Reusing Signals

[NW Mailing List]

Larry,

I remember seeing this signal on the bank below Shenandoah Ave. many years ago, but I had to consult with NWHS member Andrew Williamson about its use.  Andrew worked as a brakeman and conductor for about 15 years in Ro. Terminal before becoming a hump tower operator until he retired a good number of years ago.  He was intimately familiar with  the purpose of the signal.  This is a switching signal for what was known as the "Pull Up Yard."  The track on the near side of the loco in the picture was the lead to the Pull Up Yard, which was down about 13th St.  Cars were switched eastward into the Pull Up Yard with brakemen riding the cars because of the constant down-grade eastward.  The locomotive switching the cars would be headed west, like the one in the picture, putting the signal on the engineer's side of the loco.  The signal was controlled by the brakeman making the cuts in the Pull Up Yard.

Andrew did not know what the aspects of the signal were, but he mentioned that because the downgrade would keep the cars stretched, the engineer would have to bunch the slack so that the brakeman could make the cuts.  Local conditions like this could possibly account for some of the aspects.

It would seem that indications for switching could include something like "stop," "back-up," "ahead," and "ahead slow."

Gordon Hamilton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: NW Mailing List 
  Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 4:59 PM
  Subject: Re: Reusing Signals


  The picture is on page 226 of Buds book second edition 219 first edition. 
  I have also seen one in a photo take at Portsmouth also. May be a signal
  for the hump? I just never noticed it before

  Thanks
  Larry Evans
  Kenova, WV

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: NW Mailing List 
    To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
    Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 3:07 PM
    Subject: Re: Reusing Signals


    In a message dated 1/1/2008 7:03:28 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:
      What were the full head signals
      all nine lights on one arm used for in Portsmouth and Roanoke?
    You may have reference to a hump signal.  I'm not sure.   There
    were provisions in the rule book effective 4/1/45 for half a dozen
    indications that were displayed on three targets (three lights per
    target).  No rule number, but "Move Through  Diverging Route at
    Restricted Speed" , for example, was:
    TOP TARGET - Three horizontal lights
    MIDDLE TARGET -Three horizontal lights
    BOTTOM TARGET - Three diagonal lights pointing toward the track.

    All other indications had the capability of being displayed using two
    targets.    The 1951 rule book does not include three-target signals,
    so I guess by then the Operating Department had decapitated one
    of the signal heads. NOTE: on three-target signals requiring a positive
    stop, there would have been a 10th light mounted on the signal mast.
                                                        Harry Bundy





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