Derek Mundy

This is a revised version of a two-part article which appeared in the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society's magazine www.lyrs.org.uk

What little I know about Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway signalling is only what I have researched and collated over the years, in order to build signals for other friends. So it has been a pleasure to have been given a project, the start of which coincided with my stint of demonstrating at the York show at Easter time, because I was able to pick the brains of those nice chaps who staff the L & Y stand over the three days of the show.

I had been given a job to do for Richard Clark, who is both an LYR Society and Guild member. Having done the article for the L & YR Magazine, I was asked if I could adapt it for the Gazette, which I am happy to do.

The project involved researching and building a right hand bracket, similar to the one in the L & Y signalling book on page 31, which was at a place called Hipperholme.

The other set of signals was a gallows bridge affair which graced the exit of a tunnel mouth. Both were to be used on Richard’s layout, as additions to others which I had built previously.

I penned a few notes as I went along, and I have taken a number of photographs, which, with the addition of a few comments to each photo, I hope may be of help to anyone contemplating signals for their own L&YR layout; or indeed any other company, as the processes for all are very similar and just require the application of the style of whatever company you happen to be modelling.

Although these notes relate to signals in 7mm scale and do not attempt to slavishly follow the prototype, they are rather looking for the flavour of the line, and ease of operation and reliability. I always create a working drawing to full size before I begin a job. I feel that this is essential to ensure clearances and appearance are satisfactory, to save unpicking work at a later date. Invariably I scan a copy and email it to the person for whom I am modelling, for prior approval.

General Specifications

The posts are white metal and items like finials and lamps are cast brass. The latter usually have a horizontal 3mm hole for the lamp. This requires reaming out and cast brass is quite hard material. A taper reamer is the tool of choice.

Lighting is by 3mm diameter light emitting diodes (LEDs) with inbuilt resistors. This is important, otherwise you would require a separate resistor in line. They will run off 12V DC though I suggest using lower voltage so that the light is not too bright. The long leg is positive and requires a fine insulated wire soldered to it. This wire is, in turn, glued to the rear of the post, sometimes in a groove, and down through the baseplate, terminating on a piece of copper-clad PCB. If a tubular post signal is being modelled, an exit hole can be drilled near to the lamp and the wire fed through to the base. Solder it to a temporary pull-through wire. The shorter negative tag of the LED is conveniently soldered to the cast white-metal post. A 3mm wide strip of brass is soldered to the inside of the 16mm diameter brass tube fixed under the baseplate. This strip provides a strain relief. Two stronger leads are taken from these connections to provide under-baseboard tags and have a piece of heat shrink tube to keep it all tidy. (See Photo 5 later)

Arms and other fittings and ladders are etched brass. Anything else is scratch built from raw material as I go along. Scale signal supply or MSE (Wizard Models) usually supply what I need.

My signals are usually mounted on a length of 16mm diameter brass tube, sufficient to match the thickness of the client’s baseboard and to register with a similar sized hole in the servo chassis which I supply. All of the operating gubbins pass through this tube, again shown in Photo 5. When all of the structural work is completed, the whole model is squirted with ‘Cillit Bang’ cleaner and carefully agitated with a half inch paint brush, and finally rinsed under the tap and allowed to dry.

When bone dry, the fronts of the LEDs are masked with a small piece of Blu Tack, prior to a rattle can spray of white undercoat over the whole thing. When this has dried, painting of posts etc and any white finishes is undertaken with enamel. The bottom 4ft 6in of the post is usually black. Exceptions were Midland and LNWR, which, prior to 1920 were bauxite.

I usually mask off the white stripes or chevrons on the fronts of signal arms, with sticky tape cut to scale 10in width. I also spray or paint a length of this material, black, tacked down to an old rubber cutting mat, and from this, I cut 10in widths or chevrons to fix on to the reverse of the arms.

A final spray of light varnish preserves the paintwork. For this I use an aerosol can of Ellnet hairspray. If it’s good enough for hair, it’s good enough for signals. I have used it for modelling purposes for many years and let’s face it, it’s wasted on me!

Progressing the Right-hand Bracket Signal

The photos show the sequence of events.

