More Signals!

I've been crawling around up under the layout again. The reason I say UP UNDER is the fascia is in my way, so I have to go under, and then try to fit in between the bench work to install a lot of this. That's why my progress is so slow. Never the less, I have now installed signals on either side of Monroe. They look just like the others already pictured, so no point in showing that, but these have an addition. You see our Yard Master finds the need to stretch his switching jobs outside of yard limits on occasion, so he wanted to be able to hold trains away from Monroe a bit. I've named the signals after the real thing, Winesap on the south end, and McIvor on the north, but their locations are off because it's a model railroad and there just wasn't room to do it realistically. Winsap is just north of the James River trestle, McIvor is just south of Amherst on the VBR&S.

Our Yard Master gets a small CTC like panel where green indicates the normal condition of the ABS, but if he needs to hold an expected train, as he is the southbound train at McIvor in this picture, he can override the normal green aspect. Now, before you signal purists call me on it, I'm aware that a single head red aspect can be passed as long as the engineer can stop his train in half the distance he can see, but on the VBR&S, because of the shorter distances involved, we will consider it a stop signal. Okay?

This shot shows you where the Yard Master's panel is located on the fascia at Monroe. I was rather pleased with the way this turned out, although I used or pulled muscles I didn't know I had getting into the awkward positions necessary to install the wiring under Monroe Yard. As soon as I recover, I have another signal module and a set of signals ready to be installed somewhere else.