Sinking Signals and Block System Bragging...
We had some wonderful "let's play outdoors" weather in mid-May 2003, and I was happy to spend nearly a week of it sequestered in Dave Thomson's basement, working with him on the Thomsonbahn. Dave surprised me, having already done quite a bit of work on the signaling and sinking the signal solenoids into the Homasote. For those who are curious about this procedure, here is a brief synopsis:
Marklin uses very large solenoids to run the arms and disks of their semaphore signals. That's good, because it makes them very robust, but it is also an eyesore on a layout to have the large, gray boxes sticking up between the rails. What's more, because of Dave's track work, it was nearly impossible to have the boxes between some tracks in his station are. The solution? To sink the signals into the Homasote and hide the control solenoids...
Step 1: First, determine the location of the signal. The red sticker on the solenoid box tells us which signal this is, how it is controlled, etc. It's that big, gray box we are going to try and hide...
When dealing with quite a few signals, it is a good idea to number all of them to keep things straight. The Thomsonbahn will have over thirty signals, so this was a great way to not lose track (no pun intended) of them. Dave has now marked the edge of the signal's final location with a pencil.
A signal hole template is a good idea. It lets us know how big to make the hole.
Dave uses a thin piece of wood for his template. It gets marked so it doesn't end up in the trash. With several different signal sizes, Dave made several templates. The piece of wood behind the template is not another template. Instead, it is the "shelf" the signal will rest on...
The template is placed in the location and lined up with the line we drew initially. We trace around the template...
... And VOILA! Our lines are drawn, and we a re ready to cut...
There is a little Bernd Schmidt in Dave, so when he found out he would have to make these cuts, he purchased the same small jig saw (made by Böhler) that Berndt used. No, Dave doesn't have a fingernail polish or cross-dressing fetish (at least not one I know of). That hand belongs to his lovely wife Joan.
The hole is cut, and Dave has already installed the piece of plywood which will act as a support underneath the signal. Dave used hot glue to secure the wood, a perfectly acceptable solution. Note that Dave has moved the support board off to one side. This allows the wires of the signal to run down underneath the layout. You can also drill holes in the wood instead.
The signal is in! Once the hole is masked with a piece of card stock (I use index cards), you'll never know there is a large solenoid under that signal!
Here is one end of the station with the signals in place. Note the addition of a block of wood to support the signal on the right-most track. This signal will sit upon a stone pedestal, not unlike what can often be found on the DB...
Another view of the sunken solenoids.
There is a small suburban station on the bridge section, just big enough for Dave's V100 and a pair of silverfish. We protect the siding (and add a block signal to the main line) with light signals.
In addition to wiring up the signals, we added two signals, one at each end of the station, as "Einfahrsignale", or station approach signals. These signals protect the station tracks from incoming trains. These signals were also wired into the block system, but will only turn green after a train has exited the station in the correct direction. I added overrides to these signals, so that one train can enter the station, pull into a siding, and when the main line is clear, the signal can be switched green for the next train to enter. This provides the opportunity to pull a slower train into a siding, and let a faster one go by. It also allows for Kurswagen shunting, locomotive swaps, and trains to leave the main line to run up the branch line into the mountains (not yet built, obviously). It really is a slick and realistic setup, and by the end of the week I had a sore arm from patting myself on the back so much!
No work on a Marklin train layout can be done correctly without proper nutrition. Dave was good enough to keep an ample supply of "fuel" on hand for the track gang. I was most appreciative
!
Finally, with the block system in place, we took time out for "fun", and after scratching our heads for about two hours, we were able to install the crossing in the spaghetti section, using no less than 12 contact tracks (the kind with the lever) to insure that the gates would work properly for any train, any length, coming from any point in the spaghetti section, including either direction. NOTE: This would have been much easier if Marklin had contact tracks for 5200 series M-track curves, not to mention switches!
