[PRCo] Re: signals

[Fred Schneider]

I have attempted to read all the other comments before going back to
Derrick's original note.  Please understand that those things that interest
me today were often far from my focus when I was 13 or 16 or 18 years old.

Signals were not everywhere there was single track, nor everywhere on the
system.

Spacing signals were commonly used on double track where speeds were high,
and headway's close.  Airdrome Boulevard had them ... the headways were
probably on the order of every 1 to 2 minutes during rush hours in World War
II. I can remember them on the 38-39-42 mainline through Tunnel Yard and
across Palm Garden Viaduct.     I also remember them on route 42.  (Memory
can be cloudy here because the company often used signals at crossovers, and
I could easily confuse those with spacing signals.)   I don't ever remember
seeing them on route 8 or 10, even though 8 was considered the second
heaviest route in the system.   I do not recall spacing signals on any paved
double-track.  I cannot remember if they were used on route 56 ... none of
my pictures illustrate them.

Where single track was long enough that an operator could not see the next
siding, some form of dispatching rule was needed.  I suspect that, prior to
1928, the interurbans operated on timetable authority because I've never
seen any signal in any older picture.  Timetable authority was very simple
... cars had to wait in sidings until the cars they were scheduled to meet
arrived.  Non scheduled cars had to be in the hole for any scheduled car.
Of course this could be very complex, especially when you had two or three
nonscheduled cars working between Canonsburg and Washington at the same
time.  Explains why signals were installed.  Often accidents preceded the
capital expenditure on signals.   I remember signals on route 64 whenever
cars went into single track to curve into another street.  I remember the
same type of installation on route 68.   Arlington Avenue had Nathods.  I
have no idea what signals were on used on Jefferson-Maiden and East-West
lines in Washington but I cannot presume they would operate those lines
without signals.  Frankly, I have no memory of any single track (outside of
yard limits) without signals.

Route 62 did have Nachod signals.  Signals were removed when the schedule
was reduced to a single car.  That happened sometime between my visit in
March 1956 and a subsequent visit in March 1958.

Sadly, Charles Shauck would have been the person to ask and he died 20 years
ago.  This is sort of like family genealogy, where the basic rule reads,
"Thou shalt not show interest until the last person you could ask is dead."

Derrick J Brashear wrote:

> ignoring the interurbans, did we ever enumerate where else signals could
> be found? i believe ardmore blvd had signals (disused perhaps) and i
> thought i remembered reading of signals for the curve on kelly st in
> wilkinsburg (yes?)
>
> anything else come to mind?
>
> it was just a thought as i looked out the window.. i'm on a train now,
> somewhere in connecticut.\

xxx