With Caltrain's new electrification set to kick off soon, I have been checking if there have been any additional signaling changes beyond the removal of the King St Terminal cantilever. While most of the action is happening north of San Jose Diridon, the wires do extend down to the Tamien Station, which has a direct VTA connection and has always seen a bit of through service. Here is what I found when I checked in on the Southern Pacific era signaling on that part of the line.
First up was CP-CAHILL and the southern end of the Diridon terminal. As expected these were replaced some time ago, getting the traffic light treatment in early 2017.
Next were the SP signals at CP-DELMAS about a mile to the south These lasted quite a bit longer, being replaced by US&S modular traffic lights around 2021-2022.
The most interesting changes occurred at CP-MACK at the Tamien Station. CP-MACK had southbound Sp masts, a northbound Sp cantilever and a northbound two "head", 6-module dwarf stack. Around 2021 the track two cantilever signal was changed from SP to Darth Vader type. Then later in 2022, both cantilever signals were replaced by two "head" LED searchlights.
In an even more baffling turn of events the dwarf stack was replaced by a two "head" mini transit style signals.
Your guess is as good as mine as to why, but its definitely something to see. As for the rest of the line to Gilroy and beyond, it appears to be unchanged.
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