Making the Lionel No.153 block signal work with the Lionel No. 132 automatic passenger station

[San Jose]

I can't figure out how to connect the 153 block signal with the 132 automatic passenger station. 

The Lionel Service Manual I have says that "In large permanent layouts, the No. 153 Signal is often operated through special insulated rails, relays, or by being connected to other equipment such as No.022 switches or No. 132 Automatic Passenger Stations". 

It seems to me that that "special insulated rails" they talk about could be the insulated block that goes with the 132 passenger station.  I cannot figure out how to wire this so that the block signal light changes from green to red when the train enters the insulated block and back to green when the train leaves the insulated block. 

Can this be done?

I'd appreciate any help.

Nino from San Jose

[lionelsoni]

Connect the center (common) terminal of the 153 to the insulated center rail.  Connect the 153 terminal that goes to the red light to the center rail that is not insulated.  Connect the 153 terminal that goes to the green light to the outside rails.

If you have the earlier version of the 153 with screw-base 7-volt lamps, you will need to jumper around the resistor that is connected to the center terminal and to replace the lamps with 14-volt lamps, like the number-52.

If your 153 has the red lamp on top, you may want to swap lamps, to be prototypical.

If the red lamp glows brightly enough to be noticed, you may want to wire a number-57 in parallel with it.

[TrainLarry]

Using insulated control rails and a relay, the 153 can be made to change aspects. Wire one connection of the relay coil to track power, and the other coil connection to the insulated control rail. Wire the green lamp connection of the 153 to the Normally Closed terminal of the relay. The red lamp gets connected to the Normally Open relay terminal. The common connection of the relay contacts connects to track power. The common connection of the 153 connects to track ground. With no train in the insulated section, the signal is green. When a train enters the insulated section, the relay closes, changing the signal to red.                                                                                            Larry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lionelsoni]

Aside from the extra trouble of creating the control rail and adding the relay, this would produce some odd behavior:

The locomotive would be nearly to the signal when it would change to red.  The locomotive would stop for a while, but then would start up and run past the red signal when the station times out.  Only when the locomotive and the train were clear of the control rail and past the signal, would the signal go to green.