1. A working drawing is first made, full size at the chosen scale.

2. Next the parts are laid out and prepared.

3. The horizontal trimmers are soldered to the underside of the walkway. With the main post fixed between them and held square, the outer short doll can be fixed and the prepared bracket put in place.

4. The cast brass finial is fitted. I usually pre tin the casting and solder into position. The lamp case may need drilling out to clear 3mm diameter for the LED and with a heat sink clipped to the tag, the short tag is soldered to the post and the longer one has an insulated wire soldered to it. Failure to clip a heatsink to the tag, will blow the led during soldering.

5. At the foot of the post, a 16mm diameter tube is fitted to the baseplate. The baseplate needs to be sufficient to fix the ladder in place. Laddering is made from the MSE jig built kit, which takes me about an hour to make. Wire rungs 0.4mm are soldered into 0.6 mm diameter holes. A pre formed etched ladder can be used but they do not have such a convincing profile. The operating rod and the primary lighting wire are taken down through the baseplate. The spectacle frames are double laminated in the Scale Signal Supply type, which makes fixing the glazing, easier, later on.

6. The balance weights are dummy in this instance, and operation is by a balanced lever which can just be seen underneath the walkway. Note that some arms are pivoted through the post and some have a bearing to the side. Refer to a good photo of the prototype before you start and note it in your working drawing.

The Gallows Bracket Signal

We now turn our attention to a gallows signal bridge and bracket which was to be placed outside a tunnel mouth, as per a prototype.

7. Just as in the previous case, all of the components are set out against a full size sketch of the job to be built. This is shown in the photograph. Notice that the important dimension is that from rail head to the underside of the walkway of the gallows signal, seen from inside the tunnel. If there is insufficient clearance, either the signal or the chimney of your loco will come to grief on first contact. Getting all of the vertical and horizontal components square to one another is vitally important, before you go ahead with detail work.

8. The horizontal timber baulk was made from a suitable box section brass tube, with an ‘I’ section beam soldered across the underside at the centre, for a queen post and a similar beam at each end, with a truss rod taking the strain on either side, back and front.

9. This photo shows the structure with most of the soldering work completed. Ladders were made as described earlier. Notice that they are fixed to opposite sides of the post. The lighting wires are also evident in this shot. They are secured with a thick superglue, which masks their presence when painted. The wire lies quite flat and is Hornby lighting wire, two wire stranded.

10. Because the home and distant arms were tight up against the masonry of the tunnel entrance, back sighting boards were placed behind the arms to aid visibility. Such boards are variously placed on separate posts, or often fixed to the offending stone structure to the rear of the arms. In this instance, there were fixings to the post itself. The items were made by marking out an arc which mimicked the arc of the end of the arm, with the ends rounded off as in the prototype. Some brackets and a few bolt heads completed the job.

11.This shows a close up of the home and distant arms, both of early pattern, and the associated drive rods.

12. Ladders were made exactly as before and these tied in with the rear of the stop arm on the post and a walkway suspended from the gallows doll and the opposite main post. The walkway was provided with treads which were made from some MDF items, laser cut in one piece, which I have made for me.

13. It will be seen in this photo that there is a symbol attached to the gallows doll, which is D-shaped, and has a hole in its centre. This is an indication to the driver, that the arm is not track circuited and when held at the signal at danger, the fireman should go to the bottom of the post and push a plunger, which alerts the signal man to the presence of a train, stopped at that signal. Painting followed the same procedure as before, but in this instance, I had a distant arm to decorate.

14.This shows a slice of painted black Scotch tape which is lightly fixed to the cutting mat. An etched distant arm is placed over it and this provides a template for cutting the tape to size accurately. The Vee notch is quite hard to cut equidistantly, so I recommend this method. Pull rods disappear down the sides of the relevant posts, as do the lighting wires, terminating in strain relief tags and stronger wiring below the baseboards.

After painting, the spectacles were glazed and the whole item weathered with powders, as the structure would get quite dirty at its chosen location.

The last two photographs show the front and the rear of the signal bridge prior to installation on the layout, and connection to the operating servos.

If you are still with me after reading all of this and you feel inspired to have a go at building some signals for your own layout, or even building one as a standalone item, then all is not in vain.