Lionel 154 Highway Signal

[Buzzardbreath]

I have the 154 signals made by Lionel. My question is....can they be wired for a neater appearance so that the 154-C track clip is not used? And will they flash alternately when the train passes?

Ironhorse                        

[jwse30]

A few companies make circuit boards that will flash the lights for you at a regular interval.  Off the top of my head, Burns Manufacturing (if they are still in business), Circuitron, and Lionel made these boards. The newer versions of the 154 (with the brown crossbucks) has a flasher circuit in the base of it. They used to sell the circuit board in their parts department.

 

Hope this helps,

 

J White

 

[dsmith]

If you are a little bit handy with soldering and electronics, here is a simple circuit that I have used successfully on my #154 signals for the past 4 years with no problems.  It alternately flashes the 2 lamps and the flash rate can be controlled by changing the size of the capacitors.  You can activate the  circuit with an insulated track section and if you solder to the bottom of the insulated track section, then nothing will show..

http://www.mrollins.com/flash3.html

[lionelsoni]

That circuit is very similar to one that I posted back in 2003:  http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/6006/61005.aspx#61005

There are some things that bother me about the Rollins circuit:

It looks like the DC supply developed is about 20 volts.  The 22-ohm series resistors drop about 3 volts (assuming typical number-53 lamps in the crossing signal), leaving about 17 volts across the lamps.  This would substantially shorten their lifetime, from 1000 to 136 hours.  However, I am suspicious that the 2N3055 transistors might not turn on all the way.  Their DC current gain is specified to be at least 20 at a collector current of 4 amperes.  It is may be somewhat higher at the 130 milliamperes that a number 53 will be drawing, but probably not as high as the 250 that the circuit requires for saturation.  This may explain why the designer used a TO-3 15-ampere power transistor (over 100 times what is needed), when a much smaller transistor can do the job with an adequate base drive.

[Papa_D]

Kalmback publishd (don't know if it's still in print) a software cover book "Easy Electronics Projects for Toy Trains".  Project 3 is "Circuits for the 154/2154 Highway Flasher".  I've used numerous projects for this book both "as is" and with modification for several years with great success.  I used the flasher circuit to add flashing red lights inside my Plasticville fire station.  I've even used a modification of the stop-station circuit to add red & green LEDS to my O-27 turnout control switches.  I use the same circuit to also control the color on various signals. 

 I highly recommend getting a copy of this book.  You'll be able to successfully build a number of useful circuits even if you've never built electronic circuits before. Overall it greatly adds to the fun of buiding/modifying a layout.

Papa-D

[steve24944]

I have that same book ( Easy Electronics Projects for Toy Trains ) , picked it up at a hobby shop last year.  I made the same flashing circuit and it works well.

 

Steve