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:

Greenmax 29 x 2 = 58?

One of the buildings that I've completed for the downtown renovation is the Greenmax Office Building #29 kit. This is another Japanese manufacturer of buildings for N Scale, although unlike Tomix or Kato buildings, these are typically in the form of kits a la Faller, Kibri, etc... This building also takes some inspiration from this, although not quite as magnificent!

One comment on "N Scale" is warranted here, and its a question I first had about Japanese models before I purchased anything. In Japan, it seems, is that their "N Gauge" is typically 1:150 rather than the traditional 1:160 of the US and European models (with the exception of the UK). What this means in terms of models and their appearance on a layout together has been, from my view, not a concern. In all of my Kato or Tomix pre-built structures, I can't tell any difference in the scale when these buildings are placed next to traditional Faller or Model Power, etc... N scale structures, and people/figures still look appropriate near them. The only Japanese buildings that look somewhat incorrect from a scale perspective are the Tomytec collection buildings (discussed here), but it is probably not that noticeable for most folks, and I expect a good subject for another post some day.

What I liked about this Greenmax building is it is a relatively 'generic' looking contemporary office building, which is something you can only really find from the Japanese manufacturers. The Greenmax 29 kit is actually only 4 stories, with the bottom floor being a train station entrance. Since I was looking for a traditional office building and wanted more height, there are a couple of modifications that I had to make.

- 7 Stories: As the title of this post suggests, this is two Greenmax #29 kits. That way I get a 7 story rather than 4 story building. Modifying a kit like this to make it work this way was a little bit of an adventure for me, but I found that my carefully mocking up the pieces prior to making any cuts with tape, and then marking those areas that needed to be cut, it worked out very well.


- Convert bottom floor to office lobby. The kit features a bottom floor that is more or less an open area with a stairway leading to tracks for a train station. I converted this into an office lobby by using the same columns that come with the kit, but adding clear plastic sheets to act as large ground to ceiling windows for the lobby. Of course, this required some additional detail work for the lobby itself, so with some figures and by using scrap pieces I made a coffee counter, a sitting area and other random sort of lobby features. I also used spare stickers from various Kato kits that were not seeing any use to add the feel of various signs, etc...

- Lighting and detail: As is my standard procedure now, I added in plenty of LED lights to the bottom floor 'lobby' area, and also added in more LED lights for the 3rd and 6th floor, which each got their own levels of detailing as I decided these floors (or their windows) would be transparent and indicated office workings working late through the night. I really enjoyed how the details on the 6th floor turned out. For this floor, I used different types of styrene to create 'cubicles' or desks, added more remnant stickers from other model kits (and some 'custom' ones from the internet - if you look closely you can see a 'successories' "Teamwork" poster on the back wall! :-) ), painted the office fixtures to get a grey 'drab' office feel, mounted this all on sheet of plastic, added a couple of figures to add depth/scale, and WALLAH! late night office workers!

- Rooftop advertising: Looking for more illuminated, I again used LEDS (I think there's a total of 14 or so in the entire structure!) to illuminate transparent plastic, which is then covered with a customized advertisement (Using Papilio polyester sticker film and a color laser printer - which has a more solid look than the Testors Ink-jet printer water slide decals I've used on other buildings (the photo at right shows the water slide decal versions- which I've sinced replaced). The downside of the Papilio is they aren't as translucent as the water slide decals, but look better in my opinion for larger signs or advertisements).

Overall, I am really happy with how this building turned out. One disaster that did occur is that the floor for the sixth floor (and all the 'detail' I put into it) 'slipped' before the glue set, thus resulting in an uneven floor. Its a mistake that will need to be repaired, but it will require the dissassembly of the building (which means I will probably learn to live with it). One other 'trick' I found on this building, is to use "Tub & Tile" paintable caulk to fill in the gaps in long seams.

Burger Konig Lighting almost complete!

A quick post on my efforts to 'globalize' some of the Japanese buildings I've acquired in the past several weeks and my interest in creating more of the 'backlit' signage affects of prototype buildings. "Burger Konig" is almost done, I just applied a second decal over the first layer (I am using an inkjet printer with Testor's white background decal sheets, more on that here) which does give a better 'solid' color than just one layer of decals, the decal in the photo has not yet been trimmed yet, which explains some of the 'flappiness' around the edges. The vertical signs on the face of the building (not the sign over the storefront) have just the one original decal layer, and as you can tell from the photos, the LED in the plastic behind the decals overpowers the inkjet decals. I will likely apply a second decal as that seems to work pretty well.