't zoom in to see more detail.  But then All I need is generic cases not ones that are exacting to the hinge, handles  and rivet for my era or RR line (in other words, good e'nuf).

That, and the telephone booth, not for Superman, but for calling the DS on the code line BBX is a killer detail.

RRMAN

I was looking for signal wayside structures and couldn’t find any other than the Lionel Hot box Detecter , MTH ITAD , Lionel crossing stuff etc. so I tried to make my own. I used card stock, Elmers all purpose glue, hobby tools, 1/4” popsicle sticks, 1/4” paper faced foam board and Testers aluminum paint. And here are the 2 foot stand off signal bungalows and double door cases I come up with.

Very nice STE! They look REAL!!!

Thank You Big Jim. As you view them from at least 2 feet away they are a reasonable facsimile. LOL      

If you are in a hurry try Grandt Line 3566 tool house kit. You can modify it to look like a signal bungalow.

STE, Looks like you could set up a table at York and make a few bucks!! Very nice buildings. They look exactly like the ones I see everyday on the BNSF line in and out of Chicago. 

The Lionel 6-83688 Trackside Railroad Details kit is also a good source for about $20.

Any of these might be a good started project for molding...if you have a master to copy.  Kits are available to make your own molds and instructions

Very nice,

I have been trying to figure out how to do a very similar thing to fit over some electronics.
Do you have dimensions?  I am interested in what size the doors and the details are.

For some reason I really struggle with working up the courage to try scratch building.

Forty Rod posted:

Any of these might be a good started project for molding...if you have a master to copy.  Kits are available to make your own molds and instructions

Yes. I made a mold from the base of a Lionel signal, so everything would match:

These days, though, I would make a 3-D model and print it.

BWRR,

I used 1/4” to the foot to make the bungalows. So the walls height is 2”(8’), the width is 1-1/2”(6’), the length is 2-1/2”(10’) the doors are 3/4” (3’) X 1-3/4”(7’). Looking at the pictures you can see the walls laid out on card stock. I scored the lines you see in the card stock and folded it on each line. The 1/4” tab on the left is the glue tab. Once glue is set I plugged the top and bottom of the opening with 1/4” paper faced foam board cut to size.(posted yesterday). Here is a picture of a popsicle stick building I made to cover some terminal strips. Being retired I try to work on a tight budget. Like when I worked for CSX doing more with less. So long story short each bungalow cost about  $1.50, the maintenance shed about $3.50.

STE,

Thank you that is very helpful.  I like what you have done adding the handles, vents and other details.  The details make them really pop and be believable.

If you don’t mind adding, what are the sizes of the smaller structure, the one with the flat roof?

BWRR,

I made two sizes. The one on the left is known in railroad signaling as a 4X6 bungalow. It’s wall in front is 2” (8’) high by 1-1/2 “(6’) wide. The side wall is 1”(4’) wide and angels down 1/4’ (1’) to the back. The back wall is 1-3/4” (7’) the door is 3/4” (3’) X 1-5/8” (6’6”) high. The other shorter case is known as a low side double door junction box. It’s  front wall is 1-5/8” (6’6”) high X 1-1/4” (5’) wide. Side wall is 3/4” (3’) wide tapered down to 1-1/2” (6’). The back wall is 1-1/2” (6’). The doors are 1/2” (2’) X 1-1/2” (5’) front and back. The handles are staples cut in half placed in a small flat escutcheon glued in place. The vents and cable weather heads are small dowels rounded off and cut to size and cut in half. The planks are the 1/4” X 6” popsicle sticks I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  And the piers it sets on are 3/16” bass wood picked up at Hobby Lobby. Hope this helped.

This did help thank you.

Nice work...thanks for the info on them

Hey AlanHN,

I don't see the attachments?

Alan, I couldn't see the attachments either.  Here are a few pictures of my electrical cabinets that Alan made for me.  I measured real ones near me and he made awesome replicas of them.  He also made me the propane tanks.

Art

thanks   Art.

the real thing is better than the drawing.

They look great, these are on my to do list which keeps getting longer

If you want to simulate propane switch heaters, you can purchase LPG tanks from Model Tech Studios (http://modeltechstudios.com/). If you search under "propane" you can find the tanks in O scale.  I spray painted mine flat white.

-Ed