signal brackets

[NW Mailing List]

Actually, a "Doll Mast" means that there is a track between the signal post and the track that is signaled.In the case of the southbound signal at the crossover at the C&O connection at Glasgow, Va., the mainline signal was on a mast and beside it was a Doll Mast for the siding. The siding was signaled and southbound movement was governed by a dwarf signal.Jimmy LisleSent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> Date: 3/25/24  11:45 AM  (GMT-05:00) To: N&W Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> Subject: Re: signal brackets 
  
   Col. Cochran et alia :
   
  
    
   
  
   In the trade, those short masts are known as "Doll masts."  Don't ask me why... they just are.
   
  
    
   
  
   Their purpose was to support a single marker (a lamp, until the FRA weaseled, and allowed reflectvie tape) where an unsignaled track intervened between the signal mast and the track being signaled.  In other words, the light on the Doll Mast represented an un-signaled track.
   
  
    
   
  
   When the railroads had a lot of tracks auxiliary to thme main tracks, you could find Doll masts in a lot of places.  Now that almost all the auxiliary tracks are gone and railroads are little more than several strands of shiny going from some distant point to some other distant point, most of the Doll Masts are ganz vergangen (entirely gone.)
   
  
    
   
  
   Many railroads used blue lamps on Doll masts (later blue reflective tape.  As I recall, the N&W used red lamps on Doll Masts, and I do not recall any reflective tape being used as of my last service on the N&W (which was 45 years ago.)
   
  
    
   
  
   I do not know if there is still an FRA requiirement for Doll Mast markers.  I walked out the railroad's door almost 15 blessed years ago, and threw in the trash my copy of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 49, before I closed the door for the last time.
   
  
    
   
  
   --  abram burnett
   
  
   turnipologist-in-residence
   
   
    
    
      
     
    
      
     
    
  
 

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