Alan (Stockers) sent me one of his Pendlebury signal kits the other day - actually, he sent me 2 because I wanted to make a bracket signal, so I actually got the plain single signal plus the parts to make a second signal on a bracket. I modified these quite a bit by making a new platform and copying a signal from Towyn yard that I found pictured in a book. The signals are the starters for the two platform roads from Gooey station.
I tried to cut the signals down a fair bit to try and give them more of a narrow gauge feel (you should be able to get the size from the Corpet and the Bachmann figure?), but I think I was starting to push my luck with the reduction of the arms - any further reduction and the spectacle plates would start to look way too big. The only things I added to the kits were the new platform (plasticard and stripwood), the ladder (suitably sized wire mesh) and the base (part of a Piko building that came from Ruritania
). I've still got to "plant" it properly and I want to make the white band on the left-hand signal a smidge wider.
These signals are not all singing and dancing like some on the market, but they are very cheap and make an ideal way of producing signals customized to fit your railway. It would be quite easy to make them work, fit lights etc. if you wish. The recent articles in Garden Rail give some ideas on how to achieve this, but buying the Pendlebury kits would mean you don't have to make all the difficult bits like the signal arms. Distant signals could also be made just by cutting a V from the end of the arm.
So, good simple signals at a very competitive price, but the sky's the limit when it comes to modifying them
.
I tried to cut the signals down a fair bit to try and give them more of a narrow gauge feel (you should be able to get the size from the Corpet and the Bachmann figure?), but I think I was starting to push my luck with the reduction of the arms - any further reduction and the spectacle plates would start to look way too big. The only things I added to the kits were the new platform (plasticard and stripwood), the ladder (suitably sized wire mesh) and the base (part of a Piko building that came from Ruritania
). I've still got to "plant" it properly and I want to make the white band on the left-hand signal a smidge wider.These signals are not all singing and dancing like some on the market, but they are very cheap and make an ideal way of producing signals customized to fit your railway. It would be quite easy to make them work, fit lights etc. if you wish. The recent articles in Garden Rail give some ideas on how to achieve this, but buying the Pendlebury kits would mean you don't have to make all the difficult bits like the signal arms. Distant signals could also be made just by cutting a V from the end of the arm.
So, good simple signals at a very competitive price, but the sky's the limit when it comes to modifying them
.
