However, most of the commercial offerings by Lionel, MTH and Menards sacrifice scale fidelity for durability and simplicity. And many of them are permanently integrated into the sectional track. (Yes... "Wehonest" has some for sale on Ebay that look good for under $20, and had no other options been available I would have gone with those).
I wanted a nice look set of crossing signals that would flash as long as a button was pushed on the fascia of my layout. Harrison would get a kick out of that, as would I. I didn't want to have them triggered via optical detection (such as when a train broke a beam of light) or via electronic detection (which would require dividing the track into circuits). I also didn't want gates to come up and down, because to me they never look good scaled down.
So, at the 2025 Springfield train show I talked with some companies and found out that Tomar Industries made really nice looking crossing flashers (#862). Tomar wasn't at the train show, and I could not find any vendors selling them. A call the following week to Tomar confirmed that they did make them, but they were currently out of stock. I ordered two pairs (4 signals total... always order more than you need in case they become unobtainable in the future) and was put on a waiting list. A year passed and I happened to talk to Tomar regarding something else entirely and I reminded them of the order. They were very apologetic and said they would push them through. A few weeks after the 2026 Springfield show and I had them in my hand. They are lovely and delicate, and I can't wait to use them.
But I have no real idea how to wire them up. You need to purchase third-party software to work with the signals and a power source to make them flash on and off, and alternate left and right. So, I called Logic Rail Technologies, who also were at Springfield. Chuck helped me select the right product to make the flashers activate at the push of the button.
The crossing signals use 2.4 volt LEDs, and if you put 12v of power to them they will blow up! So, you need to install resistors (which Tomar provided) in line. The LRT boards can operate between 7-12 volts so any DC power pack like I use to run my building lights would work. But I wanted a stand-alone power source, and I always have lots of 9v batteries lying around. Chuck said 9v would be fine, and the 300-ohm resistors Tomar provided would be good. He also explained where I had to cut in the momentary on/off toggle switch into the circuit to make it operate.
All was fine and good until I went to give him my credit card info. Then I saw that there are separate boards to control bell sounds. They offer them with "classic" bell sounds, modern bell sounds, and electronic bell sounds. I wanted the classic sounds, so I ordered that board plus a speaker too. All told it was a lot less than I expected.
The instructions are multiple pages with lots of great diagrams, and they cover nearly every possible way to trigger them and wire them up (with options for flashing rates and other such stuff). It was all a bit confusing for me, so I cut/pasted only the relevant portions I needed into one diagram. The green control button wire was added to the schematic after confirming with Chuck that it was correct.
To wire it up, I decided to mount everything on a offcut of plywood so that I could work on at my workbench. I could test it there, and if it operated correctly I could attach it to the bottom of the layout. I glued some small pieces of wood where the circuit board mounting screws would go to elevate it from the plywood and protect the component solder joints underneath.
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The speaker was an 80 ohm speaker that I purchased from LRT. It didn't come with an enclosure, and I couldn't find one online for a 2" speaker, so I made one from some sheet styrene and a PVC pipe coupling that I had lying around. To get the larger hole, I chain drilled a bunch of smaller holes and connected them with my chisel knife blade. Then, files brought it to final size. I soldered on some wires to the back of the speaker, and then used clear caulk to attach it to the styrene frame I made.
The base is more laminated styrene, to which I first attached the PVC coupling with MEK solvent. Then, I ran a thick bead around the inside to further seal it up.
I couldn't wait to test the sound so I hooked it up with a temporary on/off button wired in, but it didn't work. So, I reached out to L.R.T. who looked at what I did and quickly noticed one switch was set the wrong way. Then, it worked great. So much so that Harrison could hear it upstairs. Yes!
I haven't hooked up the lights yet because they look fragile and I don't want to damage them. I can't install these on the layout until I have built the road that they are to protect, and I can't do that until I figure out exactly what industry is going on the rear siding (freight station? Agway? Etc.)
So, into storage they go...
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