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One of my westbound ground signals was in grave danger of getting sideswiped when trains moved through my crossovers at Bryant Jct. Luckily Terry at Custom Signals opened up shop again this summer and I was able to get some bridge heads from him. The westbound signal (over center track) is one of his PRR-52s (the ground version equivalent in this spot was a PRR-55) which comes with three boards to give you three different aspects and indications for three different routes. I have it set for restricting for trains moving onto the eastbound track and slow approach when the crossovers are set to route trains into my front yard lead/interchange track. The signal on the left is one of my only opposite facing signals and its most permissive speed is also restricting for now. I may add more signals for bidirectional running in the future.

I built this out of two Plasticville signal bridges spliced together. The half round supports were bent from 1/32" brass L but I think they look a little too light. I may come up with something different for the next bridge I have planned to span the other end of this set of crossovers.

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Looks great Norm.  Maybe a slightly larger diameter wire on future  builds.   I have taken the brass wire and flattened it with a punch and hammer on an anvil to make mounting flanges at the ends, it works great.  You may have done that here, my eyes aren't that good any longer.  

Thanks you guys!

PHC, there is a dwarf just out beyond the bridge. I didn't feel like moving it and didn't make the bridge wide enough for it to sit under.

Bob, you're right! I may look into doing it but I'm worried the Pville bridge doesn't sport the same angles as the prototype. That would actually drive me nuts for some reason. 

I think Terry's signals would look awesome on your layout. Let me know if I can help with the wiring at all. I need to buy a few more heads from him before he decides to retire again!

Turns out I had some photos of a decent signal bridge on my old lost iPhone. I took these in December 2014 in Glenfield PA. 

It looks like I had an answer to my question about the curved supports all along, just misplaced. It appears that they are back to back L channels.

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Good thing I snagged the shots when I did. By September 2015 Google street view shows it changed over to a modern aluminum bridge with Darth Vaders/Dark Helmets. Sad!

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Norm, that looks awesome. Especially good job minimizing the visual impact of the wires from the signal heads.  Here's a couple in-process shots of a similar one I am making.  I snipped out the vertical supports an installed sway bracing.  Dave did the painting and weathering for me.  With the PRR-22 and -42 signal heads, there are a lot of wires to bundle and route through the truss, so I have a lot of work to do to make them blend into the structure better.

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By the way, I believe that signal bridge at Glenfield was accidentally hit by an MOW crane, hence the replacement in 2015.

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Thanks Anthony, I did find some photos of the damaged bridge after a bit of research.

I stripped off most of the heat shrink from the signal leads and dressed them as one bundle for each signal. I tied them using some copper strands pulled from 22awg flex wire, also using them to attach to the bridge legs. I painted everything Engine Black so the bundles are camouflaged a bit.

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I am now building another bridge for the westbound end. My first attempt was almost done when I noticed it sagged a bit. I tore it down and rebuilt after finding another Plasticville bridge in my kit collection. I will remount the heads tonight. This whole scene has changed a bit over the past few months.

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I was supposed to make it this wide to begin with, to fit into the corner of that retaining wall, oh well.

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Last edited by Norm Charbonneau

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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