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RE: (erielack) Erie signals
It's interesting to note that the Lackawanna aspect for this move was with two signals: Red on the top mast over Green on the bottom mast.
Ed Montgomery
- -----Original Message-----
From: Joseph A. Braun [mailto:joebraun_@_optonline.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 2:32 PM
To: 'EL Mailing List'
Subject: (erielack) Erie signals
This wonderfully informative thread on signals has reminded me of an old unanswered question from the Fifties and then added some more questions.
I used to regularly watch #1 pass through Glen Rock on the Erie Main Line.
I'd look westbound up toward Ridgewood Junction and see what I can now accurately refer as the three-armed, vertically aligned signal before the junction. Invariably, it would be red over green over red. I just now used my 1964 EL operating rules to finally educate myself to the old question as to what this meant: "Proceed through crossovers...with entire train at not exceeding medium speed..." #1 would be entering Rwd Jct on Track 4 and crossover to Trk 3 and then to Trk 1 for its station stop at Ridgewood.
Makes sense!
Further questions:
1. Are three arms used simply because three different arms allow for more varied patterns? In other words, is there any significance to any one arm or simply whatever pattern is showing? A guitar has six strings and a uke just four; so the guitar can give more complex chords, sounds, and patterns -- but no guitar string per se has special meaning.
2. I presume these signals were controlled by the tower, at least during hours when it was manned? Would all arms on that mast have been dark in the absence of a train? When would the signals be illuminated by the tower? - on notice from a previous tower?
3. What was the sequence in the Ridgewood tower (or any tower) with, say, a
#1 due and approaching? Turnouts/crossovers set first? Then signals? Or did the aspect on the signals change automatically as the towerman set the route?
4. If the signals were controlled independently of the turnouts, would each arm have its own "switch"?
5. If say, Track 1 had just become blocked by a stalled train or whatever and Train #1 was sent straight up Trk 4, the signal would have been (I
believe) green over red over red. Would it be standard procedure for the crew of #1 to have gotten a train order somewhere along the line that the normal track would not be used?
6. I presume that an engine crew approaching such a junction with red over green over red would only know (from the signal) that a diverging route was to be taken but would not know what track it would wind up on? Or would train orders or dwarfs convey this somehow (I don't remember if Ridgewood had dwarfs at the crossovers)?
Thanks in advance.
Joe Braun
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