Signals For Your Model Railroad (217)

[@ronduz1281]

U👍👍👍Larry keep them coming. Totally informative for armchair railroaders like me

[@1701_FyldeFlyer]

This channel should have more than double 20k subscribers. It's full of useful and interesting info. Congrats Larry. For UK modellers especially, MegaPoints Controllers have just introduced a new board capable of handling anything from 2 to 4 aspect signals, can daisy change boards to link other signals and automatic braking system on so enabled DCC chips. By the way, Im not the owner of MPC!

[@jcjackson726]

Congratulations Larry! Well deserved, you produce great content and MANY of your videos are in my reference library. Thank you for all the work!

[@elsdp-4560]

Thank you for sharing. Very much enjoyed it. Love the bridge scene. The Erie had a gantlet track here in Warren Oh. and the EL removed it in the mid-'60s, remember it like it was yesterday.

[@jhoodfysh]

Great project to implement, thanks Larry.

[@jeffbaker2897]

Congrats Larry, 🎉🎊enjoy everything you’re doing.👍🛤🚂😎

[@chrisoconnell6528]

Great videos and congratulations. I'm still at the beginning of building my railway and using your videos really help

[@scottsrailroadingadventure9502]

I'm using the photo relays for my signals to, they work well. I enjoy watching the videos. Thank you.

[@tinytowntrainstv]

Excellent! Glad to be one of those newer subscribers, Larry! Congratulations! T4

[@peterjhillier7659]

Thanks Larry, what an interesting Video, that sounds quite advanced, though I guess especially useful on a large Layout.

[@johnoneill5661]

Congratulations on breaking the 20k and thank you for all the hard work you have put into creating all these helpful videos they are much appreciated 👍👍👍 keep them coming please 👍👍👍

[@loucosportrem]

great video, congratulations for your channel, again visiting your work and the beautiful footage, yesterday I posted another video of the locomotives of the rumo logistica in Araraquara-sp- Brazil..

[@jaybird111207]

Congratulations on 20,000. Great reviews and work shops you have on this channel. Thanks for sharing and happy modeling!! -Jason

[@hansfriess]

Congratulations on hitting the 20,000 subscriber mark Larry!!

[@barry3573]

Congrats on 20k Larry. I really enjoy your videos and all the information you give us

[@peterainsworth8466]

Well done on the 20k. The transition from scenery to the backdrop photo behind your bridge is as good as it gets. Great colour matching and depth perspective.

[@medwaymodelrailway7129]

Once again a lovely video you put together again. Hope there more.

[@medwaymodelrailway7129]

Thank you very much for replying to my comment. I would love if you could take a quick look at my page and any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have a new video out now. Hope you like and share.

[@MRR_Shadowolf]

Congrats on 20k! Great video on signals, thanks!

[@vincenthuying98]

Congrats Larry, great scene you built there. Love the ‘open Y’s’ and your double track bridge.

[@dundasjunctionmodelr.r-jam8267]

Larry congratulations on reaching 20 K , I am very interested in this signal installation, see you Monday for Part two , great video

[@bernicemeade3232]

well would like to see you set the signal light up step by step

[@TheDCCGuy]

I wish I could do that but there is very little space between the two levels of the layout. Consequently getting a camera and lights in close enough to actually photograph the process was a no go. I will try to demonstrate the process steps with the latest signals that I posted last Friday when I show how to wire it up. However even with that it will require a bench top demonstration.

[@rjl110919581]

thank you for share detail video

[@ricter591]

Thanks Larry, 🐾🚂 KY.

[@AbelG8781]

That green signal would've caused some serious problems in the real world! Lol congrats on 20K!

[@TheDCCGuy]

Yes, you’d need some pretty good brakes to stop a real train before that one. However selective compression is a necessary reality with model railroading.

[@darrylmiller5116]

Not necessarily so. In cases like these the dispatcher might warn the engineer to stop eventhough he has a green for the approaching north bound train.

