# Signal Bridge



## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Today I had some fun and wasted the afternoon at the LHS. What a great time!:thumbsup: One of the first thing I did was to investigate the automated newstand and took some pictures. The information is already posted. 

Now I have a small project a bridge and tower to relight. The tower is some kind of kit and the bridge appears to be home built except for the lamp heads. First the tower.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

For a quick fix I slimed some XMas LEDs down to fit.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

This is what the bridge looks like. The lampheads are on top and are obstructed from a railing. I am planning to relocate them in the middle and have two facing each direction.

This is for a friend. SOme day I will get a bridge in there. It looks good sitting there.:thumbsup:













The plan mount under the top.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Cool looking signal bridge, T! Clever custom work on someone's part. It'll be nice to see you get it operational.

Enjoy the Christmas holiday!

TJ


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

It is cool looking.:thumbsup:

What is it made out of brass & wood? All brass?
It looks homemade, I wonder if a kit ever existed?

I think the lights would look better up top if the railing was lower.
But they will look good underneath too.

How about a couple of yard lights on the top instead?
Along with the signals on the bottom?
A couple old search lights custom mounted?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Thanks guys! The bridge is brass. I thought of notching the railing. I saw that in a google image. The yard light would be a nice touch. You always have good suggestions. I could lower the rail buy cuting the top and adding the rail underneath. That may be possible. The inside has globs of solder guess the iron was not too hot.

Here are some tower shots for scale id.



















Now I am thinking of shortening the LEDs in the lamp head. The gold is just a trial. I have to save the red and greens.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

T-Man said:


> Today I had some fun and wasted the afternoon at the LHS. What a great time!:thumbsup:



Like a kid in a candy store, huh T Man.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Did you check out the dumpster before you left?:thumbsup:


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

His goodie corner was walled in with boxes. Some other time. 

He has 50% off box and tells me he added to it every time I walk in. Never did see a garbage can.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

T-Man said:


> His goodie corner was walled in with boxes. Some other time.
> 
> He has 50% off box and tells me he added to it every time I walk in. Never did see a garbage can.


That is why you never see a garbage can, he sees you coming and hurries up and dumps it in the 50% off box.

Mine has a box like that too, it has different stuff in it every time I go there but not too many broken pieces just items people bring in.
Fun to look through.:thumbsup: Good prices too.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Here are some close ups. If you can buy the parts it should not be all that hard to do. I did clean up some of the bumps with a dremel.



















Opps a snowstorm.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

The plan to place the light heads. The frame is striped and I am cleaning up some of the excess solder.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

I like that spot better then inside on the bottom, matter of fact I like that spot better then the original spot on top.:thumbsup:

To bad it wasn't yours that would look good on your table.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I will be checking out brass displays in the future. 

Here is the first conduit. Originally it was all grounded through the frame. Nowadays each light should have a ground. If you wanted to go with circuits all the lights are independent. WIthout a specific use or plan it gives the owner flexibility. It just adds a lot of wire.

I made some minor repairs to the railling and crossmembers. I use copper wire as a conduit bracket.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*Paint*

It is interesting to note that most of the solder is hidden by rails so it is inside. The top railing is lacking, It needs more pole support. The height is right. I would drill ae hole to set each of the poles and solder from underneath. Also the rails against the deck are soldered all the way across. It caused some warping at the ends. A few good solder points would of held it nicely. SO far so good.











I found this on an image search

This is close in style to what I have.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*Time to dream*


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

They look good there.

Maybe the handrail up top was put on with the intent on making it look like a cable, instead of a solid handrail?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

It was the best I could do to straighten them. If I do a handrail it will be with copper wire and wound around the poles.

The railing took more damage. Feeding the wire into the tube was not easy.

I did notice on one desig that the center bars were parrallel v's when looking through. I like the x pattern made by two v'sfrom one on each side.


The latest after rewiring.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Boy, you're goin' to town with that rewire, huh? Tedious work, I'm sure ... not much room to route wires up under all of that truss work.

A fun redo, T ... 

Makes you think about whoever made it in the first place, though, huh? He could have been a great member here on MTF!

TJ


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## rrbill (Mar 11, 2012)

He must've had a lot of time on his hands.


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## Kwikster (Feb 22, 2012)

I think if T-man builds one it will be held together with JB-Weld as opposed to solder  Time to buy more stock in the company :laugh:

Nice work, though I must admit. Lots of time and patience. End result is muchly improved.

Carl


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Too bad you couldn't have bent a longer piece of the light tubing at the top and get it over to the lights, then just drop the wires down behind the signals. The signals themselves would hide the dropped down wires. 

Paint the wires black? Might hide them some?

Or maybe black shrink tube?

Or do you have a plan?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I didn't have a small enough bender for the radius. I tried.

