For those of you who have added 1:1 scale railroad items such as signals or crossing lights to your backyard garden ornaments, what is involved? For example, I assume they need to be rewired to work on household power and spare parts may be difficult / expensive to obtain. What has been your experience and aside from having a very understanding spouse and neighbors, what do you recommend doing before considering purchasing such an item?

Thanks for any information.

Jason

My searchlight out back is running off a basic power supply, a DROK voltage regulator, a few relays and a model railroad traffic light controller, pretty bullet proof system, and has been ticking away for almost 3 years.

Let's see some pictures. Signals are such an underappreciated part of preservation. Definitely looking forward to seeing some of the set ups you guys have!

While I'm not a signal owner, here are some things to consider:

People like to steal anything which isn't difficult to move. Secure it well! And you may want to consider vandalism, too.

You may need a foundation, depending on size of signal. A dwarf might not need much, but a crossbuck requires something more, a tall semaphore or searchlight or similar perhaps requires a bit more, and a cantilever or bracket needs at even more foundation work!

Lightning protection is your friend! A friend who is a signal engineer for a US class-1 railroad says lightning strikes are common, and masts and bungalows, rail, and other signaling equipment are often "targets of opportunity". Installing and maintaining lightning protection devices is important, as is proper "grounding" of equpment.

All that being said, there may be a "window of opportunity" to get your hands on older signaling hardware which is being swapped out as part of PTC installation. That window is closing quite quickly, though. Often, when PTC is installed, relays, power supplies, lightning protection, etc. is removed, wholesale - often the entire relay case or bungalow is swapped.

If you are in the right place at the right time, you might be able to score a battery charger and set of edison batteries, suitable current-limiting resistors, and lighthing protection devices. Perhaps even a relay case. Thru convenient timing, good relationships, and a RR company willing to make a charitable donation, I was able to acquire a relay case, chargers, some relays, lightning protection and batteries for another RYPN contributor.

From an electrical perspective: Be aware that not all signals are electrically equal. Different installations can use different voltages and require various amounts of current. Number of signal heads and/or semaphore mechanisms influences this. But remember that railroads orignally ran signals via "local batteries", without "pole line power". So these things tend not to take huge amounts of current. This means that one can generally figure out a way to activate a signal using modern, "off-the-shelf" electronic products.

It can help to have information about the "control circuit" which was used to control the signal, but a smart researcher can "figure out" the electrical characteristics of most any signal hardware. Often, the signal hardware electrical characteristics can be determined by reading manuals for the hardware - often available on the internet. Signal lamps vary a bit, so examining the lamp's markings will generally reveal a voltage rating or a lamp model number which can be looked-up on-line.

It is a good ida to have some spare bulbs. Signal bulbs tend to be rather specialized in form-factor. For good or for bad, the move to PTC seems to be bringing in wholesale move to LED lamps. This will make signal lamps harder to come by as in-service older hardware becomes more rare.

And if you are going to "save" a signal, you might want to put a goodly amount of effort into cleaning it up and protecting it for the future. A good media-blasting and paint-job is a good investment into such protection.

Regards,
Bob Milhaupt

Couple thoughts....

Seems to me that signal bulbs are generally 10V. Making a power supply shouldn't be very difficult. I have a 110V/12V transformer from a signal box. Once rectified and filtered it'll get you around 10V. Bulbs are still available if your're going to be historically accurate. Or convert to soft white, bright LED using an old bulb base and a dropping resistor. Just put the LED at the same distance from the reflector that the bulb filament was. Using LEDs makes it easier to make a circuit to directly drive them if you wanted to cycle through aspects.

Foundation-wise, the depth and diameter can be calculated for your specific area and sonotubes with rebar and mounting bolts used to cast the concrete. That's how we set up our signal display (not wired up yet) - crossing lights, search light, PRR PL, etc.

As our resident public insurance adjuster, I advise anyone who is setting this stuff up to be sure to review with your agent. On a homeowner's policy, depending if you have it indoors or out will determine if it's either an other structure or a content. Regardless, since it is exotic and has unusual value get it appraised and schedule it. Don't end up in a worse pickle if it is struck by lightning or vandalized/stolen by having inadequate coverage.

I have always found signals to be one of the most fascinating aspects of railroading. My collection of switch stands is scattered through my yard with each setting on a pair of cuttoff ties on ballast. My twin head searchlight is set in 18" diameter by 48" deep cement. The searchlights run off 12v batteries. Keep in mind that most older, pre aluminum and plastic signals are VERY heavy. Iron, iron and more iron. So you have to have a way to lift them. I had to use my backhoe to set mine. Now I just need to find a CPL and maybe a semaphore.

