# South Bend B&O Signal Bridge Comments and questions



## josephunh (Mar 27, 2013)

First off I want to start off by saying I got my new South Bend B&O Signal Bridge in. It is a wonderful looking model that adds a lot of detail and from testing seems to work beautifully. Rivets, ladders, and railings are all wonderfully added to make this look really detailed. With that said it does have some minor draw backs as well. First off it is not weighted enough to stand on its own. It needs to be screwed down for it to remain standing. While this is not a huge deal it can be annoying when you are just trying to mess with it in the beginning to test it or to see how it looks in different locations. The next minor draw back was that all the wiring for the LED's it run within the cage structure of the unit and there is a multitude of colored wires that are not wrapped and can be seen with in the unit if you are looking closely at it. Again it's not a huge deal but would have been nice if these were heat shrunk so they are not as noticeable. These are only minor draw backs to the unit and really won't take away to much. The biggest issue I have with the unit is that you only get two sensors one for each track. Sadly I got the four headed unit with signals on both sides. With only one sensor per track this means both signals for a single track change at the same time and read the same thing which isn't accurate. It would be nice if the unit could come with 4 sensors to allow for the placing of two sensors per track. Thus allowing for a train trip the signal pointing the opposite direction on the line to go red first and thus after passing over the second sensor for it trip the signal for any trains following it. 

Regardless it is a wonderful unit and built well but does have some minor draw backs. If anyone is planning on one consider only getting the dual head unit as the four headed one just is not worth it if the signals act together and not independently.

One question I do have for folks who make have similar units is how do you power yours? According to the instructions it should be powered by around 12V. Now looking at the components used it looks like it survive being powered by using track voltage which would be higher and more advantageous in getting power to the unit instead of using a battery or trying to find some sort of voltage converter.


----------



## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

I plan on getting the SB crossing signal this summer. I have successfully used a step down regulator in the past to get down to 12v with a smoke unit running track power. The one I used steps down anything from 24v and puts out a steady 12v. I tried it with various input voltage from 23v to 13v and it put out a steady 12v. I'm planning on trying that with the SB crossing signal so I can use track power. There are some fairly cheap ones on ebay from China $6. I thought I'd try this one that says it's waterproof for $9: 

 link to regulator


----------



## josephunh (Mar 27, 2013)

Jim thanks for the info. Right now I do not need one that's water proof as I am starting it on my clubs layout but that's good to know when I start using this outside in the future.


----------

