Ready-made Semaphore Signals top poll

14732 Views 45 Replies 17 Participants Last post by dwb, May 15, 2008

John Webb

Discussion Starter · May 3, 2008

The recent poll carried out on Pat Hammond's Model Railway Express on-line magazine for a 'Wish List' for 2008 came up with ready-made operating semaphore signals as the most desired accessory - indeed they were the overall 1st choice, exceeding any single loco! (See also Model Rail's May issue, page 74.)

Desires expressed in previous years' polls have resulted in both locos and rolling stock being made by the major makers - let's hope they heed the results of this year's poll!

Regards,
John Webb

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john woodall

· #5 · May 3, 2008

You can only but hope that who ever decides to make them look very hard at what Brawa and Viessmann have done.

For a long time Brawa were the Germanic leaders in signals, the detail was excellent, but the mechanisim was very basic.

Viessmann now make signals that are not only the equal of Brawa in terms of detail, but have slow action motors which are fantastic.

John

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john woodall

· #18 · May 5, 2008

Hi Brian,

Your correct. If people baulk at paying GBP100 for a locomotive, they are not likely to pay GBP30 for a signal.

I doubt that Hornby wiould be able to make a signal that is asd good as the viesmann one for half the price (unless of course the English ones do not have lattice masts?).

AFAIK the model train market in Germany is a lot bigger than the market in the UK. It would not surprse me if the Viesmann signals are made in china. Even at EUR50 each, IMHO it is money well spent.

I wonder at times if my strategy of spending as much on my layout infrastructure (track, signals, controller etc) as on the physical trains is out of synch with what is happening in the UK. Does the quantity over quality still rule?

John

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john woodall

· #27 · May 7, 2008

Hi Ron,

That is where the Germanic modeller is so lucky. If you model post 1925 then there is a high chance that the DRG patterns are ok. Pre 1925 and the individual Länderbahn patterns are more common. That being said, railway buildings are the exception as most of these were built prior to 1925.

It is a shame that Viessman signals cannot be adapted for OO, as they are excellent in both their finish and workings.

As for modellers being picky, I personally think that there are 3 distinct branchs of the hobby now, the rivit counters, those following prototype practice and the others. I like to think that the prototype practice group is a growing group.

John

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john woodall

· #43 · May 15, 2008

I must admit, that reading something like this thread shows how spoilt the Germanic modeller really is.

I take reasonably well detailed working signals for granted (Viessmann for semaphore, Marklin for colour light). While these signals are not cheap, that are not that expensive (unless you need a lot of them).

Interesting ideas Richard. I don't think that you would go far wrong using the Viessmann signal motor. Maybe you should send them your signal design and they might start making them?

John

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