To LUGNET HomepageTo LUGNET News HomepageTo LUGNET Guide Homepage
 Help on Searching
 
Post new message to lugnet.trainsOpen lugnet.trains in your NNTP NewsreaderTo LUGNET News Traffic PageSign In (Members)
 Trains / 5750
5749  |  5751
Subject: 
Re: Mecanical Interlocking
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.trains
Date: 
Mon, 1 May 2000 21:13:45 GMT
Viewed: 
1180 times
  
This sounds like just what train-heads love, especially the organised clubs
struggling to grt recognition amongst the conventional railway modelling
fraternity.

In lugnet.trains, James Powell writes:
Since reading some of the other peoples ideas (Thanks Dean!...I stole your
track plan :)  and so on, having been in the process of rebuilding the • trackage
on my layout anyway, I decided to make a signal box.  The points are easy
enough...first I have to cut the tabs off them, but that is about par for the
course.  Signals: Lego brick signals, not controlling power, just indicating
position/direction

You could also build them so that a passing train mechanically moved them to
the 'line blocked' position.

Signal boxes are inevitably 'interlocked', that is to say, to throw a switch,
you first have to change the signals that pertain to the point you are
changing.  In my case, I have 3 points leading off the mainline that I want to
protect, so I require 2 sets of signals (2 of the points are next to one
another, the other is further away).  My mechanical interlocking will prevent
the points from being moved until the signal is changed, and prevent the • signal
from being changed until the points are cleared back to the mainline.  It • takes
20x16 for me to manage this...and a rube goldberg arangement of belts (used • as
springs), technic pins, axles and various rounded connectors and bricks.  Once
I have installed it, I will take some pictures just to show how complicated • one
should get it, and this is a simple interlocking...no crossjunctions or such
like.

The walk of a thousand miles starts with the first footstep..

To provide a liner drive, I am using a 1x5 technic plate attached to a axle, • in
a 2L gap to drive the rodding (technic shafts, coupled with the gray
connectors)

It's been fun so far, I will take some photos when I am done...I think it is
quite a impressive piece of work.

James

It sounds very impressive, James. I'm particularly interested in how a Lego
train system can be made to operate prototypically rather than struggling to
be 100% scale - working signals, hopefully automatically triggered by passing
trains, is something I will be working on soon too.

I'm looking forward to your pics but, just guessing, will you have to elevate
the track by a brick or two to clear the point rodding?

Jon



Message is in Reply To:
  Mecanical Interlocking
 
Since reading some of the other peoples ideas (Thanks Dean!...I stole your track plan :) and so on, having been in the process of rebuilding the trackage on my layout anyway, I decided to make a signal box. The points are easy enough...first I have (...) (25 years ago, 28-Apr-00, to lugnet.trains)

2 Messages in This Thread:

Entire Thread on One Page:
Nested:  All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:  All | Brief | Compact
    

Custom Search

©2005 LUGNET. All rights reserved. - hosted by steinbruch.info GbR