More paint and adjustment to come. I am looking at an operating board for it now.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

How about piece of one of those flexible drinking straws up top.
Just put the wires in and paint it black.
The flexible straws that have the bend built in.

Just a thought.

If you want you could epoxy the straw to the top of the tube that you have.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I used that on the Thomas shed.

The wires got chewed a bit on the feed in the tube. The disadvantage of too many grounds. I hate to mess with them. Bend them too much and they break.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I got a second wind and moved some wires. WHat wires? They dissappeared. Too bad.





















There they are!!!!! You were right Ed the Bridgemaster.:thumbsup:


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

T-Man said:


> I found this on an image search
> 
> This is close in style to what I have.


I meant to comment on these.

The first link, they are nice but they are only HO and N scale no O.
The second link did not work.

The wires look fine tucked up under, I would paint them whatever color your going to paint it.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Try this the last one in G scale at hobby linc.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

They are all plastic?

I would rather have a metal or brass one.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Isn't that something. Plastic . A lot of them are out of stock too. The weight is really a nice feature.

It has been fun doing the bridge. I amlooking at a light control, pcb board. The transistor is kicking me. I am at the breadboard phase. I got sidetracked and cleaned up the two Marx cars.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

I didn't know you had a tube of wire-b-gone in your bag of tricks, T!


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*Operational question??*

I have an opposing set of target lights. One side will be red and the other will shine green. If I get fancy I may use just one button to control both,back and forth, The question is: what can I use for indicator lights at the button????? 
It is a direction lighting but I can't use red or green. Or can I?? DO I use two yellows one for each set and mark it north and south. 

It is an operation question. You do see one side at a time ,so facing the bridge I could use red and green but the other side is opposite in color.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, I think I'd just pick a direction and use red & green. If you really want to get fancy, use a bi-color red/green LED for each side and swap the colors to match the signal bridge.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*Light Controls*

I decided to build a light control system using two flip flop circuits. I powered it with a 12 volt regulator capable of using accessory power of any hobby transformer. On the signal bridge a flip flop will control two opposing target lights. Changing the light is done by two momentary switches.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

How about a schematic?


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

_Track-pressure_ momentary switches, T ??? Or simply manually controlled?

(Naive question on my part when it comes to this electro-circuit stuff.)

TJ


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

TJ, the switches are on the box with red and black buttons.
These four switches costs just as much as one toggle. Plus my system is digital. One day I wll figure out track detection and have automated lights. That has been the goal since I started making signal towers.

This project my first board has problems and I made this one yesterday. It works. I added a terminal for a 12DC output incase more towers are added.

Also I am working on trying to use one switch instead of two. Currently 
One switch turns a pair to green and red the othe turns it to red and green. The first color being on the first signal and the second color on the second signal.

For the circuit it is from the Bowden hobby site. Top of the page. The flip flop circuit using two transistors. The rest is resistors to make the LEDs work and the 12 volt regulator. Later, I can draw up the circuit , now I just need to finish the bridge.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Oh ... I see the switches in the box. Silly me ... missed that earlier, somehow. 

Cheers,

TJ


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*Oops*

Speaking of switches: Did you know they sell them normally open or closed?

Well I bought the closed, which doesn't help. Silly me. I didn't read the label.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*Road Map*










The correct buttons installed.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

I'm gettin' my popcorn ready ... can't wait to see the vid of this thing in action!


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*The Premier*

I fired it up. This is the fourth test run of the board. One, when it was built. The other two were the switches were fitted and the left side were connected to the bridge. This is the first time both sides are operated with the board.

I realy wanted to use one switch for each side but I am still trying t get ito work on the bread board. Next time. 

This Bridge is going to the Big E to be sold in two weeks. You may see it there!

The Video is being processed.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

*The Circuit Diagram*










Kinda small.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

T-Man,

That's fabulous! Love it.



T-Man said:


> This Bridge is going to the Big E to be sold in two weeks. You may see it there!


When I first read that, I thought you said "going to Big Ed"! Wink wink. Hey Ed ... need an awesome signal bridge for your layout?!? 

Hey, how are your selling at the E? Do you have a table, and/or are teaming up with someone with a table? Or are you simply cruisin' the crowd, flashing open your trench coat (so to speak)?!?

TJ


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Mike, of York Village, Me, owner of Trains and Slotcars will have a table.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Thanks, T.

I'm not sure if I can make the Big E this year ... busy weekend with kid stuff.

(Though I'm 100% confident you'll be scoutin' out a $20 1689 for me, right?!?!  )

TJ


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

A mirror would work better then your hand.
Nice job. :thumbsup:

Hmmm Big E? 
I knew I should have filed for my trademark for my name.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

The Exposition Area. Mike the vendor will be at the Better Living Center under York Village Marketplace. The good news is that my bridge has kin, about four or five more. Two are for three tracks. These are still all original. 

So far I am not planning to attend

Yeah a mirror.


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