what is the correct method for obtaining an old signal in a local town where the trackage has been torn out. who do i contact to take it off their hands?
Contact the railroad or agency that owns the property.
Which you can probably determine by checking with the county real property office, or its equivalent.
Not to get too complicated here, but -
Depending on the specific legal terms of the original grant of the R-O-W - and how recently the timing of the abandonment was, and its terms - upon abandonment the R-O-W property might have ‘reverted’ back to the adjoining property owner(s), the heirs of the original Grantor of the R-O-W, or have been kept by the railroad or acquired by a local agency for future trail use. So don’t be too surprised if it gets Byzantine-like complicated and vague and uncertain and contradictory, etc. on you. Good luck with that.
- Paul North.
Tarry not. Most signals end up as targets for everything from sling shots to high powered deer rifles in short order.
Don’t forget to plan on how to remove it from its concrete base - and likely cut off the heavily rusted and corroded tight big bolts there. Got a cutting torch or a heavy-duty saw ?
And then how are you going to get it out of there, wherever it is ? Do you have a truck with a boom crane, or equivalent pieces of equipment ?
How can you get that equipment to the site, and it and the signal back out ? How muddy and overgrown is the former R-O-W
Railroad signals, like their traffic light counterparts, are much larger when in your personal possession than they appear when displayed in the normal habitat.
Is the signal location in a top secret that can not be divulged before somebody steals it?
Andrew
If it is in Montana, on the abandoned Milwaukee Road ROW, leave it alone. [:(!]
Word is those boys up there are mighty handy with a .270. [swg]
Just out of curiosity, what kind of signal are you talking about? Is it a crossing signal, or a semaphore, searchlight or some other form of color light signal. And when the tracks were still in place, what was its purpose?
John
Excellent advice from other forum members, and be ready for a challenge getting it out of there. I imagine the signal can weigh anywhere from 800 pounds to upwards of 1000 pounds!
Most signals need a crane to be installed and removed.
Andrew
it’s just a 3 color target, not the whole tower. lol, there’s zoning laws in my area!!!
no, the it’s a straight double target next to a grain elevator., just sitting there for the taking[:P]
All you need to get any single mass signal down it two heavy duty ropes, a trailer, bails of hay, a full size pick up truck, and a few buddies. I’ve seen it done 40 times from some vets that worked out through trial and error in the early 80’s, When we recived permission from in the early 00’s to take down some deactivated CTC Single masses. Portable generator angle grinder and electric impact gun helps also.
Here is a photo of how Union Pacific carts away old signals.
So, a person must definitely have some appropriate transporting equipment.
The date was June 6, 2009 during the big signal system cut-over at West Colton Yard in Colton, CA, and shot at the south end of the Slover siding on the Palmdale Cutoff. The photo was originally featured in the “Sunset Route Two-Tracking Updates” thread in this forum.
I acquired a 3-light block signal from the abandoned Chicago North Shore in the late-1960s. A good friend contacted the company who had the salvage rights, paid the money and he did the hard work of removing it from the mast. He also acquired a few signals for himself. We still have them to this day. I would like to donate mine to a local museum. According to my friend, it was very difficult to remove the signal. And I can attest to the weight. They are made out of cast iron.
Funny that this thread should appear in a timely manner.[;)] There are several (presumably ex-ACL/Seaboard) searchlight signals in my immediate area, and I want to be ready when CSX decides to replace them. I’m not so concerned with the mast/tower as I am with the signal itself. As near as I can tell, all three of the ones I’m looking at are still in service, although one of them watches over an industrial siding and never seems to change aspects. The other two preside over the local yard’s exit, right next to a level crossing.
The biggest question is, like others have mentioned, who would I ask? I haven’t the slightest idea. [%-)]
For the most part, signals that are being removed from service account being replaced by newer forms of signals are being retained by the carriers as spare parts for signals at other locations that are still of the older form of signals. They are not being scrapped.
That makes me happy that they are not being scrapped. [:)]