Kato Unitrack with attached signal

[Blevins18]

Question for all of you unitrack users out there. I saw some unitrack pieces on eBay that has an automatic three color signal attached to it. I believe it's part number 20-605. I'm just wondering if those signals are prototypical for Japan or are they more Americanized.

[KenS]

Kato, rather confusingly, makes two different signals with the same 20-605 part number.  The one sold by Kato USA puts the signal to the right of the track (typical for US right-side running) while the one sold in Japan puts it on the left (typical for Japanese left-side running), and it's not just one design with a reversible head, the signal will only attach in one orientation (I took one apart). So you need a photo to know which it is.

 

The signal head with three lights stacked above each other on one target (the oval backdrop) is typical of Japanese signals, but it isn't completely incorrect for a North American railroad.  However, individual railroads often have custom signals or requirements, so it might not be right if you were trying to re-create a specific prototype.

 

Until recently the most typical signal type in the US was probably the "searchlight" type, where one light could take multiple colors. These had a mechanical part to change the filter providing the color, and required more maintenance than just changing bulbs, so they've fallen out of favor in recent decades (and were never popular with some railroads). So the Kato may be less correct for older railroads, but the type was in use throughout the twentieth century.

 

For some pictures of typical US-design signals, see this site.

 

Kato's three-color signal replicates a common Japanese signal, but most real-world signaling in Japan is probably more complex, either with more lights (or fewer, two-light signals are used at some stations) or multiple heads stacked above each other, and sometimes (where there are diverging routes) with two sets of heads next to each other. Tomix makes models of some of the other kinds, but Kato does not.

 

Wikipedia now has an English-language page on Japanese Railway Signalling.

[Blevins18]

Great resources, thank you!