Noel Widdifield

I finally began to install the block and crossing signals on my indoor New York Central railroad. I removed all of the ARISTO and MTH signals and replaced them with signals from Shiloh Signals. Doing this has really added to the realism of the railroad. The signals operate in a prototypical manner and are the correct scale. I am also connecting all of the street, house and yard floodlights so that I now am beginning to have realistic lighting on the railroad.
The wiring on the signals is straightforward but tedious. Working with very small wires, under the benchwork is certainly challenging, but not that difficult. The block and crossing signals use the same type of triggers, so once you figure out how to do the basic wiring, it is just a matter of continuing to do the same thing over and over.
The results are very realistic.

I have now ordered some new signals from Shiloh and they won’t be delivered to me until mid-April. Dave Dodner is helping me with a different way to wire those signals.
I will be doing an article on all of this in the near future. Stay tuned.

I haven’t had much time to work on my signals since I have been in Florida for several months and won’t be back to Maryland until May.

My time has been filled with making some utility poles for my indoor railroad, starting on some sand stations and working on some modifications to my coaling tower.

I have also been finishing up my website that should be up and running in about two weeks. I am really excited about the website.

I really enjoyed the SWLSTS and am looking forward to the ECLSTS. Hope to see many of you there.

Editing and writing articles take quite a bit of my time. I really enjoy doing that, but it takes me away from working on my railroads.

I am hoping that the replacement counterweights for the Bachmann K-27 have arrived at the house, so that when I get back up there in a couple of weeks, I can figure out how to replace the. Not much time for that since I will also be going to York for the ECLSTS.

My newest project is to scenic my indoor railroad. Since I just got back from Florida two weeks ago, I needed to get a bunch of things finished before starting the scenery. To help me with the scenery, I hired some help from What Detail, a company that will help you finish your layout.
I have replace all of my narrow radius turnouts with larger one so that my freight cars with body mounted Kadees will not derail on the sharp radius switches. I have also installed the rest of my Shiloh tall signals and am working with Dave Bodnar on a mechanism to trigger the new dwarf signals to indicate turnout position. He has developed a device to modify the LGB switch machines for that purpose.

I am currently waiting for the scenery guys to arrive from What Detail. I have several pounds of scenic materials, ballast and other materials to begin this project tomorrow. I have selected several pictures from my NYC books that show the right of way along the Big Four in August. They will use those as the basis for creating the scenery on my railroad. Stay tuned for more on this project.