Easy signal control on a layout question:

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have a few Tomar signals and wanted to hook them up and control them easily on my layout. I was think of using a double throw toggle but could I use an Atlas Selector? A double throw toggle would only be able to control 2 of the 3 lights. Could a Atlas selector work in this situation? Does anyone else have any other ways to control their signals? I already know about using resistors for each light.

Thanks for your help!

VAMidlandRR

2

There are such things as 3-position slide switches, but you’d be hard pressed to find them. Very specialized item. How about rotary switches? As many positions as you want, up to 11. You should be able to find some with 3 positions, but if there’s more, just ignore the rest.

3

I use 4P3T rotary switches to control signals on my ‘end of the railroad’ module. The other three poles are used to interlock the signals with the track switches and each other, and to control track power to the stop circuited rails in advance of the signals. Thanks to analog DC and the MZL system, an inattentive engineer can’t run a red signal.

Actually, my signals are semaphores, and the rotary handles are painted like semaphore arms. The handle position tells the signal indication at a glance.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)