Wasn’t sure whether to ask this here or in the Prototype section…
I just built a BTS Signal Maintainer’s Storage kit. It is an old baggage car built up on a wood foundation, with a platform/ramp on the front side. There are pedestrian doors/stairs on each end of the car.
My original intention was to put this next to a rail siding. But then it hit me - would signal “stuff” be brought in and out by rail? Given the relatively small size of signal parts, it seems that truck access would more be the norm. It would likely be more cost effective to have signals reached for repair by truck or “handcar” than by a loco pulling flats or whatever. What do you think?
By the way, I am modeling the Santa Fe (the IC has trackage rights) circa 1950s.
My guess would be - both. Major shipments would probably arrive in a box car (the masts would be flat car or gondola loads.) Smaller shipments would probably be truck fodder.
In the past the signal crew would want rails close to the storage structure so they could get parts and supplies onto the speeder and its trailer(s.) More recently, the speeder has been replaced by hi-rail vehicles and the storage building could be located miles from the nearest track. (It would more likely be a more modern structure.)
FWIW, there’s a signal maintenance location in an old ATSF station in West Texas which has both rail and road access. The old express room is used for storage and the rest of the station is used for offices and employee locker rooms. Hi-railers were parked in the parking lot when I passed it a few years ago.
You need to get your supplies in by truck. Mostly out here (BNSF) the railroad will access the signals by truck. On NYCT they use a signal dolly as shown on the consist below. It can work out of any yard, but one of the yards would be home for the signal department (possibly 207th street–I think I have seen the signal train tied up there more often than not) and they could well have such a car as a shop such as you have built. (The yellow cars are the actual signal cars, the newer cars without windows are “locomotives” with work crew accommodations.)
On my railroad, this consist is scheduled to become the signal dolly, and it already has a place on my layout to tie up, but it is in a tunnel. Still, I could justify an old car down there as a crew office.
In the 50’s just about all company material came to the railroad “Store Department” and was then dispersed via a company material box car which was billed to multiple destinations. The signal department had their assigned cars and MofW had their cars. Each maintainer or section foreman was supposed to unload his order then notify the agent to release the car for the next destination. The guy that the was the car’s first stop often had the best shopping experience. Larger items like rail, ballast, signal bungalos came in/on the required type of car or via a work train.
In the 50’s most signal maintainers had one or more helpers (needed for wooden gate replacement for one thing), they went by truck (but not all had them) or motor car depending on the projects of the day. There wasn’t vehicle path access to every signal or battery well back then.
The signal maintainers’ office/storage would normally be located at a yard or other location with road access. Remember that some of the signals they’re maintaining are grade crossing signals, and in many areas even wayside signals will be fairly accessible by road. If the maintenance people can move around on public roads it’s much easier than blocking the mainline to run them down the rails on speeders and hi-rails.
Of course there will be some cases where wayside signals will be located in remote areas with no road access and they’ll have to access it by hi-rail or speeder.
Most maintainers work out of a yard so,they can go to the “stores” department and pick up the needed supplies.Large items such as crossing gate arms can be carried like a ladder on top of a rack…New signal heads and masts would be trucked to the job site.
Thank you all for the responses and the education.
I figure I’ll locate the structure near trackage, but the platform will be truck access only. Forklifts can move the heavy items to/from the rail cars.
There is another option, in that the structure platform can be on rail access and the other side of the converted baggage car can have the doors open up (w/o a platform) to access trucks directly.
Funny thing, most all folks that will see what I end up with won’t know or care which way I go.
On the NYCTA most of the Signal Maintainers work several levels below the street so delivering by truck would not work except in an emergency situation. The signal Dolly travels to each signal section once a month with maintenance supplies (paints, light bulbs, cleaning solvents and other material) that signal maintainers have ordered. If a switch motor goes bad (some of them weigh over 250lbs) it probably will be delivered to the nearest station by truck and would have to be carried down or up several flights of stairs, then carried out to the switch location.
207st yard is the home for the signal dolly and there is a large signal equipment repair shop there that rebuilds relays, switch machines, train stop motors and other equipment, There is also a main warehouse there that stores repaired equipment and maintenance supplies for the dolly to deliver. since most of the signal sections are manned 24 hrs, the signal dolly now makes a run overnight as well as during the day.
On my exploration trips of the CPR up in the Rockies there are goat paths for trucks to access most parts of the line for maintenance and I have run across crews on occasion. But the season is short an soon that fifty feet of snow starts to pile up and all access is back to rail only.
