Clever signals

Though there were strict procedures to follow, signalmen were human beings. The majority were sticklers for the rules but some were a little more slapdash. Signals could be pulled off late or a heavy-handed touch could lead to the arm bouncing. In order to maximise ‘Lynsford’s’ impact, its signalling has been designed to mimic this human fallibility.

The signals themselves are shop-soiled Dapol items (they were bought from Dapol with failed motors) and they’ve been connected to servos. They’re powered, however, by an Arduino micro-computer, which Andy’s brother (another Steve) has programmed with a variety of different pull-off speeds and an arm-bounce on their return to Danger. But these are programmed to be random, so neither Steve nor Andy will know what will happen when they flick a switch.

“If we were building the layout again,” Andy says, “we would like to do something similar with the lighting to make it more lifelike and random… just like Miniatur Wunderland!”