SC Dave, or anyone, do you recognise…

[sarge]

…this now somewhat aged board.

I want to say this is left over from my large-scale days, Locolink, Phoenix Sound perhaps?

[ScaleCraft]

Well, not LocoStink. Behren never built anything like that.
Not Phoenix, too few components for a decent sound system.
Not RCS, not AristoCrap.
There was a guy down near Sandy Eiggo who built all sorts of track powered controls....and copied off the early 2-channel RCS stuff. Dimensions on board?

[ScaleCraft]

That is close to 25 years old. Back then, everybody and his cousin wanted to make a million bucks with sound systems. None were any good.....some got better.

Looking at this closely, the markings on the screw terminal header, guess here, C is common, T is trigger, maybe horn, T is trigger, maybe bell, the SS is speaker terminals, + is power in, G is ground for power.
Trim pot on board (blue thingie with brass screwhead in side), I have seen before......still pondering....

[R.K. Maroon]

The dual-inline integrated circuit in the middle of the board appears to be a Texas Instruments NE556N, which is a timer -- not the first component that comes to my mind when considering the design of a sound card. My first wild guess is that this is a flasher of some sort. Maybe for a crossing gate or a Mars light. Or it could be for a signal system, with the timer providing some delay or anti-bounce. But I would say your guess is as good or better than mine.

Jim

[sarge]

The board dimensions are 2-1/2” x 3-1/4”

The IC is indeed an NE556N

[Rufus T. Firefly]

.

[ScaleCraft]

flasher with timer makes sense, especially with the adjustment pot.
Still think that guy....Chuck Murray? in Sandy Eiggo.

[sarge]

Circuitron, perchance?

[ScaleCraft]

Date on board pre-dates Cicuitron by quite a bit doesn't it?

[R.K. Maroon]

Here, for your consideration, is a Circuitron "Logic Grade Crossing Detection Unit":









I bought two of these as $5 items at some train show in the recent past. I thought they had the flasher integrated but, per the name, it is only the detection circuit. At any rate, given the level of deterioration of the foam and the state of art of the electronics, I would guess these are 1970s items, or maybe 1980s using 1970s technology.

Again, your guess is as good as mine
Jim

[ScaleCraft]

Talked to my buddy in Carlsbad...Chuck is in their GR club...had a stroke....confirms looks like Chuck's stuff.

One board did reversing,one crossing, one station stops, one called Motorman, one Switchman, all sorts of crap.
He's looking for company name.

[De Bruin]

Am I wrong to think if its a detector board that it could be used for regulating a signal block aspect too? I do recall some layouts having signal block sets where they could adjust the time for the reset from red to yellow to prevent the signal resetting while cars were still traveling past the aspect (a common visual faux pas then and now)

[R.K. Maroon]

Pete, is might indeed be possible to use this for a block signal system, but a grade-crossing circuit is more complicated than needed for block signal use. In particular, the grade-crossing unit needs to come on when the train is far away from the crossing but go off just after the train clears the crossing. That's not so hard, except it has to work with the train running in either direction. That is harder.

The real question for the Circuitron unit, which uses optical detection, is what happens if the train stops while in the grade crossing. Not supposed to happen of course but we all know it does. I'll wire one up someday and see how it goes.

There is also the question of what happens if you have more than one track. That might completely confuse it. But I have two of these so I might be able to make it work for the club layout double-track mainline with a little added digital logic. No time for that now but hopefully before the decade is out.

Jim

[sarge]

We’re getting smarter.

I’ve been on with Circuitron; not one of theirs but he is giving it a fair look to see if he can figure out what it does. BTW, they have been around a lot of years, Dave. I think you are getting close if we can get the company name, that’s another piece of the puzzle.

Thanks to you all for playing this Whatzit. Well done so far!

[sarge]

Jim, those things are bi-directional but I believe you need one board per track. If the directions don’t give clarity, email Circuitron; they certainly can help.