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To: "oermsignal" Subject: Orange Empire Railway Museum Signals Update - 6/2/2004 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 Ron Beach and Gene Cranston. 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Signal Garden: Ron removed the concrete forms from the recently poured crossing gate foundation. The plan is to cut the conduits about 1 inch above the concrete and probably pull all the wires prior to installing the crossing gate. The new dwarf at the garden entrance got painted and an H2 searchlight mechanism installed -- next we need to install the lens. The paint on the banjo does not want to come off easily so it will have to be needle gunned before sand-blasting. Gene thinks we will need to spend some time with the needle gun experts to learn how to operate the equipment. We still need to design the plan for getting the conduit near or in the banjo base/post. 2038 Signal: Zeke, Darrel and Gene replaced the 2038 northbound approach signal (searchlight) on the Barn 4 lead with a colorlight signal head (3 vertically arranged lights). This is the signal that was recently upgraded with the addition of the new cable from the Alpine signal cabinets. The original 2038 signal was a V20 "modern" triangular type. Visibility around the corner was great, but we received continual complaints that in the era we are representing in the main area of the museum there were no signals on the west coast using the triangular light arrangement. An H5 searchlight was substituted but has been difficult to see around the curve and from the ground ever since. We have tried just about every spread type auxiliary lens we have and none has been any better. When the lunar aspect was placed into service it was even harder to see than the yellow and red. Gene had Darnel select a color light head from out back and they installed it this past weekend. The Oliver crane was required to take down the H5 searchlight head and to install the type R colorlight head. Zeke very willingly helped them as crane operator. Next weekend Gene plans to wire the DP14 retained neutral polar relay circuit and Darrel plans to connect the head. We expect that the signal will be much better to see as the optics are simple and broad, much like the V20 previously used and exactly like southbound signal 2033 at Alpine. Darrel informs us that this head and case were originally together as signal 1313 near the depot in Pasadena. Miscellaneous Notes: The south wig-wag at Alpine entrance has stopped working -- north wig-wag is still operating properly which protects the crossing and shows us that the circuit is OK. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For additional OERM Signals information, visit the signals website at: http://gsee.sdf-us.org/signals. Previous editions of these email newsletters are at: http://gsee.sdf-us.org/signals/enews/enews.html . Questions or comments regarding OERM Signals should be directed to the Signals Superintendent Gene Cranston. |