Interested in a signal building group?

[Eddyg]

Dave
Photos of an Adlake 55/13 here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-RAILW ... 1695314548.

Some quick googling reveals Adlake id the trading name of Adams and Westlake of Chicago who must rival ACME in the variety of their products.Lamps, locks, cameras - you name it they appear to make it since 1857 and still going!

Eddie

[Dave Noble]

Thanks for the link Eddy. I found quite a few pictures too, and today received some brochures on some of the Adlake lamps. This is a type 6013.

Adlake 6013

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It seems to be a cast version of the 55, it has exactly the same burner inside, except it has a slit for the backlight rather than an adjustable lens. When I look at it I keep thinking LNER. If no-one knows better, I'm tempted to go for this one, being cast it should be easier for us to copy, and there are basic dimensions on the back of the brochure. Any thoughts?

They were made, presumably under license, by Lamp Manufacturing and Railway Supplies Ltd of London and then Dorking.

I received some laser cut signal parts yesterday, a few trial pieces for backblinders, latest servo base, fabricated spectacle plate (just for a change), front arms (the lever bolted to the spectacle plate which is pulled by the wire) and crank base plate. If they work out I'll get more. Rumour has it that Ben has finished another base and is having some steel patterns made. There should be something to show at the meeting at Ben's on Saturday 14th.

FURTHER JOBS. Would anyone like to have a look at LEDs and paint, to determine which LEDs, on which voltage regulator, shining through which paint, will give the right red and green? I'm thinking of using 0.5mm acrylic (Perspex) for the glasses as real glass proved to be prohibitively expensive. Hopefully Chris will be able to cut it for us.

[Eddyg]

Dave,
My loco lamps use warm white LEDs from http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEDs-Warm-Whi ... xyHntSaBZh. I power them with 2 x AG4 batteries and they run for a day at least. If you are powering them from a 12v supply you will need to put in the supplied ballast resistor. I guess the warm white is more like the oil lamp flame colour so the spectacle for the green will need to tend towards the blue as in full size. I don't suppose the red will be a problem.

Eddie

[Richard Phillips]

Just a note to add as we're powering the boards/servos, it looks like we going to need a "daughterboard" to hold the voltage regulator(s), we'll need a tap off to power the arduino and servos, as well as the lamps, so we'll have to join up some of the electronics if we're going ahead with modbus (needs an additional IC chip) to send all the signal instructions around.

[Eddyg]

Dave,

I've had a go at colouring some perspex today. I had some cheap translucent acrylic paint and even with 6 coats, visibly thick, my headlamp showed a yellowy orange through the red, although the green and alternate coats of green and blue might be considered passable. Had I shone the light through the liquid paint in the transparent plastic pot I would have realised I was wasting my time because 10mm thickness of liquid paint didn't give a satisfactory result. I then went on to try permanent markers. Of Verbatim CD markers, Promarkers and Sharpys, the Sharpy was the most promising, the red showing a true red when the perspex was coated both sides and the green quite satisfactory, again coated both sides. No doubt you will have a go yourself.

Regards

Eddie

[Scrat]

Why not use coloured perspex. The stuff is available here.
I use it when restoring old O-gauge Signals.
If warm white LEDs are used, there is no problem.
Only the cold white LEDs with their slightly bluish light look strange.
If you need any of the coloured perspex, send me a PM

[Dave Noble]

Hi Scrat,
I've searched the net for coloured Perspex and acrylic and could only find it down to 3mm thick which is no good for us. However, following your post, I've researched and eventually come across Hesaglas, is that what you mean? There only seems to be one outlet in this country. I've ordered some samples, and we'll see how it turns out.

[David Hale]

Hello Dave.

Have you considered lighting gels as used as filters for stage lighting? Maybe it's too thin.

There appear to be lots of suppliers. I just looked at the following.

http://www.stagedepot.co.uk

Best wishes
David.

[Dave Noble]

Thanks for the info David, I'll give them a try. I'd never have thought of looking for gel when I wanted a filter!

[Scrat]

Hi Dave,

the stuff I have is a bit less than 1mm.
If you want to give it a try, let me know.

