The Atlantic and Southern Build Thread Continued, Part 3

[ACL1504]

Here is a quick photo essay with a little narrative to show how I replaced the red and green LEDs in the signal.

I first removed the old LEDs and wiring.



I then fed new red and green wires through the 3/32" brass signal mast.





Continued -

[ACL1504]

I then tinned both the red and green wires on one end.



I trimmed the ends and then pulled them down so they were just out of the opening.



Continued -

[ACL1504]

I used the red and green 1.5 mm LEDs from Miniatronics. These fit into the holes in the rear of the signal face.

I first tinned both legs of the LEDs and then bent them as shown below.



I then placed them over the brass mast as shown.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Here is how they look when pushed into the back of the signal face.



The LED legs were trimmed and soldered to the mast. Don't worry how it looks, touch up Floquil Old Silver will cover the new solder.



Noticed I slipped with the solder tip and melted part of the side of the face. Very prototypical of my don't ya think?

More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I then cut a portion of the other LED legs. I trimmed them about half way between the back of the LED and the mast as shown below.



The wires were then slowly pulled down until the tinned ends were in line with the short legs and were then soldered.

[ACL1504]

Finished and lit.

[PRR Modeler]

Nice job Tom.

[postalkarl]

Hey Tom:

The signals look great.

Karl

[S&S RR]

Tom


The signals look great -  thank you for taking the time to post the tutorial.

[NKP768]

So is there a common wire to the mast for the other leg of the LED's - haven't done much with LED's

Doug

[ACL1504]

Nice job Tom.

Curt,

Thank you, much appreciate you following along.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Hey Tom:

The signals look great.

Karl

Karl,

Thanks buddy, appreciate you looking in on the thread.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom


The signals look great -  thank you for taking the time to post the tutorial.

John,

Thank you my friend. The tutorial was very short and limited on narrative but the main idea is covered.

Tom

[ACL1504]

So is there a common wire to the mast for the other leg of the LED's - haven't done much with LED's

Doug

Doug,

Thank you for stopping by. Yes, I'm using the brass pole as the common.

Here is a crude drawing of how the signals are wired. Really simple to do.

In the diagram, the red and green wires are shown coming from the signal face. They actually are fed through the brass pole and exit the bottom. One side(legs) of the LEDs are soldered to the brass pole(common). The other two LED legs are soldered to the red and green wires, red to red and green to green.

[ACL1504]

I spent the last two days rewiring the two track signal bridge.

I was only going to fix the one signal face that didn't work. However, I got into the repair and ended up replacing all 8 of the LEDs, 4 red and 4 green plus all the wiring.

The signal bridge itself and the target faces were also repainted.

I think the 16 hour repair was definitely worth the time and effort.