Ball Signal at the East End of Columbus ?

[NW Mailing List]

I'm intrigued by the origin of this large collection of N&W photos that 
I was previously unaware of.  Many of them appear to have been taken 
from tops of freight cars, or other structures, or from the rear 
platform of cabooses.  Who was this person, Barriger, and what was his 
relation with the N&W?  How did these photos get into the St. Louis 
Mercantile Library?

Gordon Hamilton

On 5/21/2021 7:54 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> The attached photograph presents an intriguing conundrum. The negative 
> is held in the Barriger Collection at the St Louis Mercantile Library 
> and can be accessed at the URL given below. It is mixed in with other 
> negatives (apparently) made by Mr. Barriger on the Columbus side of 
> the Scioto Division.
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12296491215/in/album-72157640359471435/ 
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12296491215/in/album-72157640359471435/> 
>
> One commentor conjectures that the location is **Columbus OH East Side 
> Grade Separation, looking South toward Long Street?** and do note that 
> he closed his comment with a question mark.
> What grabs my attention in the photo is the pole.  That pole is 
> rigged, top and bottom, with the apparatus to raise and lower two 
> old-timey **Ball Signals.**  Note the two pulleys suspended from the 
> cross arm, and the large vertical hoop(s) on the pole at ground level, 
> used as a hand-wheel for raising and lowering the balls.  This is 
> classic Ball Signal hardware.
> This may suggest that a Ball Signal may have been used during the line 
> relocation east of Columbus, perhaps used as a proceed signal by a 
> switchtender or other authorized person on the ground.
> If the Ball Signal theory is rejected, then why is the hardware for a 
> ball signal on the pole ?
> What does the Smart Money have to say about this?  I am a simple man 
> and cannot fathom it.
> (CAVEAT:  Many of the Barriger negatives were scanned wrong-side-up, 
> which results in a *backwards* image.  I have left this image in the 
> orientation as  Mercantile Library released it.)
> -- abram burnett
> Our Turnips Sometimes Identify as Rutabagas
> ( ..... they were scanned upside-down ..... )
>
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