I run my PL4 old style dwarf using common car bulbs and this controller (https://joezgarage.ecrater.com/p/118804 ... ontroller#) in our living room. Hook it up to a smart outlet and I can even use Alexa to turn it on and off.

I also have a full sized CPL but I haven't done much work on it, mostly because I don't know what I'm doing so instead of messing something up I just let it sit there. I'll get around to it eventually.

I found a 12v lead acid battery charger can handle running at least four lights on the hump yard signeal I restored.

Good point. A pal of mine, many years ago, laid a short curved section of track across his driveway, curved so a car entering couldn't see either end (and one end kept going toward a speeder shed). He had the yellow round RR crossing approach signs and crossbucks and had one set of dismantled crossing signals with flashers waiting to be restored and installed, all of which were bought legally from RRs.
Anyway, one day he comes home from work and sees some 30-somthings with a big truck taking down his signs. He blocks their truck with no way to get out, gets out of his SUV and not-so-politely askes what the ---- are they doing? They sneer at him, declare this is an 'abandoned' section of track so therefore they can take the signs because they know it's "not being used by the RR anymore," (never mind it was never an active rail line). He calls the cops and hilarity did not ensue. The judge sided with him of course but he decided against putting the flashers up. He did put up a hidden closed circuit camera and motion sensor and busted another group trying to steal the signs the following year (busted them, too, in time).
The second group also declared it was all 'abandoned' so therefore they had a right to it. The cops, again, didn't see it that way.

I came up with some US&S H2 searchlight signals. 4 to be exact. I cleaned up and gave away 3 of them, and kept one for myself.

They do take 10 volt bulbs. I had some 120 input/8 volt output transformers handy. I made up a powersupply using that transformer.
Inside those signal housings, in the circuitry, there is an adjustable resistor that you can use to adjust the intensity of the light from the bulb.

The electro-mechanical mechanism that controls the signal aspect... red/yellow/green... it seems to run just fine off the 8 volt powersupply, too.

One of the signals I gave to a local museum... I didn't include the power supply, but had a terminal strip wired in the control box at the base and labeled everything so all they had to do was get a regular old analog battery charger and use it for power.

I purchased some crossing signals, a crossing bell (that thing is loud!) and a crossbuck sign a few years ago, but haven't permanently installed them yet. I have them on a short piece of pipe, attached to a rolling stand, but it's just sitting in my garage.

I don't have a post to install them on, but I was just planning on getting a big piece of pipe that I will mount into the ground, probably somewhere by the upper end of my driveway. (Maybe off to the side, so it's not too visible from the road.) I don't plan to put them as high as a real crossing signal though, as that it really high.

I made a small alternating flashing circuit from a 555 timer chip, and was planning to just run 12v bulbs in the signal. I thought that adding a motion detection sensor to activate them would be cool, but probably annoying too!

But, at my current rate of getting projects completed, my kids will be grown and out of the house before I get around to installing this thing....

Hi all, NEW to this site and navigating around is also new to me.
Any how..I have recently "restored" and installed a working crossing signal in my yard.
Simple one..4 lights,two each way and a (loud)bell. I am running 12v out from a cheap 10a power supply. It has quit working,I guess you get what you pay for. MY QUESTION IS... What type of power supply would be good for running the 4 lights and the bell? I would also like to make the bulbs LED. I tried "standard" LED automotive bulbs that base is same but they did not work. ?? The sequencer (flasher) suggests LED bulbs for longer sequencer life ,but that incadesent is OK. Thanks in advance for any info to help with this. My main goal is to have an operational crossing set up. My "hobby" is making old items work as designed again. Thanks again for any info.

We use a 12V deep cycle marine battery on a solar charger for power. Lights are 12v LEDs, 18 watt equivalent automotive replacements. Flasher is from trafficlights.com. We’re currently using a RC relay with a handheld remote to trigger them on and off. Cost was pretty low. Eventually, we’ll add a timer and detectors for automatic operation.

Some notes: LEDs are polarity sensitive. Reverse the pos and neg and they won’t light. Incandescent bulbs don’t care about polarity but require a lot more current. Also, all your bulbs need to be wired in parallel. Your wire gauge should be sized to minimize voltage loss based on current draw depending on the length of the wire runs. The flasher we used has a 4 amp capacity so we went with LEDs so as not to break the bank on wire size.

As for a bell, there’s a digital version installed as the mast finial available for about $250. Low power consumption. I forget right off who makes it.