Signal types and fitting new lamps

[M7R]

I have just acquired a couple of signals along with a few other bits and bobs from the wife of a local collector. Her husband sadly passed away a little while ago and she is now passing on his collection. Most has gone to auction but some bits were too big or heavy and I have now got some of the bits.

One is a signal head and the other is a ground signal, but I am interested in any history of them, where they were used etc, along with any tips or advice or guides on adding bulbs to them so I can have them lit in the garden.

the signal head has a 6v bulb already in it, and the ground signal should have a paraffin lamp in it but it’s empty, so i plan to add some sort of electric lamp I can run off the mains but curious for any advice if any sort of bulb works best? I’m guessing it doesn’t need to be too bright as the paraffin lamps weren’t (I have one but it’s the wrong sort I believe)

Thanks

 

[John Webb]

We have restored a number of signals at the preserved St Albans South signal box, and electrified many of them. We use 12 volt LED bulbs - under no circumstances would we suggest the use of mains voltage bulbs out of doors - old signals are not well-weatherproofed and there would be a high risk of problems. This is a Midland Railway signal lamp that has been converted:

We used a warm white MR16/GU5.3 12volt 3.5watt LED bulb with a 36degree angle. The lamp-holder is mounted on a strip of aluminium appropriately bent to fix to the bottom of the lamp casing. It also supports in front of the bulb a section of 'Chrome Yellow' theatre lighting filter - this gives the necessary colour rendition particularly for the 'green' aspect of the signal. The power is suppled by a 12v power supply running off 100v used for other demonstrations.
Hope the above gives you some ideas!
Added:
The signal - the tall one - is seen here lit by the above arrangement - the lamp has been angled to shine to the left where it can be seen from the ground frame just out of sight from which it is operated:

The other three signals - including the ground-level 3-aspect colour light signal - have also been converted using the same type of bulb.

 

[M7R]

That’s great thankyou, I was only thinking 240v mains for ease of wiring but I appreciate what you are saying and I will look at something lower voltage with the main power supply etc being in the shed which is next to the ground signal and then I just have to run a lower voltage wiring to the lamp.

 

[John Webb]

Glad to have been of help. Couple of things I hadn't mentioned:
(1) we needed lights on the semaphore signals that could be seen in daylight which is when most of our visitors are on site.
(2) we also needed lights visible over a wider angle of view so that visitors could easily see them - the more focussed beams both of signal oil lamps and the colour light signals made viewing by groups of people difficult.
(We do also display on open days working oil-fired lamps to show visitors what they would have looked like.)

 

[M7R]

Mine will be mostly used at night as a garden ornament and just a nice thing, so I guess I don’t need them as focused. I was thinking maybe paint the inside white and then use some garden LED fairy lights or something as they can come with a ready made timer built in and are low voltage.

Either way thanks for your insight.

Can anyone identify the round signal? Where it is from what it was used as, was it multiple colours in 1 head?

Thanks