Speonk 261 Signal Fiasco

The signals are installed out to Speonk.

But you can't see them. Sure, when you drive by they're standing there like traffic lights. But when they are lit, the engineer can't see the aspect.

So they will not be going into service any time soon.

Seems that the signals are little low wattage LED devices designed to be viewed from 3000 feet away out on the Minnosota Plains, where there's no local power. When you are 50 feet away, they don't look lit.

The LIRR has a standard for signal lens focus and projection, written by the PRR in 1918, but that was back then, so what did they know? They didn't care about global engineering then or even global warming. Motorheads, they were, high school dropouts simply obsessed with safely and cheaply moving trains. Knaves.

Now that they are six weeks away from using the new system, Operations looked at it for the first time and with a test train couldn't figure out what color was lit.

Where was Operation for the past two years? Filling out punch day reports, writing safety songs and cowering every time the phone rang.

Thats $45 million. Time for another promotion.

They should be lit like the cab end indicator lights on the M7s. You can see those from a mile away lol. If the color signals were that bright, I wouldn't have anything against them. I'm still not crazy about color signals though. On the NECR there were two spots where I regularly encountered a color signal that was near impossible to tell the aspect unless you climbed up the mast and looked at it. One of them was the one that governs the northbound direction movement over the Bellows Falls diamond. A mis-read of that signal could result in two trains hitting eachother from the side, yuck. It became especially difficult to read it when the sun light was shining directly on it. It kinda of looked like when you encounter a car parked in the road with the sun shining on the tail lights and it looks like they are lit, but in reality the car's been sitting there for hours shut off with no lights on.

Oh well, I guess we'll see how they remedy the problem.

Well, as pissed as I am that my tax dollars contributed to this failure and will likely contribute to the replacments, I'm glad to see that the old signals will live on for a while.

FEC Chris, does this mean PD will be around for a little bit longer?

If they can hold out until 5/29, PD will have reached her 94th birthday!

Dave

I would like to see PD make 94 years of service, but I don't think that means much these day. pride and dignity are out the window, ecept thoes like us who beleive strongly in our RR's heritage.


and 6 years may make PD the oldist tower in revenue service issueing train orders around the clock since it's inservice date 93, and soon to be 94 years ago?

When I hired on in yard service in 1957, the 8th street Hill job was still using a semaphore signal to pass instructions to the engine crew.
This was fine during daylight hours but at night, the semaphore blade could not be seen and the color lights were depended upon to get the message across.
Too many times, the conductor had to send a member of the crew to relay a lantern sign because the engine crew saw so many red lights and green lights shining down from the elevated structure, heading into the Steinway Tunnel.
The company finally acknowledged that this was unsafe and replaced the color lighted semaphore with a position light signal.

JJ,

The LIRR semaphore's were also backed by color lights that mean the same as the phsycal aspect of the semaphore it's self? Did LIRR ever have semaphore's that had no color light back up?

Some photos I've seen taken as early as 1894 show lights at the back end (mast end) of the semaphore signals.

I remember an old agent telling me years ago, that, many, many years before, he had to climb the signal mast in front of his station, in all kinds of weather, to hang a colored lantern up there.

I don't recall the reason, but I would assume that it was in all probability, a train order indicator.

Many stations afterward had a divided wooden structure hanging on the front of the depot bay window, that part of the depot closest to the track(s), in which the operator would hang a colored lantern to indicate train orders were to be picked up.

The old, wooden interlocking cabins used these as well, with the exception of SG. The "newer" block and brick cabin used the order board/lantern combo. I also had SG's order boards but sold them before my move to FL to a railfan friend of mine.

I had the lantern mounting from the old Pinelawn station, but, when preparing for my move to sunny FL, dumped it as it wasn't in really good condition (dry rot in spots).

Towers had the mounting brackets for the order boards that were displayed in daylight and hooks on those boards from which lanterns were hung for viewing after dark, as shown previously in my close-up shot of the lantern taken at PD in the snow.

Dave

Thanks Dave.

Clem wrote:The signals are installed out to Speonk.

But you can't see them. Sure, when you drive by they're standing there like traffic lights. But when they are lit, the engineer can't see the aspect.

So they will not be going into service any time soon.

Seems that the signals are little low wattage LED devices designed to be viewed from 3000 feet away out on the Minnosota Plains, where there's no local power. When you are 50 feet away, they don't look lit.

So is the problem that these lense are way too directional (to perhaps counterbalance the low light level LEDs - well, LEDs can be fairly directional in and of themselves). In other words, would simply boosting the light level (perhaps with new LEDs) help, or do they need to replace the whole lensing system.
LED traffic lights here on Long Island seem to work fine both close up and in the distance too, even with the light pollution we have.

I never seen these things w/o bags on them, so i don't know how they will work. but weather it's the led's \, lenzes.\, or low voltaage, I siad there would be a problem and there was.

Maybe they'll come up with a solution that lets them open the thing on time. Never underestimate the railroad's can-do workforce. If they call on the right people (who are usually hiding behind the biggest rocks they can find) you'd be amaized at what problems can be solved.

Clem

It's the "Can Do" sprit that we need, not the imcompetance and other crap that we have, It's sad that they need to cover their behinds and hide behind the bolders.

Incredible, every time I think I have heard it all, something new comes along. I guess as long as we keep puncing on punch day and making the litter announcements everything will be ok

Clem, is there any truth to the rumor that they will augment these new signals with "talking signals"? You know..like if the engineer (motorman for those offended by engineer) pulls up to the signal there will be a voice message saying "medium clear, medium clear"..possibly with an Indian accent?