Scale Crossing Flashers
By MTH/Railking
Lately my emphasis has been on acquiring track and operating accessories. Last Christmas I had a chance to visit a large train shop that carries the full range of Railking operating gates, flashers, and signals. I had my eye on a pair of MTH reproductions of Lionel crossing signals when I spotted a pair of new scale crossing flashers with sound. I coundn't pass them up, for less than the cost of a pair of monster signals I got two die-cast scale sized crossing flashers with sound.
The flashers are easy to hook up to an insulated track section, and work well at around 12 volts. The back of the package features a wiring diagram, but for some reason they labeled the connections positive/negative instead of hot/ground. The combined effect of flashing lights and bell sound is great. An electronic circuit in the base of each signal realistically alternates the flashing of the lights, the speaker unit provides just the bell sound. The sound quality is pretty good, but might become annoying on a small layout. It would be very easy to wire an on/off switch into the speaker circuit while
allowing the lights to still flash. Note the slots on the front side of the signal, they allow you to mount the signals in a temporary location (as shown). You can also mount them permanently and run the wires down through a hole in the layout. Screws are included to permanently mount the signals and the speaker.
