I can’t afford block detection right now on all of my signals, so I was wondering what kind of switch to buy for manually operating a PRR position signal (specifically by NJ international).
I understand I will need a “3 way” switch, but where can I buy one of these, am I likely to find one in radio shack? Also, there are several types I think, some I have seen are “on off on”, “on __on” etc. My signal has one gray ground wire, and 4 black wires. The really confusing thing is how I control the single bulb on the mast that rests below the 7 position lights. Do I have to solder 2 wires to the wire that controls this bulb?
You won’t in a million years find such a switch at Radio Shack. You can get 3 and 4 position slide switches from places like Mouser and DigiKey. Almost all multiple position switches like this are slides. You probbaly want 4 - so you can have off plus the 3 aspects of the main head. The ‘extra’ light combines witht eh main head to provide additional aspects - look up a guide for signalling which will explain these. A simple on/off switch will work here, although the prototype often also had a flashing mode - if you’re goign to get that complicated then you might as well install a signal controller but instead of operating it from block detectors control them manually.
I’m not sure how this particular signal is wired. I’d imagine that one of the wires is for the center bulb, which should always be on. The other wires would be for the horizontal, diagonal and vertical pairs. Is that right?
How about a rotary switch? Radio $hack even has them. If you get one with the right number of positions, you could even set it up so that the position of the switch matches the indicators.
Probably. There should be a wiring diagram included to explain that. There should be a common for all, plus the center light, the 3 pairs for the signal aspects, and one for the extra light.
A rotary switch would work. With enough positions you could even turn on the extra indicator, although then the position would not match the signal aspect.
Put power to the gray wire and each of the black wires one at a time. Mark the black wire with the bulbs that light up. My guess is that the lower light will come on when one of the black wires has power to it. Also what wire or wires make the center light light up will be important in determining how to wire the signal. http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/prraspec.htm