I have a seven year old son who loves model trains. He also happens to have Autism, so he tends to pick out not so common parts of the train system to focus on. His particular area of interest happens to be crossings, signals, signs, etc. I have searched high and low and I am having no luck, so I’m turning to the experts. Would anyone happen to know if there are any books or maybe posters or something that is specifically the various signs? Or, maybe you can point me in the direction of where I could get pictures to use and create him his own book? I appreciate any help you may be able to provide. Thank you
First let me welcome you to the board,being the parent of a special needs child I know the drill when they find something that interests them we latch onto it like a Rottweiler with a bone so I’ve been where yo are now. Glad to see he has an interest in trains even though it’s not what you might consider “normal” but there are many guys into railroad signals and signs etc. Collecting vintage signals is a big bucks thing at a lot of train show. You can get a complete working crossing signal set up from MTH for example for around $175 with sound .Pretty cool stuff definitely on my wish list. There are other manufactures who make signals as well MTH is fresh in my mind because my son and I were fighting over the MTH catalog that came in the mail this afternoon…lol
Here are a couple of links for a book about railroad signals. What also may be an easier option is go pick up some photo paper and do a Google image search and print out some of your own, put them in a binder and there’s your railroad signal book.
http://www.amazon.com/Railroad-Signaling-Brian-Soloman/dp/0760313601
Thank you so much!!! He is going to love that book! He wears out his Walther’s catalogs and Train magazines by going through them so much that I know that book will be a huge hit. Thank you again!!
Do a google for “Mike’s Railroad Crossing” - the folks there may also have some good suggestions.
n810smom…
Thanks for asking for help here… you’ll probably get more responses with ideas than you think.
This is a great hobby and I love it when children - of all ages and backgorunds - find any type of interest in it. I hope that you’ll gain some helpful ideas here.
I was just about the mention and recommend a book titled ‘Railroad Signaling’ by author Brian/Soloman , but Allegheny 2-6-6-2 beat me to it…lol.
It is relatively inexpensive and allthough it has a lot of technical reading, it also has a plethera of LARGE
COLOR PHOTOS that may be a interest to your boy.
If he is attracted to the features of lighted signals, you may be able to find a local hobby shop or model railroad club or organization that you may meet with and explain your curcumstances -the members may be able to get together and make a small display of signals of different types and arrange it so they operate with blinking lights and changing colors…its not that difficult or expensive and most club groups would be more than glad to volunteer a little material and time to the project.
You could also build your own small display for home , with some help and advice from many of the good folks here…I really wish you well with the project and hope you’ve gotten some ideas .
Let all of us know what you come up with and we’ll try to offer more assistance -if we can.
Best Wishes and have fun with your son!
Rick Simpson
HeritageFleet1
Your quite welcome, I almost forgot about these I saw one at a train show and my son went bonkers over it I had to put one of those locks on the plug ends so he could not get up in the middle of the night and keep plugging it back in. He’s also got one from a guy we know who has live steam here in town on his estate. He gave my son one of the old signals from his railroad as he was upgrading .There isone that usually shows up at every train show that stands a few feet tall and plugs in the wall etc.
If I come across any others I’ll let you kow.
http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/lionel_railroad_crossing_coin_bank.html
Hello here is a link to some signs
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/162879.aspx
you should fine something here. Thanks to Tomkat-13 for all the signs. Hope this helps Frank
Thank you! I emailed the forum moderator over there and he was able to point me in the direction of some crossing signal video’s!
Thank you very much for the information! We do have one small hobby shop about 30 miles from us that we will be heading back too once construction is finished 
We bought him a small HO train set from there last year. It is nothing fancy, just a powerloc set that will run on his carpet since his train table is too small. He sets all the crossing gates he has up around this little track, it’s pretty funny
He actually has that bank. We bought it a few years ago for him for his birthday. Despite how heavy it is, he will drag it all over the house and set up crossings with it.