MRUV 144: Double Head Dwarf Signals
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- čas přidán 18. 10. 2019
- This update shows how I made several double head dwarf signals from single head kits available from Showcase Miniatures. I wanted the double head dwarfs for use in Eugene Yard where the yard leads connect with the main line. There is both a "straight" route when using the yard lead and a "diverging" route when crossing over to the main line. I figured a double headed dwarf would be more prototypical in such a situation.
The single head kit is number 2194, "HO Dwarf Signal (Type SA). One also needs a Tri-Color LED (606 size), number LED0001. This is a very neat LED- three colors in one LED. It is common anode, and has individual leads for the Red, Yellow and Green LEDs.
The kit is very good, albeit small- it is to scale so there are several small parts to deal with. By taking your time and following the instructions it builds into a very nice dwarf signal.
I used two kits to make each double head dwarf. I show how I modified the body case to allow mounting one of the cases on top of the other. I am not saying it is perfect, but once assembled and placed on the layout it looks okay to me!
My plan is to display a Yellow-over-Red when lined "straight" for the yard lead, and Red-over-Yellow when lined for the main line. I will also try and use C/MRI logic to display Red-over-Red if the main line block is occupied or a route is lined into the yard.
This was a fun project. The first attempt took me over an hour as I was figuring out how to proceed, but the last one I made in under 15 minutes!
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Patience is the True Winner on that one.
Thank you for the video and I don't care how long they are, it's fun and informative to watch. Really like those signals, yes they are a small pain in the ____, but worth the effort in the end, and the fact that you can get 3 color display is awesome. Been looking for some nice looking dwarfs and now I know who makes them.
Thanks for the video
Muse
Most welcome David.
What the Santa Fe did to protect their H5 dwarf searchlight at the junction with SP, was they placed a section of highway guardrail around it, as the outside of the signal, trucks for Union Ice used to pass by, coming in and out of the ice plant.
That led me to understand they evidently had the same issue with trucks hitting the signal on the side away from the tracks.
Thanks for another great how- to
Rob! I miss the nostalgic look of
Dwarf signals and lighted switch
stands of the by gone era of
railroading I grew up with!!!
I miss the New York Central's
Big Four line with it's single
search light signals!! They are
going to look good Rob when
you get them placed! You'll
have to do a short video when
you get them going in the yard.
👍👍👍😀😀😀😀😀
Will do Scott. Hopefully won't be too long.
Great timing, I'm looking into signals and signal control. Thanks again for the channel and great railroading content!
Good- and you are very welcome!
Great video! I love the level of detail you put into your work. I'm new to the hobby and find your videos very helpful and inspiring. Thanks for sharing your work. Marty
You are very welcome Marty. I am glad they help in some small way!
Amazing! That's a level of detail (surgery) that makes you forget it's a model. Wonderful. Carry on!
I Think they Look Awsome👍
Nice work...this stuff is really neat but scary to consider where I need about a dozen or more. Im running these off an SE8C Digitrax
Oh this is great (you always have great vids ,and I thankyou for taking the time to make them) as I was going to order a bunch of these ,but for N scale......yah ,that should be fun !!
Keep up the great work Rob ,love your channel and your layout looks fantastic ,one of the best I`ve seen !!!!!! Oh and BTW....these videos can NEVER be too long !
Paul T in Canada
Thank you so much. You are braver than I- I would not try this in N scale!
I love How that is.
Love the longer videos.
Stephen Bennett and the 4 Dwarfs...great, now I’m trying to apply railroad lingo to Disney songs in my head.
LOL, yeah baby! Double headed dwarfs at that!
Nice work! We've shared it on our channel and website. Keep up the good work!
Nice project, but I dont think I could ever build this. Thanks for sharing. dave
Great job on the signals. Ive built a few myself, the hardest part is getting the LEDs to fit in the housing. I also used liquid electrical tape around the back of the LED before gluing on the back-plate....had a few short out.
Amen to that! Good idea on the liquid electrical tape- wish I would have thought of that. Those buggers are real tiny and fragile.
great vid
Thanks Dave.
Rob, I have to ask, did you build your LED tester or purchase it? If you purchased, where did you get it? I have been wanting to say I really enjoy your videos even though I am an N Scale enthusiast. Thanks for your videos and any comments on the LED tester.
I purchased it from Logic Rail Technologies. Here is a link, if it doesn't work just Google Logic Rail and it will get you to their main site.
www.logicrailtech.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16287&cat=0
With that dwarf being in the road you could always add vertical pieces of rail around it to protect it. The Reading was notorious for that with assorted pieces of metal. Ive even seen steam locomotive tires used to protect signal boxes at crossings
I like that idea- thanks. That may work perfectly in this case.
Rob great job on the signals. You have inspired me to add them to my layout when the time comes. I wish you had shown how you wired them up and what resisters you used. Also can you tell me about the test unit you used to power them up while on your bench?
Craig- I still can, as they are not yet wired up. I need to do that, and it will entail crawling around under the layout. Ugh. I also want to confirm which resistors to use based on my 5V supply. I'll update when I get to that. The test unit is from Logic Rail Technologies- you can check it out here:
www.logicrailtech.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16287&cat=0
Tripod please. It makes the detail so much easier to see.
Great project. Love your turnouts. Are they hand-laid?
They are Fast Tracks, made in a jig.
When using a video camera to film the small parts would changing the background to some type of solid color paper or card stock help? I'm asking as I have a hard time doing "still" photography let alone using a video camera. Thanks!