[@onkyonky4740]

20,000 yipee congrats, well done, I wonder about reality. I think a train can hit a green signal at full speed your train would not be sitting stopped there. On our local railway the signal at each end would not have any green lights fitted, only options would be red and yellow. I am pretty sure the signal prior to each would be yellow prepare to stop at next signal. Both signals would be at red and the despatcher would set it to yellow once the route was set which could be prior to the train coming to a halt. We call it fail to safe.

[@TheDCCGuy]

Good observation, I can easily switch it since I have the yellow LED installed as well. All I need to do is pull out the green wire and insert the yellow one. That’s the good thing about using the screw terminals for connections.

[@onkyonky4740]

@@TheDCCGuy Thanks I did enjoy the video and will look at incorporating the concept into my next layout. I checked with our local despatcher. For safety reasons the final signal before the bridge would both be at red and only set to proceed with caution (yellow) once the train had stopped.

[@TheDCCGuy]

That would be hard to to implement on a layout and likely require computer intervention, some very fancy electronics, or a dispatcher to control the signals. I think I’ll throw caution to the wind and go with yellow/green signals and leave it at that.

[@Mark_W_L]

Larry, Congratulations on 20K - well deserved for your excellent content. 30K by the new year! Do you just use Stop, Approach and Proceed or do you use some of the other speed signalling aspects like Advance Approach and Approach Medium?

[@TheDCCGuy]

I keep it as simple as possible. This is already more than the operators in my area are used to plus it is easiest to implement without using JMRI or some other computerized approach.

[@andrewstevenson5449]

Congratulations on the 20.4k subscribers! Does the signalling over the gantlet track bridge stop the opposing train, or is that down to the operator to make sure the signal is obeyed? I wondered if there should be a second detector on the *exit* from the gantlet section in case the train stalled after it had cleared the detector at the entry to the section: though I suppose that's only really an issue if the signalling is controlling the locomotives, as the 1:1 scale operator can see the obstruction. By the way, I've also seen gantlet/gauntlet track used to describe where two lines different gauges share the section of track, with both gauges sharing one rail.

[@TheDCCGuy]

The model system, much like on the prototype depends on the engineer to see and obey the signals. I believe there are some modern systems that do shut down the loco at a stop signal and it probably could be done on a model using a computer interface and some fancy programming. I originally did have a second optical transistor on each side of the bridge but ran into issues with false detects when turning on the DCC. I suspect using shielded cable would fix this and need to experiment more. I’ll discuss this in the next video.

[@donaldshroyer8633]

Congrats on breaking 20k!

[@roberttrains8696]

Congratulations on 20,000 how long did it take you to get all of them subscribers Thanks for sharing Robert

[@TheDCCGuy]

I got serious with the videos in August 2019 and at that time had about 300 subscribers. So it took a couple of years.

[@roberttrains8696]

@@TheDCCGuy sounds wonderful congratulations

[@kennethwiegand8977]

Congratulations on 20K! Larry, I’m new to model railroading and not electrically inclined. I’m planning and investing in a DCC layout and recently purchased a Digitrak Zephyr (3.0A). I have two Bachman and one Life Like 3 DC transformers that produce a minimum of 18v AC from their accessory side. Can I use them separately from my DCC system to power AC accessories like turnouts, lighting, etc using a separate buss, of course?? Thanks and keep up the good work! Ken Wiegand, Milford, OH

[@gsigs]

Absolutely!

[@TheDCCGuy]

As the man said you certainly can do it but I think you might find a 12VDC accessory bus more useful.

[@jeffliick1690]

This is probably a really novice question but do the trains stop automatically when the signal turns red and start up again when it goes green?

[@TheDCCGuy]

No, but there are ways you do that although not cheap. Mine works like the real prototype where engineers are expected to stop for a red signal.

[@farmerdave7965]

I use block detection when I need to. I use point detection when I need to.

[@TheDCCGuy]

Yes, so do I and each has its merits.

[@elleryparsons2433]

I Am Having an Issue specially for N Scale.

[@TheDCCGuy]

And what is the issue?

[@gsigs]

It's gantlet. Gauntlet is used by people who don't know that gantlet is a word. Gantlets were also used on a few car float bridges to get the points off the float bridge and on land. They were also used when two different railroads wanted to get through the same choke point but, for whatever reason, didn't want to physically share the same rails.