Western Railroad Discussion > Need Help To Make US&S H-Type Work....

I got ahold of an old US&S H-Type searchlight. Ive pulled the mechanism out and now im trying to make the roundels work to change the aspect. The bulb is a 9v bulb so I took a 9v battery to it and it lit up. But I want to be able to change aspects and cant figure out how to do so. Does anyone know how to accomplish this?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/10 23:09 by jkchubbes.

If your mechanism is an H2: put 10 - 12 volts DC (9v might be enough, I've never tried it) to the terminals marked A- and A+. That will change it to green or yellow, depending on your polarity. Switching the wires on the terminals (changing polarity) will make the mechanism go the opposite direction. No power (fail safe) drops it back to red. As you've probably found out by now, the outer two terminals are for the lamp with the wiring going thru a rheostat to adjust bulb brightness.

Also, when the polarity is correct, that is, pos. on the A+, you will get a yellow. This was done as a safety feature. It takes another step in the signal circuit to get a green---reverse polarity
The mech will work with a 6 volt lantern battery just fine.

cs16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Also, when the polarity is correct, that is, pos.
> on the A+, you will get a yellow. This was done as
> a safety feature. It takes another step in the
> signal circuit to get a green---reverse polarity
> The mech will work with a 6 volt lantern battery
> just fine.



Hey many thanks for this added info. Now I've learned something I did not know.

Sounds like it's time for some WD40 therapy.

If you don't find your answer here then try my wigwag fan discussion group...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wigwag_Fan/

There are many signal techs and retired maintainers in the group, as well as signal fans. Someone will certainly be able to help you there.

Make sure your battery is charged and has some juice left in it. I use a jump start battery pack to test mine with. These relays do not require much current to operate.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com