It does seem to help, as opposed to trying to focus all the stuff behind it there on the bench. When I did use it the focus was noticeably better.
Thanks 🐼
Now that I see the double on the layout, I might darken the base a bit...
Aleens clear tacky glue works in place of kristal klear.
Good, I would have(if possible) filed or otherwise made a channel in the lower housing to run upper housing wire through to hide all wires through the lower housing toward the base as much as possible. Also, why no green? I really don't know much about signal lights.Thanks
I did consider that Charlie- I could have run the top wire into the bottom housing then out the bottom. But I decided to just let it be free and wild on the outside. It is very hard to see once painted and viewed at normal layout distances. Lack of green is just my personal preference in this case- no real prototypical reason. Such dwarfs did use green in "the real world"- depends on the RR and how they set up their signal aspects.
@@robbennett1965 Thanks for the reply. The signals are cool.
Great video but if I may suggest something. When you are trying to zoom in on something extremely small and the camera won't focus put your hand behind it. I have seen it work before and if you notice earlier in this video you did just that and it focused. Maybe you did not realize you did that but putting your hand behind it, for some reason works.
I have seen that before, and did try it but it didn't work in one case- but obviously when I did it and wasn't trying it did work!
@@robbennett1965 Camera's like any other technology can be annoying sometimes. They never do what you want. Sometimes they have a mind of their own. LOL
I must show my ignorance. Why the red/yellow instead of red/green?
It just seems odd to me- although I am sure it occurs- to have a green aspect in a dwarf. To me dwarfs are for slow speed movements, and green seems so "fast". Just personal choice, although I could research how the NYC used dwarfs if I get the urge to. Nice thing with these tri-color LEDs is one can display any color they choose.
@@robbennett1965 So what you are saying is that dwarfs are used for slow movements only and they would just show yellow for slow and red for stop and not green because it's not in an area where there would be trains going full speed. So they are just used in yards or are they used somewhere else as well? I don't know alot about how railroad signaling systems work.
You have an excellent layout and are a great modeler. 👍
I also am no signal expert. These colors are more my preference than following any prototype. I did find an NYC signal aspect chart and they certainly do use green in dwarf signals- in fact they also used PURPLE! How cool would THAT be on the layout. I don't know the time period, RR location, etc but they did indicate purple.
@@robbennett1965 That's neat as can be. Wow did not know that.
Rob, If you use a tripod (they make small ones for the table) you will be able to have a steady picture and both hands free. I have the same focusing problems that you do (we all have this problem) so I took some time and found the closest that I could come with my camera and then took a string and fastened it to the tripod and put a knot at the place where the camera focused the best close. Then just keep the string (I used some thick twine) attached to the tripod and use this to have the camera at the best distance for sharp focus. You might use the manual focus for this if your camera has a manual focus. Also it appears that a darker background seems to work better as shown at the 23:14 time line on this video. I am an x-photographer that did a lot of real close up work with very little products... The lights look great on the layout. I may try the single ones but your method of the tubing is great and you might have used brass or just a small straw. The red cocktail straws might be the right size and free... I'm big on anything that is free... Why the large hole under the switch?? I use a multi tool and you can not see the whole at all...Like the base for the single...
@David Curtis, I believe Rob dabbled in photography some time ago. I also agree that the use of a tripod would help immensely. But then, he couldn’t apologise for working one handed, shakey footage, being out of focus, not doing it good enough, et al. ... if you get my drift? And I always say, if it’s free, take two!
ROB? Get a tripod and stop making excuses. Your modelling is far above what a lot of us aspire to.
@@Lancelot_Jago Lance, you are a strange little man.....
@ David Curtis. Why am I that? Because you know me? You feel superior to me? Or because you are hidden behind the CZcams cloudiness? And if I may, (too late) address me as Lanceman27 or Lancelot.
If you have taken note over the past years of uploads by Stephen Bennett, you would might have cottoned on that Rob is an accomplished photographer, has often referred to his past experience, and has taken an incredible amount of his recreational time to make so many sharing videos about his modelling pursuits.
He does this on a platform open to unscathing criticism (outside his comfort zone, I suppose), and far beyond his control.
Forget Lietz, Manfrotto, Slik, ... add Chinese Tripods here... He has Gitzo! He doesn’t need your small advice. I don’t think he needs an ex-happy snapper to tell him gently what to do. As evidenced by his response, he just needs a kick in the pants.
Small mind... Small business.
Have an awesome day David Curtis
ROB? Get a tripod and stop making excuses. Your modelling is far above what a lot of us aspire to. Thanks for showing us how.
Cheers
Lancelot
LOL, funny thing is I have several tripods- one a very good one (Gitzo) from when I was doing landscape photography. I also have a Kirk ball head, a remote shutter release, know to lock the mirror up, etc, etc. I am just too lazy to bring all the smart techniques into these YT vids. But I do agree it would help immensely when doing these types of workbench videos.
Lazy has nothing to do with it. If you care enough to show us what you are doing then you should care enough to do it right. Shaky video is a turn off. I am a new viewer but I won't stay on long if all you videos are like this one.
LOL, ok then. You do get what you pay for, and if you don't like it there are plenty of much better, non-shaky model RR videos for you to enjoy. YT is not my primary focus; I am trying to build a layout and get it somewhat complete in my lifetime. As to the videos, up to you if you stay or leave, I will keep plugging away.