CESM - "Darth Vader" Signals Available

[peteski]

@peteski

Peter,

I've often wondered about that too.  I've done a bit of research and have come up completely dry, but...my guess is that it's safety related, illuminating the platform and/or ladder for signalmen to more safely come up and work on the signal head at night.  This is completely a guess and I have zero documentation or anecdotal evidence to back me up.  However, on a dark, cloudy night it might be a lot safer to know you're approaching the top of the ladder if you have to repair a signalhead...like on this signal at Henefer Utah:

Maybe somebody else in the TRW crew knows what it's for.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

So it is still a mystery.  My view on this is if that light was for platform illumination it would most likely be downward-facing and wouldn't need a hood to shade the lens from day/sun light.  To me that looks like a miniature version of one of the signal lights up front: shaded from ambient light and shining its beam straight out.

Hopefully someone here will come up with an explanation.

[nkalanaga]

I wonder if, maybe, it was to show trains, or more likely signal maintainers, approaching from the rear that the signal had power? 

I've noticed that a lot of newer crossing signals have train-facing lights to show when the highway-facing lights are flashing.

[C855B]

I wonder if, maybe, it was to show trains, or more likely signal maintainers, approaching from the rear that the signal had power?

Pretty much, but notice that its location is the back of the red indication. It is confirmation to train crews and other personnel viewing the back of the signal head (mostly at night) that it is indeed displaying a 'stop' aspect protecting your movement. IIRC, some roads including UP would leave it clear/white, a couple of others would install a blue or purple roundel as a distinction. I have some literature or ran across something online that showed the blue (or purple) lens.

[peteski]

Pretty much, but notice that its location is the back of the red indication. It is confirmation to train crews and other personnel viewing the back of the signal head (mostly at night) that it is indeed displaying a 'stop' aspect protecting your movement. IIRC, some roads including UP would leave it clear/white, a couple of others would install a blue or purple roundel as a distinction. I have some literature or ran across something online that showed the blue (or purple) lens.

That makes sense - thanks Mike!

[robert3985]

Pretty much, but notice that its location is the back of the red indication. It is confirmation to train crews and other personnel viewing the back of the signal head (mostly at night) that it is indeed displaying a 'stop' aspect protecting your movement. IIRC, some roads including UP would leave it clear/white, a couple of others would install a blue or purple roundel as a distinction. I have some literature or ran across something online that showed the blue (or purple) lens.

Thanks Mike!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  Thank you!  I'd never heard of doing that, but it certainly makes sense.  With semaphores it was obvious what the opposing traffic saw.  With light signals it's invisible, and with diesels one can't really on the oncoming trains smoke.

How long have roads been doing this?  As long as they've had light signals, and modelers simply never noticed?  Or is it a relatively new thing?

[C855B]

I'd have to search deeply for it, but IIRC the US&S signals had this feature available at least in the 1920s or '30s. You're exactly right (and I didn't think of it!), it must have been to serve a similar purpose as the back view of a semaphore. I can guess it was a "sales feature" to assure skeptics that they didn't lose anything but mechanical maintenance by adopting the newfangled color-light-only system.

It was an optional feature that not all roads adopted, so its use was inconsistent.

[dcutting]

I've finished the first test target. Those LED's were a pain to paste and locate but I finally got it. The results - I think they're pretty good. The colors aren't showing up perfectly on my camera, but for me they look close enough. I'm not sure how much I could do short of installing three separate RGB lights and then having to deal with non-convergence issues. 

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Once the LED's are centered in the "lenses" using a pick-and-place machine instead of my shaky tweezers, I think we'll be about as close as we can get to pulling this off. Oh yeah, and the PCB needs to get thinner. The thickness that I'm going to use on the production units is 0.5 mm.

I've also devised a jig to pre-solder the wires in place, so that will be done before the boards are shipped. That will allow us to test the boards easier. All you have to do is cut the board off the frame using a cut-off wheel in your dremel.

I'm working on getting the 3D printed parts produced, and the stainless ladders, hoods, and platforms are in production as well. I'll have some more (really exciting) news regarding a new toy that I'm planning to get in the next few weeks to produce the parts soon. In the next day or two I also hope to share the results of my new searchlight signal bases that will also be used on the Vader signals. The masts will be fully removable from the layout.

Regarding the larger targets for the UP signals, I can offer them at a slightly higher unit cost. If all goes as planned I should also be able to offer the 3D printed parts needed to build one as well. For the modern ones I'v managed to keep the cost of the heads (in an 8-pack) to exactly $6.00 and in a two pack to $7.50. I'd say I could probably keep the per-head cost to $7.00 in sets of 8.

David

[C855B]

... Regarding the larger targets for the UP signals, I can offer them at a slightly higher unit cost. If all goes as planned I should also be able to offer the 3D printed parts needed to build one as well. ...

Yes! Thank you! Bring it on. Your access to pick-and-place beats my hand fabrication any day of the week.

(Many thanks for your persistence on this!)

[dcutting]

I built up one tonight... there's a couple of minor kinks that are easily ironed out.



That means it's finally time to make these available to all. The wait is over. Everything you need is now available to order over at my site: http://www.cescalemodels.com/n-color-signal

The parts that have minimums are the heads and decoders... ~250 and ~50, respectively. We should be able to meet that pretty easily.

In addition, I've developed my idea for decoder mounts. I'm not sure how they will be received, but they are available. Please make sure to check them out as well. For the extender cables on those, I think the best option is to buy pre-crimped wires and housings from Pololu. I can link to that if needed.

David

[dcutting]

The wait is over. Everything you need is now available to order over at my site: http://www.cescalemodels.com/n-color-signal

In addition, I've developed my idea for decoder mounts. I'm not sure how they will be received, but they are available. Please make sure to check them out as well. For the extender cables on those, I think the best option is to buy pre-crimped wires and housings from Pololu. I can link to that if needed.

Pre-orders should extend to January 1st, 2017. I'm pretty confident I can reach the relatively low minimums needed to make these happen.

David

[peteski]

Nice photo-etched ladder. What diameter is the mast?  It seems a bit chunky in the photo.

[John]

Nice photo-etched ladder. What diameter is the mast?  It seems a bit chunky in the photo.

See his webpage ... at the bottom

[dcutting]

Nice photo-etched ladder. What diameter is the mast?  It seems a bit chunky in the photo.

The mast is actually prototypical scaled... it’s a 1/16” brass tube, usually the masts were pretty large on these.

[John]

David ..the decoder board I assume accepts standard NMRA switch commands from the bus?  Will it work with JMRI CATS?  It might be more cost effective than getting another digitrax board