The End
After decades of valiant service, the original Wabash southbound signal at Lodge was officially turned, cut, and shutdown forever. Rather unceremoniously, the heads were all turned and the wires that connected the signal to the relay cabinet were cut and stripped. 150 yards to the south, the "new" signal has been finally turned to face the tracks after having been installed nearly two years prior, and testing of all the indications is underway.
The reason for this change is visible on the left. The relay cabinet and the rollercoaster of codeline were deemed unnecessary - and potentially more costly to utilize - so the signal was moved back in order to condense the Lodge control point. Of note is that the codelines primary purpose here is in fact power supply, not the actual signal to the signal.
So, big whoop, right? A searchlight replaced with a searchlight. Fair trade, no? In a way, yes, and really nothing changes that much. But the replaced signal was a piece of the lines history. Formerly known as the Forrest District under the Wabash, the signals at Lodge date back until 1959 at the latest. There's something to be said about comparing the swap to the ship of Theseus - if all the rest of these searchlights were replaced with different ones, would it really be exactly the same?
At any rate, the fate of the Lodge 3-header has not been kind. We had hoped to acquire the whole signal and preserve it, but alas, when I asked about it the morning of, I was told we wouldn't be able to buy it because they were desperate for the parts inside.
The bright side? These parts salvaged from this signal will help keep the rest of the Bloomington District signals going - I asked about the rumour from earlier this year and it was confirmed false, the rest of the searchlights are not coming down in the foreseeable future. The day they do, well, that's when the preservation efforts can really begin.
Two hours after this photo was taken - while I was at work - the signal was pulled down, alongside the relay cabinet that housed the troublesome battery that was half the cause of the signals removal, and placed on a trailer. The trailer would be left overnight. A reliable source confirmed that they had already stripped the Lodge signal of its internal mechanism, reducing the entire signal to a thousand pound shell. Now, the signal is gone forever.
The End
After decades of valiant service, the original Wabash southbound signal at Lodge was officially turned, cut, and shutdown forever. Rather unceremoniously, the heads were all turned and the wires that connected the signal to the relay cabinet were cut and stripped. 150 yards to the south, the "new" signal has been finally turned to face the tracks after having been installed nearly two years prior, and testing of all the indications is underway.
The reason for this change is visible on the left. The relay cabinet and the rollercoaster of codeline were deemed unnecessary - and potentially more costly to utilize - so the signal was moved back in order to condense the Lodge control point. Of note is that the codelines primary purpose here is in fact power supply, not the actual signal to the signal.
So, big whoop, right? A searchlight replaced with a searchlight. Fair trade, no? In a way, yes, and really nothing changes that much. But the replaced signal was a piece of the lines history. Formerly known as the Forrest District under the Wabash, the signals at Lodge date back until 1959 at the latest. There's something to be said about comparing the swap to the ship of Theseus - if all the rest of these searchlights were replaced with different ones, would it really be exactly the same?
At any rate, the fate of the Lodge 3-header has not been kind. We had hoped to acquire the whole signal and preserve it, but alas, when I asked about it the morning of, I was told we wouldn't be able to buy it because they were desperate for the parts inside.
The bright side? These parts salvaged from this signal will help keep the rest of the Bloomington District signals going - I asked about the rumour from earlier this year and it was confirmed false, the rest of the searchlights are not coming down in the foreseeable future. The day they do, well, that's when the preservation efforts can really begin.
Two hours after this photo was taken - while I was at work - the signal was pulled down, alongside the relay cabinet that housed the troublesome battery that was half the cause of the signals removal, and placed on a trailer. The trailer would be left overnight. A reliable source confirmed that they had already stripped the Lodge signal of its internal mechanism, reducing the entire signal to a thousand pound shell. Now, the signal is gone forever.