HO scale Signal Bridge

I have been looking for a cheap HO scale signal bridge for a future layout.. I would like one that you can change the colors on and not the DUMMY's sold by Bachmann and Life-Like...

anybody know where I can find them??

When you say, "change the colors," you mean with paint, right?

Also, what is your definition of "cheap"?

-otto-

It's worth keeping in mind that while the signal bridge itself is relatively inexpensive, making the lights in it change colors realistically is going to be where the real expense is.

Like was said, its the signals that are the expense. The signal bridges themselves can be had pretty cheap, if your looking for nothing certain.

Tomar makes signals
Or Oregon Rail Supply makes kits you build a tad cheaper,
Or you can have custom signals made by
Integrated Signal System

Your choice.

Ahh. Lights change color... otto. Ok... I am looking less than $30.

A signal bridge with lights that change color, you might be able to kitbash yourself for $30... but all the circuitry needed to drive the signals will cost far more.

-otto-

Ok... thanks.

Try this place. I had alot of success with him and highly recommend him. I had him build 4 cantilever signals to my own specs and he'll build pretty much anythng you want. 4 signals were about $85 if i recall


http://www.geocities.com/shilohsig/

- - - --- Mark

If you want cheap and you want to "Change The Colors" (I have to remember that one") if you're willing to tinker here's what you can try.

What you're looking for has yet to be designed for the RTR market.

SIDEBAR [Please don't knock the RTR market. It's catering not only to the All Thumbs group, but to the growing number of people who have declining eye sight, subsequently eye/hand coordination issues. The majority of people in this hobby are either in this group, or on the verge of involuntarily joining it.]

Go to IHC and get their dandy Universal Signal Bridge #5105, I bet you've already seen it;

http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cg ... 26YD15410A

Before you cry about it being $19.95, go find the same thing in brass, and you will really scream....... Once you make this purchase, you come to the proverbial modellers fork in the road.....

Select from the provided targets the style that fits your prototype and deal with wiring the thing up with LED's (If it's alien technology, there's always someone here who can help you with it.) OR, you can purchase some of MODEL POWER's lighted signals;

http://www.modelpower.com/site/519087/page/295955

Gut the lighting housings from the stands and mount them on the signal bridge, doing your best to extend and conceal the wiring. Signal bridges have all kinds of raillings and piping, allowing you to use small copper tubing or Plastruct shapes as a conduit for your wiring.

You have a choice of wiring the signal lights to change as the train passes, OR you can give a switch to a small child with the responsibility of "Changing The Colors" when the train goes by. It keeps them busy for hours!

Off the top of my head, that's the cheapest way I can think of doing it. Anybody else?

Dieter./

I always felt, due to the smallish size of things, up on the mast, that there has to be someone willing to commit to a fiber optics system, that would remotely mount the lamps, or LED's under the layout, and just running a single fiber, to each searchlight, on the mast, bridge or wherever. Much easier to hide a single fiber, than giant bundles of oversized wires. Even the thinnest wires are like waterpipes, in HO scale. The fiber can be routed realistically, and painted black, making it "disappear" on the bridge. Is there no manufacturer up to this challenge, or am I unaware of this being available now? Regards

I saw once in a really old (50s) book on model railroading to mount the light beneath the layout, and the signal mast would be hollow with a mirror positioned to diret the light out of the aspect. You could add a motor to it to change the indication color.

The only problem is that this is really only useful for single aspect signals.

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:I always felt, due to the smallish size of things, up on the mast, that there has to be someone willing to commit to a fiber optics system, that would remotely mount the lamps, or LED's under the layout, and just running a single fiber, to each searchlight, on the mast, bridge or wherever. Much easier to hide a single fiber, than giant bundles of oversized wires. Even the thinnest wires are like waterpipes, in HO scale. The fiber can be routed realistically, and painted black, making it "disappear" on the bridge.

Like this? http://www.1stplacehobbies.com/cgi-bin/ ... pn=183-231

Actually there have been many articles on fibre optic model signals, because of the obvious simplification of resources (light is over here, any size light you want, and you run one optic strand per light).
However, you can also use the signal bridge itself (if metal - brass/copper/aluminium) as the common ground (return), and therefore you need have only one wire to each LED (or bulb, if you wish) - the other leg is soldered to the bridge structure (mast/strut/whatever) and one common wire for the entire bridge light system (3/6/12/whatever lights - make it a heavy wire as it may carry a lot of current) is the return (kind of like old cars which have one wire to the headlight, and the car body acts as the ground/return to the negative on the battery - not sure if the newer (and eventually 48V) systems use this concept still, particularly with LED lighting (yep, full size) and computer control of door locks/windows/climate control/etc.).
Then the wires could be in theory even thinner than fibre optic (well, maybe not since the resistance would be too high, and the voltage drop too great, but the wire would probably bend and shape better).
Of course, if you're modeling some sort of searchlight signal which uses one target to display red/green/amber/clear... yeah, the fibre optic strand with switchable bulbs will definitely beat LED & wiring.

SIR RAY said: "Like this? [url]http://www.1stplacehobbies.com/cgi-bin/ ... pn=183-231[/url"


Yeah, that's what I had in mind, although it would be nice to see it offered as just the heads, and lights, so I could make any type of signal, I needed(bridge, multiple heads, pot signals, semaphores, etc) Thanks for that link.........

Here's the clickable...
FIBER OPTIC SIGNALS

For the do-it-yourselfers, you can buy some cheap Xmas decorations, that contain many feet of fibre optic strands. Should be fairly simple to run them down through the layout table, and point a few bulbs at the ends of the strands. You might even be able to mount a cheap Model power signal under the table, and glue the fibre optic strands to the tip of the bulbs, and run them up and into another signal on top of the layout.