Hotbox lights

I was working on my signal list, and was informed by someone in our Yahoo! group (i can't remember his name right now) about how on some old signals on the Southern Tier line there was a little hotbox light underneath the signal head. Does anyone have pictures/indfo. about this?

Andy,
Here is a website I found. It may have some helpful info for you. I did read in my old 1978 timetable that the old detectors had 3 lights side by side. Say that the numbers 222 came up and the left side light came on after the train passed. The 222nd axle was faulty and was on the left side of the train. If both sides lit up but not the middle, the first problem axle was 222 on the left and then check back further on the right. If all three lights were on then, there were problems after 222 on BOTH sides (I guess that's having a REALLY bad day!


Here's the site (may or may not help you)
http://www.baylug.org/zonker/railfan/detectors.html

Each is probably different by railorad and location. Sometimes one lunar white light constant or flashing to those with number spelling out the axel number(s). At a railroad show or flea market get pre 70's books of rules and employee timetables for the Erie and or Erie Lackawanna.

wati- were they mounted on the signal mast, or a seperate item? so it had 3 numbers side by side, and lights under them?

I'm thinking that the lights were wounted on the detector and yeah, the numbers are side by side.

On the E-L the defect detectors usually activated a special sign in the form of an illuminated letter "E". The "E" indicators were located on the next block signal or two after the detector, in the direction of train travel. The draggers were direction-specific and placed to protect the major viaducts - Moodna, Portage, Rush Creek and Genesee.

JoeS wrote: The draggers were direction-specific and placed to protect the major viaducts - Moodna, Portage, Rush Creek and Genesee.

And Woodbury.

And Woodbury.

And Otisville Tunnel. The E lights were used only for dragging equipment detectors. The hot box detectors were generally separate from the draggers, and they had "hotbox signs" on signals in advance.

One night in 1969 we had a rock roll down the slope east of East MQ. It rolled onto the tie ends, lifted a truck side frame under the springs, and derailed the leading wheel set. The dragger at MP 60.52 picked it up and the E light on Signal 55-2E came on. That incident saved a big mess on Moodna Viaduct, and it probably paid for the whole system on the EL for many years into the future.

At first, we didn't know what caused the derailment, and Frank Huff went into an extensive interview of the engine crew regarding throttle positions, brake pipe pressures, etc. We also didn't know the whereabouts of Dominick Visioli, the Track Supervisor at Port Jervis, except that he was on the way. He walked in from several miles back, found the rock and the point of derailment, and that was that. Dominick always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.

There was (is) a detector at west end of Campville, NY with a three position signal almost to Hiawatha. I remember once backin the 70s it pulled a train down and as the train stopped at the signal the journal dropped on the car averting total disaster!

IIIRC, the hotbox detectors had a readout in the dispatchers office, and not trackside. The readout actually was a paper tape, with the temperature of bearings on each car graphically drawn on the linear tape (like a seismograph used to measure earthquakes). The dispatcher had to read the tape, and tell the crew via radio which car(s) to check.

The lights in advance of the hotbox detector were indicators to the crew that the hotbox detector was energized and in working order prior to them passing it.

The lights which were attached to block signals 'downwind' from the detectors only alerted trains to the problem. The system, however, would take down the signal beyond that to a stop aspect. Basically, the train would pass the indicator on the signal before the detector which would tell them the detector was working properly, then would pass the first signal beyond the detector and be alerted to the problem, and the next signal beyond that would dump to red, prohibiting the train from going farther. Upon being activated, the system would be reset, the warning lights extinguished, and the block signal 'released' to return to a clear indication through a process involving the use of a switch key at the signal which was set to stop.

The lunar lights which alerted the crews to problems looked like the lower hooded light on this signal mast

http://www.trainweb.org/gggrs/semaphore/waverly01.jpg