Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog.
This is a special blog post as the long awaited signal upgrade is now complete!
This came about during the summer of 2019 as I was running some trains with a couple of the guys. I had added signals on the lower level of staging by Morris Plains to control the crossovers and to have trains come up on either track.
This is the panel by the dispatch area. The signals by Morris Plains are here as well..
Once this was finished, I knew that more signals would be needed to have complete bi-directional trains running from staging to the upper level.
We have to fast forward to 2021 as 2020 was a tough year in our household, Covid not withstanding.
In the spring of 2021, I needed to get more signals for these tracks. In addition, the PRR signals that were currently on the layout are incandescent grain of wheat bulbs, and not LED bulbs. These bulbs do not play well with LED bulbs, so they needed to be replaced.
The big change to the layout was not the signals as much as the panels. I would need to add more rotary switches, which means new panels. I could only put so much on the current panels.
First thing was to find the signals that I wanted. NJ International has supply issues, and I did want to upgrade my PRR signals. While searching online for replacements, I found a company out of Utah called Custom Signal Systems (CSS). He had a nice selection of signals, except he didn't have any PRR signals. So I reached out to Richard who owns CSS and he found some PRR signal heads. The first project was to make me some stand alone PRR signals. I needed 4 of those.
The next step was to replace 4 other PRR signals. However, due to some track issues, I knew that stand alone signals would not work. Richard had make cantilever signal bridges for others, so he made me a pair of PRR Cantilever signal bridges.
Over at Rock Ridge Yard, since we made the tracks bi-directional, we needed to add signals and make a change to the type of signal. There was a PRR stand alone on the main departure track. That had to go and it was decided to make them dwarfs departing the yard. These signals are under the control of the dispatcher since he routes the trains coming into Little Jamaica Interlocking. There was much debate on who would control them, so dispatcher won out. These are 3 color dwarf signals.
The last major change was to add more signals to the tracks leading to and from staging as well as Rock Ridge Yard. I decided that since these are not mainline tracks, 'D Type' signals would be just fine.
At West Harold, I re-positioned the location of the signal coming from the lower level. I moved it closer to the interlocking. Each eastbound track has 2 color dwarfs, so trains can be switched between track 1 ad track 2. Track 1 is the original EB track from staging where as track 2 was the WB track to staging from the yard. Next up was to add signals to both westbound tracks to staging. There was no need for 3 color heads, so we made the WB tracks 2 color. The trains either hold or go, plain and simple.
This is a view of them looking west. Clearances were checked since stack trains are taller than auto racks and Amtrak Superliner cars..
Little Jamaica was upgraded to have the signal bridge closer to the crossover tracks and both tracks
have 3 color signal heads..
Now that signals are installed, new panels had to be made. Back when I made them, I was only able to get rotary switches that had more than 3 positions. In addition, I put these large 'Chicken Head' knobs on them to show direction and position.
The new panel in Little Jamaica has 4 new rotary switches and I went with a smaller, traditional knob and a 3 position rotary switch. These are smaller in size. In addition, since the interlocking signal switches are close together, something had to give. After careful consideration, I removed the control of the switches for CP East and CP South. During an operating session, the Yardmaster controls them. If I'm running solo, and working the yard, the controls are in place by the yard so these were eliminated...
The lettering is much larger and this makes it easier for all to see. We're not getting any younger and I know the eye glass prescription keeps getting stronger every year...UGH!
Here's the West Harold Interlocking showing the same set up. Smaller knobs and larger lettering!
As of this date, I'm having NJ John come over and help me move all the trains that were removed from staging back to the lower level. Here's what has to be moved...
It took us 2 hours to move it up top, and probably about the same, if not longer to put them back!!
The railroad is now ready to have operating sessions with main line tracks running EB and WB and tracks to and from lower level staging to the freight yard on top bi-directional!!
Thanks to everyone who has been patient with me not having gathering and operating sessions. Special thanks to NJ John who helped me move all of these 400+ freight cars and engines all over the place. We're going to resume operating sessions with a few guys to test how the session will work with the new signals next week.
