I recently recieved a donation for a local railroad museum that I’m trying to find some info on. It is a wooden case with minature signals that light to give various indications. It was hand made by Fred Laverty. And by the looks of it, I would guess it was built in the 20’s or 30’s. It is the size of a suit case. And the signals stand about 2 feet tall. From what I was told, the was used all over the Rock Island system to train its engine service employees on the various signal indications. Are there any former Rock employees on here that would have seen this instructional box?
My second question has to do with the indications this box is capable of making. The first signal has one head. It can display red-yellow-flashing yellow-green. Also included in this box are 3 signs that can be mounted on the signal pole below the head. One is a number board, the second is a black circle with a white G on it and the third is a black sign that has OVER LAP in white lettering.
The second signal has three heads on it. The top and bottom head can display red-yellow-green. The middle head can display red-yellow-lunar.
Finally there is an extra head included that can be swapped with one of the other heads. It can display a white letter S in it.
I have a good idea of the indications, but can someone help me with them to make sure I’m correct. The middle lunar indication has really stumped me. And I’m not sure about the “S” indication.
This may help answer your question about the lunar-in-the-middle aspect - from Al Krug’s great website, and page on Railroad Signals, about 1/4 or 1/3 of the way down, at - http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/signals/signals.htm
Restricted speed is shown by one of 3 methods. The first way is to use a Lunar colored light instead of a red light. Lunar color is a bluish white or a silverish white. If any one of the red lights in a 3 head signal is replaced by a Lunar light it changes that signal from a Stop to a Restricted signal. The head position of the Lunar light usually, but not always, indicates the route that you will be taking. But it doesn’t matter because the maximum speed for Restricted speed regardless of which head it is on is at or below Slow speed.
Some of the charts on his site and others also have a lunar aspect in the middle.
The “S” indication is an “Open the Switch” indication. When illuminated on a block signal (in conjunction with a red aspect) that governed movement over a facing point switch, the train was to open the switch and take siding. If the signal governed movement to a main track, the train was to open the switch and then be governed by signal indication. A quick look thru my Rock Island/Uniform Code rule books only show this in the 1940 Uniform Code book. (Before the 1940 book, the RI used their own rule book. Beginning with and after 1940 they jointly used the UCOR along with some other railroads.)
The middle Lunar has me a bit stumped too. Lunar doesn’t show up as an aspect until the 1950 UCOR, and that’s a lickem’ stickem revision dated 1960. I can’t tell what’s underneath and I’m not going to try to remove the revision. The Lunar also doesn’t show up in the middle of a three headed (the books show single, dual and three headed signal combinations) signal. It can be the top or bottom head (or even the single head) but doesn’t show in the middle. Possibly since there isn’t any two headed example, the three head was used and the bottom head masked or ignored for some indications.
Likewise, the Flashing Yellow doesn’t show up until the 1950 UCOR.
Now since some of the indications first show up in the 1950 book, doesn’t mean they can’t precede that date. The indications could have been modified anytime after the 1940 UCOR took effect by other means. Also, just because something isn’t in the rule book doesn’t mean it wasn’t used, it could’ve been authorized by General Order or Special Instructions. On the other hand, just because a rule or certain aspect is shown in a jointly used book, doesn’t mean all the railroads using the book used that rule or aspect. The modern GCOR does
Gentlemen, Thanks for your replies. This thing is really neat. I showed it to the signal supervisor at work and he was impressed. We determined that the lenses are made from the small roundels(SP?) from a searchlight mechanism.
Jeff your info is appreciated. And I think you are right about the box being upgraded as signal indications changed. The 3-way selector switch for the middle aspect has red-yellow-green in the 3 different positions like the rest of the heads. But at some time it was changed to a lunar lense. Likewise the switch that makes the flashing yellow is “newer” than the rest of the electronics. I haven’t tried to swap out the “S” indication yet as I do not want to compromise this piece of history. I’ll turn it over to one of our resident signal experts to tinker with.
