Here is a topic worthy of its own thread - Signals. There is a huge variety of sizes, shapes and styles of railroad signals. I will start off with one of the better known ones, the semiphore. This pix was shot at the Galveston, Texas, Railroad Museum. [ 07. October 2003, 19:25: Message edited by: Peirce ]
Peirce, Couldn't help but notice the similarity between these signals and the ones still in use in parts of the U.K.(see photos) We have two main types: Upper Quadrant and Lower Quadrant. We refer to the red faced signals as "home" or "starting" and they indicate either stop or go. We call the yellow faced signals "distants" and they indicate that either the next signal is at stop or the section is clear throughout. Did the signals in your photo give similar indications as I notice that they appear to be able to display 3 positions unlike the 2 position British ones ?? Best wishes, John. [ 26 May 2001: Message edited by: John Whitby ]
I am not a signal expert, but I am sure members of our our crack research team are already on the case. The pictures are excellent. I'm glad to see the international comparison.
Judging by how semaphore signals work (as well as color position light signals), an arm at zero (0) degrees is a restricted signal, over another zero degrees signal is the same as a red-over-red searchlight. in essence, the semaphores arranged like the ones in the pic from texas is used the same way as a two-aspect searchlight. Therefore, a semaphore at 45 degrees and the bottom at zero degrees is the same as yellow-over-red searchlight...an approach signal. Do you get it? And of course, a clear signal is 90 degrees (either alone or over a zero degree arm...green-over-red for searchlights). These are only basic examples, and some signals vary by railroad. I hope that explanation helped you out! Sometimes I tend to ramble a little. dave [ 27 May 2001: Message edited by: NSBrakeman ]
Whoa, Dave! For the life of me I can't work out how US signalling works - no rhyme nor reason! And it's my career path to boot!!! The pictures of semaphores are nice to see since these are becoming rarer here in NSW, Oz. There's a few places left around the state with power operated upper quadrants (main southern line between Picton and Goulburn) and still some here in Sydney on the freight lines near downtown, all of these are mechanical 2-position lower quandrant mainline and shunt types. When more than one route is available, multiple arms were used arranged sequentially from left to right route, top to bottom. Lower quadrant distant signals in New South Wales gave a clear (-45 deg.) or caution (0 deg) indication depending on the position of the first home signal. Home and starters conversely gave a stop or clear indication. Upper quadrants were all 3-position, two aspect, giving stop, caution and clear indications using a red-green-green lens set up over a lower lamp case with a red and green light giving a stop indication (arm 0 deg, red light over red light), caution (arm 45 deg, green over red), and clear (arm 90 deg, green over green). In this case, the top indication (arm) is that signal's condition and the lower indication the condition of the signal in advance - ie. green over red = this signal clear, next signal at stop. This is a basic description of semaphores here. I'm sure Colonel will chime in with more info since he worked on them far more than I have. Gary.
To the best of my reccolection, the semiphore evolved from large balls hung on a pole at a station,(hence the term 'high ball', meaning clear track ahead) it was used in the late 19th century before electicity became common. Semiphores were first manually operated at the station to signal the oncomming train, they were the first 'block' signals and also to notify the train that there were 'orders' waiting for him at the station. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>For the life of me I can't work out how US signalling works - no rhyme nor reason! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Gats, you're absolutey correct, each RR in the States had their own system, the RR 'boomers' had to learn each road's usage as they wandered around.
while the US signal system must seem confusing to someone outside our shores, I can say that I am just as confused at signal systems in other countries. While the US railroads may have had different types of signal systems, the basic indications are the same for all railroads. You can bet that if I encounter a Red aspected signal without a number or marker plate, that I will stop and stay until I am authorized past that signal. The same for a semaphore(very rare around here)at a horizontal position. Yellow is gonna mean "Approach" of some sort, and Green is gonna mean "Clear" in some way,shape or form. Then you can throw in all your diverging aspects, slow clear, approach medium, slow approach, approach slow, restricting, approach restricing, slow speed etc etc etc ad nauseam. This is why we have rule books and in Chicago we also have the C.O.R.A.(Chicago Operating Rules Association) rule book for when we operate on "foreign" roads. In spite of its complexity, it is nothing like Europe or Asia is/was with its myriad sytems of different track guages and signal systems. But, that's railroading.....
