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To: "oermsignal" Subject: Orange Empire Railway Museum Signals Update - 4/5/2004 This email is our semi-regular update about signals work (installation, maintenance and restoration) at the Orange Empire Railway Museum and is a collaborative effort -- the information for this e-news issue was provided by Gene Cranston, Allen Holiday, Ron Beach, and Gary See. If you have information that would be of interest to others, please email it to me and we'll include it in our next newsletter. If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please email me. Likewise, if you know someone who would like to be added to this list, please have them email me. If you receive duplicate copies of this email, please contact me and let me know your preferred email address. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During the past two weeks, the Signal Team performed the following activities: Mapes Crossing: The Mapes Road crossing is now going to be used by small streetcars that are so light weight that they do not reliably keep the crossing circuit active as they approach. This causes the crossing to start and stop which is both unsafe and confusing to motorists. To solve this, Gene has designed and installed a trap circuit that activates the crossing as the car approaches and keeps it active until the car retreats on the other side of the crossing or a timer determines the car has stopped on approach. This was installed last weekend and thus far continues to be working perfectly. Mapes Battery Box Conduit: At the North Mapes transmitter case, the battery cables from the battery box to the case had corroded. Ray and Bob Hirth installed a new conduit and cables over the last 2 weeks. The one fly in the ointment was a brace that needed a hole and was made out of some monstrously hard steel. The completed job is as usual a work of art. Signal Garden: Work continued last weekend to get the lamps lit in the Searchlight and Semaphore signals so that visitors will be encouraged to enter and visit the garden. The signal head on our searchlight signal was removed (the case had been modified to the point that it would not accept a searchlight mechanism and therefore had to be replaced) and 2 US&S H2 heads were installed. These have been wired to a new power supply and are now operational (see attached photos). Additionally the light in the Semaphore was connected to the new power supply --- operation/movement of the semaphore blade is still not yet working and on our future project list. The 3 colored "plastic" roundels (lenses) in the Semaphore were replaced with "real" glass roundels -- it looks much better now ! ! This recent weekend Paul Orton painted the new searchlight signal targets and mast. Ron, Allen, Paul and Paul Khoury were able to install the conduit for the new push button for the future crossing gate. There are also six push button posts ready to be installed (four with electrical boxes attached). They also dug the holes for the future dwarf and its post. The holes were filled in for safety reasons but should be easy to re-dig. Banjo Signal Installation: The Banjo signal has not yet been sand blasted -- it's been recommended that we needle-gun the mast first, so that the sandblasting would go faster. Work on it's planned area in the garden continued. A hole was dug in the Signal Garden Perricrete using the electric jack hammer. The Banjo foundation work was done by Ron, Allen, Paul Orton and Paul Khoury. Portable Flasher: A new "portable" (or is it really just "transportable" ? ), 4 head crossing flasher assembly is being built to protect the new main entrance for Railfest. The assembly was partially mounted on a pipe which is welded to a wheel base. Continued work is still needed to make it useable. Eventually a rolling gate will be installed at the pedestrian walk at Alpine but this will be used in the interim. 11th St. Crossing: This crossing developed a problem recently. The approach circuit would go down and time out causing the crossing to work only on the island. Mike cleaned the printed circuit board fingers (contacts) and the crossing work until Sunday but then quit again. Sunday afternoon Gene recleaned the fingers but had a feeling there must be more. Walking the track showed a broken bond; a temporary bond was installed -- that should hold it for now. Member's Crossing: The WigWag at Member's crossing has been intermittent lately. This past weekend, Paul Khoury climbed the wig wag and found a broken contact. We have no spare and will have to rob one from a good wig wag motor or replace the entire motor. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HELP NEEDED: Gene is hoping that we can finish setting up the temporary portable flasher for the new museum entrance crossing before Rail Festival. The basic parts are set out so it should go easy. Since we have no source of parts readily available for the failed member's xing wig wag, Gene is also going to try to add a temporary flasher to the wig wag at Members' Crossing. Let Gene know if you plan to come to work on these. Except for this coming Friday, most any Friday or Saturday will work. Do save most of your energy for Festival. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For additional OERM Signals information, visit the signals website at: http://gsee.sdf-us.org/signals. Questions or comments regarding OERM Signals should be directed to the Signals Superintendent Gene Cranston. |