Some time ago T Stage had inquired about wig-wag crossing signals on the New York Central. I recently purchased a video from an ebay seller and caught a glimpse of a scene showing proof of the signals in question. Everyone seems to be in agreement that at least this one example existed somewhere in the Toledo, or Sandusky, Ohio area (maybe on the Norwalk Branch? The “Old Road”?)
Discussion in the earlier thread seemed to conclude that eastern roads avoided wig-wags due to severe winter conditions causing maintenance headaches. They seemed to predominate in the west.
Here’s a couple of screen grabs from the video (somewhat fuzzy, like pictures of the Loch Ness Monster) but proof just the same. SO go ahead and install your wig-wags, Tom!
I’m not sure if eastern railroads were less likely to use wig-wags than western railroads?? It could be that’s true, but it might just be that eastern railroads were quicker to convert to newer types of devices than the western roads.
A factor might also be that western roads had more remote, isolated crossings where they needed some sort of automated safety signals, compared to eastern roads in more populated areas where they had flagmen. Because of they needed more signals, maybe they were OK with leaving older ones in place longer as long as the old signals got the job done.
I really appreciate you posting these photos of the wigwag from the video. On your original captured photo from the video, are you able to get the road number(s) from the NYC GP7/GP9 that is whizzing by? The Photobucket overlay text is obscuring it enough to even make a good guess at it.
Also, I can’t believe that this thread is from 7 years ago. [:O] I guess time really is flying by quicker than I realize. I could have sworn you posted this back in 2019.
I’ve replaced hard drives three times since I grabbed those frames of blurry video. I have all my scans and photos on several external drives. I’ll dig through them this evening. I’ll also have to dust off the DVD tonight and run that scene by again. The original captures are pretty blurry but it looks like the one engine is GP7 5823.
I’ll double check and report back.
Just another aggravation of the Photobucket Debacle!
Here’s a couple of nice wigwags I came across at the NAPM layout:
Interestingly, when you click the images in the old post (with the Photobucket watermark) they open on my phone in pristine condition and can be zoomed.
The top locomotive as Ed says is clearly 5823. The bottom is blurred either in the original film capture or the transfer to VHS NTSC, but I think the third digit is 7. (One of the image-deconvolution algorithms might have enough to work with to recover the shape of the digits from the video frames…)
It had never occurred to me that some wigwags were more ‘modern’ than Holley Rudd’s iconic two-lights-and-bell circa 1960.
All of the ‘NYC’ types pictured are of the ‘three-position’ type in Ed’s reference. These appear highly modern compared to the ‘iron flagman’ kind of wigwag I normally thought of when someone mentions the type.
I took another look at that brief scene in the video, Tom, and I can distinctly make out the lead engine as 5823 but the second unit is indiscernible. Overall it is a great DVD to have in a New York Central “reference” library. For me the scenes around the Cleveland Union Terminal coach yard are worth the price of admission!
This is a funny remembrance for me, the lady I hired for doing Accounts Payable years ago, her husband was a signal maintainer for Conrail and took down the last Wig-Wags in Ontario, CA and took one home for his use. Wish I could have got one.
Well, the photo below isn’t of a wigwag, but the semaphore signals aren’t too bad an option…
The structure is the former station at Jordan, Ontario, moved a block or two from the CNR mainline, and now used as a dwelling. It’s oriented at about 90º to the CN track, which was double track, now a single line with passing sidings.
