Elliston Feb 1953 - Oddball Left-Handed Signal

[NW Mailing List]

Abram,

There are four left-hand signals on the Pocahontas District that date 
back to at least the 1950s. Could they have predated Fed regulations and 
were grandfathered in and/or were considered exceptions to address an 
unusual situation?

Grant Carpenter

On 7/14/2023 8:28 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> Attached is an image of the 2148 coming east with a coal train in 
> February 1953.  The listing, on one of the more popular on-line 
> auction sites, gives the location as Shawsville.  But there is a 
> middle track visible in the image, and there was no middle track at 
> Shawsville, so I think this photo was shot at the west end of the 
> Elliston Middle Track.
> Note something very strange in this photo.  See that bracket signal 
> mast, back about 15 car lengths in the train?  It holds the eastward 
> home signals.  Now look what is on our side of that braket signal 
> mast.  It is a ground-mast, single arm Position Light Signal governing 
> WESTWARD movement on the EASTWARD Main Track.  What is VERY strange is 
> that said signal is left-handed for operation on the track it governs. 
> Left-handed signals were outlawed by the ICC at the time this photo 
> was made, and were not not made "legal" until sometime in the late 
> 1980s when the railroads poor-mouthed it to the FRA about the expense 
> of burying a signal cable under a track, to ensure all right-handed 
> signals.
> So, WHAT was this oddball (and illegal, too ! ) signal doing at the 
> west end of the Elliston Middle?  My guess is that it was a temporary 
> signal used as Centralized Traffic Control (and reverse-running on 
> signal indication) was being implemented on this portion of the 
> Radford Division, and was used only temporarily until a double bracket 
> signal could be erected on the opposite (north) side of the main tracks.
> If this interpretation is correct, this photo captures an interesting 
> temporary condition (and method of operation) which existed for a 
> short period of time.
> -- abram burnett
> International Bank of Turnips
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