Thanks again to all for the advice. After a little 3-in1 oil to the moving parts, the semaphore is now working on the layout. (The wiring solution required attaching the yellow wire to fixed voltage and attaching the red and green wires, along with a new black wire from the frame, to a 022 turnout.)
Best wishes to all for the new year!
In that case, you can consider that the frame is equivalent to the black wire. However, since it appears that the roles of the white and black wires need to be reversed to be compatible with the Lionel turnouts, you may want to disconnect that ring lug from the frame and then reconnect the lug it to the accessory voltage, so that the entire frame is not at the accessory voltage.
Wait--forget that. I suspect that the frame is used as the return for the lamp; so the lug will have to remain connected to the frame.
Bob Nelson
Thanks to all for the great information. There are definitely only four (red, green, white and yellow) wire holes on the bottom of the semaphore. Upon closer review, it appears the signal is grounded to the frame via a soldered ring terminal (to one of four frame screws).
Grounding to the frame will work. I'll look around when I get home for a schematic.
Jim
I realized late last night that there had been no mention of a black wire. I don't know whether that means that the wire was lost or that my guess about the identity of the semaphore was wrong.
Assuming the former, the use of the black wire as common, which American Flyer called "base", needs to be revised to make the semaphore compatible with Lionel turnouts. American Flyer intended that a 17-volt supply would be applied to either red or green to throw the semaphore by momentarily energizing one of the solenoids. Since Lionel turnouts are thrown by connecting a solenoid coil to common, with the coil returned to the accessory voltage or the center rail, I would reverse the roles of the yellow and black wires so that the semaphore's coils can be operated in parallel with the turnout's coils, with yellow as the layout common and black as the accessory voltage or center rail.
This arrangement is rather different from the usual use of a simple two-lamp color-light signal with an 022 or 3010 turnout, in which the signal common is connected to the layout common and current is supplied to one of its lamps through one of the solenoid coil. That scheme relies on the fact that the lamp draws far less current than needed to operate the solenoid. If the American Flyer semaphore were connected that way, its coils would probably draw enough current to set the turnout buzzing and, in any case, overheat both the semaphore's and the turnout's coils.
If the black wire is indeed missing and needs to be replaced, it should be connected to the point where the two solenoid coils are connected together. This may also happen to be the frame of the accessory--I can't say because I don't have one to examine.
The black wire will be for the base or neutral. The yellow is for the lamp. The green throws the flag straight up. the Red trrows down. The white makes up a neutral or base when the flag is in the up position.
Not sure how your lionel switch throws but if it activated when the neutral made up it would throw your switch. When I can I'll do a little research on this.
I think that what you have may be the number 761. Here is my guess for how you might use it with those 3-rail turnouts:
Connect the yellow wire to the outside rails. Connect the red and green wires to the outer terminals of the turnout. Connect the black wire to the same supply that you are using for the turnout, either a fixed accessory supply or the center rail. It seems to be designed for a 17-volt accessory supply, but might work with the track voltage if it is not too low when you throw the turnout. It can be used to switch power to an isolated section of center rail, connected to the white wire, but it puts out on the white wire whatever voltage you connect to the black wire; so this feature is useful only if you supply the black wire from track voltage. But it might not be very useful for powering a siding, since the siding will be powered when the signal is green, not red.
Also keep in mind that the semaphore will not protect itself after the turnout throws, in the way that your turnouts do. It is more like an O27 turnout and can be burned out if a train stops on one of your turnout's control rails.
I have an old American Flyer semaphore which I'm trying to wire onto my o-gauge layout. Unlike a Lionel No. 151 semaphore which has three wires, the American Flyer model (can't find a model number), has four wires (white, yellow, green and red). How is this semaphore wired into a 3010/3011 or 022 turnout? Thanks in advance.
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