A blog devoted to explaining the ins and outs of North American railroad signaling, past, present and future. This blog seeks to preserve through photo documentation the great diversity and technical ingenuity of 20th century signaling and interlocking hardware and technology. Related topics cover interlocking towers and railroad communications infrastructure.
Note, due to a web hosting failure some of the photos and links may be unavailable.
Previously I reported that the NS Pittsburgh Line resignaling project had been completed. Well I can now confirm that NS has also removed the signaling on the Fort Wayne Line between CP-PENN and EAST CONWAY in addition to re-locating the interlocking at CP-WOOD at Homewood Jct, PA. Chief amoung the casualties was the famed CP-LEETS with its pair of 3 and 4 track PRR PL gantries and pneumatic point machines :-(
If that wasn't enough the pedestals at CP-ISLE were removed and, like I said, CP-WOOD was relocated about a mile to the west and rebuilt as a simple crossover without any secondary track connection.
Anyway, if you are looking for PRR position lights in Pennsylvania, you pretty much need to look elsewhere, like Ohio or Long Island.
I have the sad duty to announce that the long running PRR Main Line re-signaling project has reached Milepost 353 in Pittsburgh. Interestingly enough the cut-over part of the project managed to wrap up in under a year despite the portion between Harrisburg and Altoona taking 8 months. Not only that, but the Fort Wane Line re-signaling is now also under way moving from EAST CONWAY to CP-PENN.
Conrail Pittsburgh Line Signaling
Rule 261/CSS
Mileposts 107-353
1979-2019
I will be presenting a summary of my decade long year effort to document these signals at my NRHS meeting in November. Check out my Youtube for some practice streams around November 11th.
With the LIRR Budd M3's on the way out and all sorts of signaling changes under way, the Long Island Rail Road should probably be one of my top priorities for photos and video. Unfortunately with only 174 M3's on the active roster (vs ~800 M7s) not only is scoring one incredibly difficult, the crews are notorious surly and not only hostile towards videography, but will also tend keep the front car closed or run with the half cab door open to physically block the forward view. Getting LIRR video requires someone local who can ride day in and day out in order to be there when the stars align. Fortunately for everyone, MrMaster767 is on the job and has assembled a comprehensive library of LIRR "Cab" videos, many in 60Hz 4k.
While many of the LIRR routes have been rendered blah due to a general lack of interlockings and wayside signals, some of his grabs are quite a bit more interesting such as the Atlantic Ave Branch showing off the current disposition of position light signals and pneumatic point machines. For example DUNTON interlocking still has a smattering of pneumatics and some new-installed position lights, while down by BROOK and VAN a number of the PL dwarfs have been replaced by color lights and some electric point machines have appeared as well.
He also has a rear facing video showing off the new Ronkonkoma Branch second track and the reduced aspect signaling that went with it :-(
As much as I might try, I can't do it all. It's nice to see that others are able to pick up the slack and cover other portions of the North American rail scene.
Seeing as how I reported on the removal of the position lights at Racine (aka CP-MORGAN) in April of 2018, I might be a little late to the party on reporting this, but it seems that METRA was indeed unwilling to support a number of oddball signals, even if it meant modifications to a US&S Model 14 plant that will eventually be replaced by some sort of flyover.
As you can see in this photo, the position light signals have been replaced by 4-lamp Metra style heads that support the mostly restricted speed crossovers. The exception is the 68R signal that saw its two headed position light replaced by a two headed color light. If it is any consolation the CNW signals and pneumatic point machines were left untouched. These were possibly the last main line PRR position light signals in the Chicago Area.
If you were wondering why there were a bunch of PRR position lights orphaned on Metra, it was because the former Pennsylvania Railroad Panhandle Route to Logansport came in Chicago via the back door, going up the west side then back east before entering Union Station from the north. You can read more about the history of this interlocking in my previousarticles.
