Interlocking and Automatic Block signals

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Here are passenger car lantern arrangements. From until about 1950 with the advent of radios and better communication between railroad crews marker lights and flags were used to show information between workers.

Here are passenger car lantern arrangements. From until about 1950 with the advent of radios and better communication between railroad crews marker lights and flags were used to show information between workers.

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

These are the signal placements and shows how semaphores were mounted on gantries. Notice that the CN used a white light to show a non signaled track. Many companies in the US used a blue lamp in this instance.

Here are work zone temp speed limit and resume limit boards and end of block any yard limit signs

Marker lamp placements for freight cars and passenger cars

Here are approach aspects showing the square position light signals again. These are approach and slow clear aspects

Here are stop and proceed and stop aspects with the square position light signals

Here are more signal aspects

Map of tracks in Louisville Kentucky

This is a Clearance Form A which was used to give permission to a train between two blocks. This is dated December 23th 1945

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Three Position Upper Quadrant Permissive and Absolute Automatic Signals.

Notice that the Wabash was still using the outdated white lens for proceed and green lens for Caution.

Marker lamp placements for engines

Here are different switch stand signals

Map of tracks in Louisville Kentucky

Of course a P42 also needs red markers for top-and-tail operation! Athearn actually provides red lenses already in the openings, so all I had to do was stick some SMD LEDs in behind, and voila. On the Loksound decoder, these automatically come on when the unit is in reverse.

Marker lamp placements for tenders, engines, and passenger cars

Semaphore signal placements on gantries and diagram showing which signal corresponds to which track

Here are some very interesting early distant signals showing proceed with caution. Notice the use of green instead of yellow to denote distant signals. Also the forked end shows that this is a distant signal. Green was changed to yellow in the 1920s it seems. Also notice the dwarf semaphore signals.

These are the diagrams of fixed signals and here are the day and night aspects for a clear train orders signal. Here are the green lights being used to show slow. Train order signals had rounded ends.

Union Pacific steam locomotive # 8444, a FEF-3 class 4-8-4 Northern, is showing a front view of the smoke box while it is in the railroad yard at Denver, Colorado, Summer 1980. The locomotive was in the yard for maintenance service and to replenish water and fuel to prepare for the next day's railfan trip out of Denver. Of interest is the dark light mounted above the headlight. This light is a red MARS warning light produced by the Mars Company. This locomotive has dual sets of number boards, the large ones near the top of the smoke box and the small ones mounted on the sides of the headlight. Steam locomotive # 8444 has never been taken off the active roster and was used for years on railfan trips, but now is used for business trains, promotional tours, customers relations and for rail employee events. This modern, powerful, Northern class 4-8-4, oil burning steam locomotive was built by ALCO during the 1940's.

These are the diagrams of fixed signals and here are the day and night aspects for a clear train orders signal. Notice that this was still when white lights were used to show clear signals, in this time green lights were used to denote slow. This was changed around the 1920s. Train order signals had rounded ends.

Here are switch indicator signals showing if the track is occupied of free

Here are some Hall Disc signals. These were also known as Banjo or Banner signals because of their shape however they are very interesting in that they preceded semaphore signals on many railroads. These specific ones are used as distance signals and when clear the lower window would show nothing, however when showing another aspect a colored dish swiveled into position and filled the window. Also a light of the same color was included in the top so that the indications could be discerned at night.

Semaphore Main and Dwarf Signals

Here are Automatic Block Signals (ABS) showing both stop and stop and proceed aspects.

Here are different train order signal aspects

Here are some aspects for clear, notice the unusual use of square PRR style position light signals. These were unique to the CUST

Marker lamp placements for engines

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Here are special station signals.

Here are some very interesting early distant signals showing the proceed aspect. Notice the use of green instead of yellow to denote distant signals. Also the forked end shows that this is a distant signal. Green was changed to yellow in the 1920s it seems.

Tender and passenger car marker light placements

Here are manual block signals

Here are all the aspects including semaphore and B&O Color Position Light signals.

Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte Marie Railway Company Rules 1928 revised 1940.

Marker Lamp Rules

Here are more switch stand signals

Marker Signals and Semaphore Signals

Here are descriptions of the different types of semaphore signals.