New Orange Markers on Canton Jct Platforms

[ohalloranchris]

Please see attached images of new orange platform markers at Canton Junction. Has anyone seen these anywhere else, or have any idea of their purpose? A Keolis crew put them up a couple of weeks ago.

They are not car spot markers for the Engineer, those already appear elsewhere. Some other attributes:
1. They only face such that an Eastbound (inbound) Engineer could see them.
2. They appear on all three platforms.
3. They don't appear to mark the end of the platform (except in one case).
4. They only appear on one post per platform, so it's not a case of flagging them for pedestrians or anything like that.

Curious mind...

Thanks.

[jboutiet]

Are they all at the same height? All angled to face the tracks? All at the same distance from the end of the platform? Easily removable? Do they all look identical?

[ohalloranchris]

Are they all at the same height? All angled to face the tracks? All at the same distance from the end of the platform? Easily removable? Do they all look identical?

They are at somewhat varying heights, angled somewhat straight towards the platform, varying distances from the ends of the respective platforms, they are all identical and are easily removable (secured with plastic ties).

[chrisf]

I've spotted these on the Ruggles platform too.

[jboutiet]

There's a distinct horizontal line between the orange and white, and it looks like they've gone out of their way to fix the height (see the bracket at the bottom of the close-up picture), so I wonder if it's a height reference mark for some upcoming platform or track work.

[StefanW]

Based on what I noticed today just north of the platform ends at North Station, I believe those orange markers are nothing more than safety markers for clearing snow. The same kind of vertical orange marker has been attached to all the signal heads. It looks like it's to show where the signals are in case we ever get another winter like 2015 - so that snow clearing crews will be aware of a buried signal. I admit it's possible the same kind of marker could be used for different things in different places however.

I'll try and get a photo of the ones at North Station for comparison. The markers appear to have been added more recently than the current Google Maps satellite view, because if they were there in this shot https://goo.gl/maps/89EKj5PQyTm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I would expect them to be casting a noticeable shadow since they are 3' high or more.