N Scale Signals

I've always been impressed with layouts that have lots of signals.  But then I've also been quickly overwhelmed with the complexity of wiring a working signal system.  Since my layout's not very large, DCC does all that I need and various 'block' control techniques would only add more (unnecessary for me) complexity to the layout.

However, having recently adopted the BCD Switch system by George Stilwell to replace my Kato 'big blue' switches and to create a control panel with LED indications of switch positions, I took advantage of this wiring opportunity to also add in 'signals' at the turnouts themselves.

Creating these signals had some restrictions.  The BCD circuit requires 2-pole LED's, which means that adding off-the-shelf signals (with one common and at least several leads for other signal indications) was not an option.  As with many things in this hobby, sometimes you have to figure out a way to do things yourself.

I was able to easily find red/green bi-color LED's with 2 poles (rather than the much more common 3 poles) on eBay and while these would easily serve my needs at the control panel, I had to figure out how they were going to look on the layout.  Here's the 3mm red/green LED with wire leads soldered on:

My first attempt was to encase the LED in a piece of rectangular styrene.  Paint it up, and see how it looks.  Here's the result of that trial:

YIKES!  What is that??  Some sort of alien signaling device?  I knew this approach would be far from prototypical (unless I was going with a HAL 9000 look), but this thing looks like something from Mars!  Fortunately, the dwarf signal looks a little better (well, tolerable anyway)...

While I think I can live with the 'dwarf' signals, I can't live with those goofy 'HAL 9000' signals. I needed another solution.  Fortunately, Greenmax makes a plastic kit containing 4 signals that would fit the bill perfectly.  Here's what the pieces look like on the spru:

As the LED (even at 3mm!) is still too large (although there is a 2mm version of this that will work much better which I wasn't aware of when I originally built these) I had to grind out a little of the plastic on the back side of the signal, and sand down the LED without getting close to the electrical elements inside the plastic:

Then glue the LED to the back of the signal....

Paint it black (no humming please)....

Drill out a small hole from the front of the signal...smaller is best!  Ta-dah!  That LED that was covered with paint is now mostly only visible through the new tiny hole that was just made:

And install....here showing the green indication....

That's all there is to it!

Total cost for each signal?

• LED's: 10 pack for $1.75 or  $0.18 each.
• Greenmax Signals: 4 for about $5.00or $1.25 each.
• Wires? Solder? Paint? Total...maybe a $1.00 for each signal?

Your looking at about $2, maybe $3 a signal!  Pretty good price if you can accept the compromises that these obviously force on you - for example, I really want to find a way to hide the LED wires, but even painted black, their not that noticeable to average folks.  Compared with the admittedly beautiful signals that Viessman makes, I can do the whole layout for the cost of one signal!

The Greenmax signals are a pretty acceptable looking 'generic' style  and I think they'd look pretty good on a US themed layout, as well as Japanese obvuiously, and possible British! But I don't think anything in continental Europe looks close to these (albeit this is not an area of specialty for me, so I'm likely wrong and ignorant).  Unforunately, cheap plastic kit signals don't seem to be available outside these Greenmax versions (and I believe some Model Power or Bachman stuff for the US). 

And compared to my first attempt, which are so bizarre looking, I'm quite happy with how these turned out - I know have a control panel with LED indication of switch positions, signals on the layout (partially) for layout indication, and all for a relatively decent sum!  Of course, I'm quite happy my signals don't creep me out with their uncanny resemblance to HAL 9000!

Finally, a quick comparison between the two: