Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

I recently got a GRS flasher relay, it seems to be newer than all the ones i've seen. I can get the relay to power up but can't seem to get power to the lights. i'm assuming I'm getting something wrong with where to hook the lights or the ground. any help would be greatly appreciated.

aspengf8 wrote:I recently got a GRS flasher relay, it seems to be newer than all the ones i've seen. I can get the relay to power up but can't seem to get power to the lights. i'm assuming I'm getting something wrong with where to hook the lights or the ground. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Odd seeing a shelf relay with an x-pack type flasher on it instead of washers used for timing. GRS did some funky stuff.
I have no idea how you wired that up, But if it helps any, the DCVto the relay has nothing to do with the voltage going to the lights.
FYI Infact most of our signals have AC transformers to supply AC voltage to incandescent lights, only in the even of a power failure does the POR(Power Off Relay)switch to battery (DC) backup. (But for at home DC is easier because most people don't have railroad or industrial size transformers.)
So inother words you have to have separate voltage going to the lights.
Our relays had 3 wires EN=Negative EB=Battery(Positive) N=Common.
http://signaldepartment.com/articles/xi ... ashing.gif
In your case it looks like the outer contacts are for EN and EB and the middle contacts connected to each other are the common.
Put EN on contact 1H and EB 4H one wire for a crossing light on 3H and another on the middle contacts
Then the other crossing light on 2H and a wire on middle contacts.
I hope that works, never messed with a whole lot of GRS EORs, US&S are easy as pie to hook up.
Good luck.
PS=I see a model railroad power pack in your pic, Incandescent need a good bit of amperage to run, A 25Watt bulb running on 10Vdc will require 2.5Amps

that doesn't seem to be the right way to wire it either, also I think I broke the flasher box, the relay itself works with the blue box disconnected.I didn't see any visual damage to the inside of the blue flasher box but something shorted out. I think i'll try to find myself a nice older type K flasher of a US&S FN-16a, this relay is a pain. also the model powerpack was just for testing, that particular one can run a set of 4 lights for a minute or so before it dies. my crossing signal in the house (set of 4 WCH 8" lights and a griswold bell) is powered by a 450W computer power supply and a lights to go flasher.

great news, I talked with my local signal maintainer. he knows how to wire it and has spare X-packs. I should have it working soon! thanks for your help kight!