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Post by edwardsutorik on Nov 22, 2014 17:33:53 GMT -8
I'm installing my first signals--a back to back ABS setup. I think that's what it's called. Not CTC. Anyway, the two signals are out in the countryside on a single main line. Somewhere in Northern California.
I am wondering if I need to put in (model) battery boxes for these signals. They aren't near a power line.
Anyone know what the deal is with these boxes?
Ed
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Post by canrailfan on Nov 22, 2014 19:02:57 GMT -8
If your signal installation includes a signal 'bungalow' the batteries would normally be housed in it along with the relays, etc. Battery boxes would be found perhaps next to the distant signals approaching an interlocking. The battery box could be an above-ground cabinet or an in-ground concrete box. In-ground boxes were often preferred where temperatures were colder and would have insulated tops.
Even though there didn't appear to be a power line near many signal installations, most railroads carried 120VAC on a pair of wires on the line-side telegraph poles. This power was used to keep the batteries charged, but almost never powered any signal circuits directly. In most railroads division timetables there were diagrams showing which wires on which pole cross arm were carrying the 120VAC. In the days of telegraph communications the diagrams would also show which wire pair was the telegraph line to the dispatcher. Cabooses carried a portable telegraph set with poles to reach up and connect to the telegraph line at any point along the track in the event of an emergency.
David
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Post by edwardsutorik on Nov 22, 2014 22:43:22 GMT -8
David.
I think what you are referring to as "signal bungalows" would be something like relay cabinets--rectangular above ground enclosures. Correct? In this case, I was not planning on including them, though my signals do have the relay cabinets in the base of the signals. But still, there's those "above-ground cabinets". The batteries have to be somewhere, right?
I was not planning on having telegraph or power lines within a hundred yards of the signals. And yet, it appears power has to be supplied.
Continued confusion,
Ed
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