Pro's and Con's of Tomar Crossing Signals

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I haven't gotten my yet but a pro is the LED's on both sides of the signal.
I have the Busch ones right now, nice but one sided.
 
The Tomar signals look great on their web site but I would like to see them in person before I pay that kind of money for a signal.
Dave
 


Here is an install on a club module that I did a few years ago.

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Man, I've got less wiring under my entire layout! Very neatly done!
The question still remains how well do they work? Also, what do you figure the total cost for an installation like that would be?
 
Lets see I used the following items. The Tomar crossing set comes with one Tortoise and signal activator but I did each gate separate just for reliability. A lot of the electronics have been upgraded recently so you could probably use half the boards that I did.

Tomar 862 Crossing Signal 1 Pair $31.08
Tomar 863 Crossing Signal with Gates $99.18

Circuitron 5102 FL-2 Alternating Flasher $11.97
Circuitron 6000 Tortoise Switch Machine $11.99
Circuitron 8100 Remote Signal Activator $7.77

Crossing Detector Circuits $28 Each
http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/GC04.html

Logic Rail Electronic Bell Circuit #ITT-Bell $34.95
 
I have a couple of tomar crossings and the earlier pic pretty much shows it. Very high quality. I believe they're made of brass. you won't be disappointed.
I also have a few block signals made by them.
 
whoa..that motorola speaker is going way back..My dad has a couple that came out of old police cars...
 


I'm looking for crossing signals as well. Can you hook them up to a Digitrax DS64 and control them like a switch?

I'm looking for manual/DCC controlled, not detection or automated.
 
The Tomar signals are better built than the NJ International line...but not twice as better. :) I think the NJ International signals with the dual-sided LED's look just fine. One of the things that has always irritated me about Tomar is that they should at least come with a bell casting for that price.

Motley, just about anything electrical that can be controlled with a switch can be controlled manually with a stationary DCC controller. As long as detection and automation aren't an issue, you should be fine.
 
UP2CSX said:
The Tomar signals are better built than the NJ International line...but not twice as better. :) I think the NJ International signals with the dual-sided LED's look just fine. One of the things that has always irritated me about Tomar is that they should at least come with a bell casting for that price.

Motley, just about anything electrical that can be controlled with a switch can be controlled manually with a stationary DCC controller. As long as detection and automation aren't an issue, you should be fine.
Click to expand...

The Tomar signals come with and without a bell casting depending which ones you order. The Tomar signals are more to scale then the NJ International for modern crossing signals especially the light housings.

NJ International

Pedistal%20Gates-1.jpg


Tomar

H-863.jpg
 
They both look great to me. I see what your refering to though. There is some pretty good videos of a fellow that has the NJ signals in operation on his layout and they do look nice as well.

Only thing I can say given those pictures is that the Tomar gates dont appear to raise up as vertical. But that wouldnt bother me personally.

There is another company out of Canada that makes, or made actually. Signal logic systems used to make, by far, the most beautiful and prototypical crossing signals out there. Last I heard though, they stopped making the actual signals but still make the controller. My understanding is the cost to make the signals was getting too expensive and time consuming. They arent cheap I guess. Im not paid or part of the company, nor do I have a set of them. Just impressed.

http://www.signalogicsystems.com/index.html
 
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Yeah, I know, Mark, but $4 extra for a bell casting is a lot when you've already paid $31 for the crossing signal. The cost difference for the signals with crossing gates is really outrageous, and the slight scale advantage of Tomar does not offset a cost that's more than twice as high. I think the NJ gates themselves are actually more to scale and look better than Tomar. Having bought Tomar from another source and the NJ signals from you, I would still buy more NJ signals from you, even though your price for Tomar beats anyone else I've seen.
 
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