In southern Arizona one encounters the phenomena known as sky islands, where isolated mountain ranges, separated by harsh desert, become in effect islands for various plant and animal species due to the cooler temperatures and relative abundance of water. The Dragoon Mountains were one of these ecological islands that also happened to host an island of late model Southern Pacific signaling with short stature modular target signals. They had even survived the PTC asteroid with the familiar antennas installed to their original relay cabinets. This island was located on the double track section between VAIL XOVERS at Milepost 1000 and Dragoon Road at Milepost 1053. You can therefore imagine my dismay when I was passing the Sybil Road crossing at Milepost 1041.8 and saw a set of new Union Pacific LED signal masts.
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| Sybil Road 2016 |
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| Sybil Road 2024 |
The re-signaling took place between 2020 and the end of 2021. I suspect that Phoenix became so hot that the signal crews migrated to the cooler 4000 foot elevation of the Dragoon pass. In fact the riding temperatures of the southwest may have played a factor in shifting the signal locations nearer to road crossings. The Southern Pacific Milepost 1041 intermediates were actually a half mile to the west.
Sorry again for a late report, I just hadn't realized what had been lost until I was physically on site. The signal relocations and approach lighting so make the new signals more useful for railfanning train movements, however quite has been lost regarding the actual photo composition.
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