PRR/Conrail Juniata Division Engineering Report

[Scottl]

That is great.  It makes the old one look like HO.

[DKS]

That is great.  It makes the old one look like HO.

IIRC, NJ International used to sell these signals as HO/N...

[Dave V]

IIRC, NJ International used to sell these signals as HO/N...

They were definitely labeled as N when I bought them, but wow...  Not even close.  I get it, the whole grain-of-wheat bulb technology, but when the signal head greatly exceeds the width of the track or the smokebox of a locomotive, you're kinda outside the safe zone.

[Dave V]

The old, oversized signals...



This is how it looks now.  The signals are a bit dim; I'm using 1kohm resistors...  I can probably cut that at least in half, as I'm using 560 ohms on the common annode too.  If that sounds excessive, toasting my first one 5 years ago made me a little gun-shy!

[Ian MacMillan]

Now if we could just get this track replaced

Dave. I know you havent done a show in a while. Any plans with all the upgrades?

[Dave V]

Now if we could just get this track replaced

Dave. I know you havent done a show in a while. Any plans with all the upgrades?

No...  It's pretty tight back in the back room.  Maybe next assignment if it's easier to move.

[Dave V]

The photo probably doesn't show it well, but the signals are now much brighter. 330 Ohms on the common anode and 270 on the leads... Looks just right for my eye.  Not headlight-bright, but clearly visible to the naked eye even from a slight angle.



Nothing says Pennsy quite so much as an N5c cabin car with Trainphone antennas braced by a pair of position light signals...

[davefoxx]

Looks great, Dave.  Another big improvement that I notice is that the new signals do not leak light out of the back of the signal head like the old ones did.  Me likey.

DFF

[Dave V]

Looks great, Dave.  Another big improvement that I notice is that the new signals do not leak light out of the back of the signal head like the old ones did.  Me likey.

DFF

No, but unless you add styrene and/or putty, they will leak lights out of the sides.  Easy fix, though.

[Ian MacMillan]

Those are looking pretty damn good in that scene now. To see the side by side shot it really shows how much those old NJ ones were taking away from the scene.

[Dave V]

 

Confession time...!  I had one of those bolt-upright-in-bed moments last night when I realized on all 3 signals I've installed so far, I wired the "restricting" aspect into the "approach" connector for the signal animators.  In other words, where most railroads have "yellow," the Pennsy had a diagonal row of lights.  In Pennsy-land, the diagonal for "approach" goes from bottom left to top right.  I wired mine all going top right to bottom left, or "restricting," a relatively rare indication that most Pennsy signals were not even equipped to display (but Bernies' can).

Sounds like an easy fix, right?  For one of them it is.  I can swap the one lead for the other and done.  The other two signals have no working lead #6 (I mistakenly was using lead #4 as approach).  For the first signal I built, I believe that was the lead I toasted testing the head with a DC source inadvertently switched to pulse power (D'OH!).  The other signal, the lead came unsoldered from the back of the signal head during assembly.  For that latter signal, it's since been completely assembled and painted with the lead I thought I didn't need pretty much separated from the head and the soldering point obscured by paint and other details.  Well, can't I just rotate the LED board on the signal head casting so stop is now clear?  Yeah, if I hadn't used enough medium-viscosity ACC glue to weld an anvil to the ceiling...   

Ah, well...  Now, if it bothers me long term, for those two signals I could have the signal driver skip "restricting" by splitting the clear or stop leads into the "approach" connector.  So then, the signal drops after the loco passes and stays dropped for 20 seconds after the last car and then jumps back to clear.  Or I can enjoy some really cool animated signals and not think too hard about it.

Either way, Bernie, if you're following along and you ever decide to re-release these, I'm in for a few more.  Hell, I'd stockpile a bunch for the future basement monster.

[C855B]

..."restricting," a relatively rare indication...

Probably not as rare as "Lower pantographs for phase change."

I feel your pain on the wiring glitch.

[Dave V]

The signals in action:

[Philip H]

Nice.  Did you upgrade your detection circuits yet?  If not, how'd the old logic take the new targets?

[DKS]

In Pennsy-land, the diagonal for "approach" goes from bottom left to top right.  I wired mine all going top right to bottom left, or "restricting,"...

Um... as described, these are one in the same. Did you mean to say you'd wired yours from top left to bottom right?