[Richard Phillips]

Doug supplied some for his ground disc signal kit, turquoise colour, I seem to remember him referencing it in his articles in Engineering in Miniature. Of note perhaps is that those old style 3D glasses with the red and blue-ish lenses aren't too far off, but the cheap lenses are film not thicker plastic

[Keith1500]

deleted

[steamysteve]

Richard,
I could help with the 'U' bolts. Are they all the same size or are there different widths or lengths? If you can send me a drawing with all dimensions and preferred material I'm sure I could ease the burden!

Steve.

[Richard Phillips]

Richard,
I could help with the 'U' bolts. Are they all the same size or are there different widths or lengths? If you can send me a drawing with all dimensions and preferred material I'm sure I could ease the burden!

Steve.

I don't have drawings either - anyone? To my knowledge there would be two distinct lengths because of the diameters of the posts, Dave, are there any dimensions so we can get on with this - depends on how the work divides up, one could do the longer length, one person the shorter, or one person thread the wire, one person bend it? I have got some work to do on the control software, so I'm happy to contribute or not, but the more we share the work out the quicker it goes and more involved the group becomes I guess.

I doubt I can make the "next" meeting, but if/when is it?

[Dave Noble]

I'll post U bolt sizes later, could Steve make a bender, I can send sample tubes. It needs to produce bends of exactly the right size as some of the parts being fastened will be quite delicate and won't stand the load involved in pulling up a wrongly radiussed U bolt, so some experimenting may be needed. Who should I send the welding rod to?

[Richard Phillips]

I can fairly easily thread rod - I have some welding rod, but we best stick with a consistent supply so it's all the same if you're the quartermaster Dave

I have a post you gave me at Gilling - I would guess the exact length of rod for the U-bolt will be calculated by maths or by empirical means...?

[steamysteve]

Yes, I could either modify an existing bending tool or make something specifically for the job. I do need to know the dimensions and material. I note Richard is also asking the question as to whether there is a drawing yet? If you could send me a sample of the tube(s) and some welding rod I could make a start.

We need to know what is being bolted to the posts. The picture below may give some indication. Perhaps the bits to be bolted on are saddles which fit on the tubes?
http://bit.ly/1MXj5ba
(Scroll down to the pictures of the signals.)

[Dave Noble]

Just to keep you up to date, Ben has printed some of the signal castings on his 3D printer to prove the designs and this has enabled me to get a bit more together.

PB250046.JPG (49.39 KiB) Viewed 23791 times

You can see how the grey "castings" are all attached to the post with U bolts. The arm is laser cut steel and of course needs flanging over, but I'm thinking of having them photo etched to give a finer appearance, and to save making folders.

PB250047.JPG (58.46 KiB) Viewed 23791 times

The backlight blinder is laser cut steel and fastened to the arm with M1 bolts, a bit small but, using 12BA would mean making the whole thing quite a bit heavier than it should be. The ladder bolts are 12BA and appear to be significantly larger. I also used M1 to fasten the operating arm and spectacle plate to the end of the spindle. I've machined a batch of spindles from bronze. The spectacle plate is a copy of the fabricated version with a flanged over bottom and the top two flanges soldered on. I have two more laser cut and folded blanks if anyone wants to use them instead of the more common pressed version. This version does look slightly odd, just like the real thing. Ben has ordered some 3D printed metal versions of these resin castings to potentially use as patterns, and they should arrive any time I'm told.

PB250048.JPG (52.38 KiB) Viewed 23791 times

This shows the balance lever arrangement, the grey parts are again resin bits from Ben. Alan has soldered all the bushes into the balance levers and cranks, thanks. There should of course be a crank between the servo and balance lever, but I've not made the mounting for that yet. However, the signal does operate from the sevo without problems. I don't know what the motion will eventually be like, the upper "wire" is only a piece of cotton thread, but it damps out the jitters from the servo very effectively! For Richard and Steve, these U bolts started out as 58mm long pieces of welding rod but were only crudely bent to shape, so I think somewhere between 57 and 58mm would be fine for these ones. We will need 30 for starters. Steve, I'm sending a parcel to you tomorrow with some welding rod and pieces of post material (and the other things we were talking about) in it. Ben is well on with the production run of bases I believe, and hopefully Jonny and Richard are working their way through the programming.

[Eddyg]

Dave,

I've sent Ben and you a PM re his four ladders requesting a delivery address. Could someone respond please so I can get them posted please?

Eddie

[Dave Noble]

Eddie,

I've sent you a reply, for some reason although it says it's been sent, it is sitting the outbox, not the sent box. I don't understand. If you've not received it please let me know.

Dave.