[PRCo] Re: signals

[Fred Schneider]

Airdrome = Ardmore.  Damn spell check.

Fred Schneider wrote:

> 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

xxx