Ready-made Semaphore Signals top poll

I'm probably wrong on this but is there not a company called "Model Signal Engineering" producing ready made semaphore's or are they keit form and/or component form ?

QUOTE (Sol @ 3 May 2008, 22:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Brian, MSE only make parts for signals. Ratio make kits.

Sol, thanks for letting me know (my lack of knowledge of things UK showing !).

Looks like there is a market for (even) a generic ready to use semaphore then.

QUOTE (john woodall @ 3 May 2008, 23:53) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>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

Yes John, the Viessmann especially are superb & the slow action is outstanding - just one small point though - there is no "bounce" as German signals do not bounce - AFAIK, if cable operated there are two cables, one to pull on & one to pull off, with some form of "fail safe" built in.

QUOTE (jimmy @ 4 May 2008, 06:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hornby do or did some ready made signals...Not much detail but ready to operate via a motor..Could be an interesting detailing project.. Another alternative would be the old Dublo ones which would also be good for detailing...

Viessmann make a flush mounting slow action solenoid drive Cat.no4551 (retails around £9.50) with auxilary contacts - maybe of use here ?

QUOTE (papamikepapa @ 4 May 2008, 18:06) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I'm not sure they would. The Veissman single arm signals sell for around £30.00 or more.

The max RRP for the VN4500 is £29.50, our price would be nearer to £25.00.
For this you get a precision made model with metal lattice mast, slow action mechanism with auxilary contacts (all out of sight under the baseboard) & correctly illuminated with LED's behind the spectacles.

What would you consider a fair price (that will sell well) for a generic UK equivelent ?

QUOTE (Doug @ 4 May 2008, 19:43) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Are any of those made in China?

Not too sure Doug - having said that some Veissmann & Brawa masts look so similar they could just be made in the same place.....................

Maybe a basic working UK semaphore would sell for around the £15 mark.

QUOTE (john woodall @ 5 May 2008, 10:18) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>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
At the risk of starting off the UK/Other quality/quantity debate again - probably yes !