[GreenKeys] OT: Rail Road stuff

[Douglas W. Jones]

On Apr 14, 2009, at 1:30 PM, Jeffrey D Angus wrote:

> Apparently I brought a smile to a few faces when I mentioned the
> Wather's catalog. ... one in particular sticks in my mind, the
> guy with the switch and signaling gear that apparently is playing
> in the 12" to the foot scale. ;-)

Speaking of which.  One item gathering dust in my basement is a
3-color searchlight signal mechanism (just the mechanism, not the
cast iron and sheet metal part that you see from outside).

It works fine, I've made it light red yellow and green.  There is
a chip out of the lens (someone shot a gun at it), but the lens is
mostly good and the whole thing is still sealed, as built in the
1940's.  Note that there is one lens that's part of the mechanism,
and there was a second larger lens in the signal housing.  That
larger lens was shattered by the bullet that chipped the inner lens.

It came from a block signal on the former North/South Rock Island
line through West Branch Iowa.  The scrappers missed it, and I
picked it up while repainting the signal for the Hoover Nature
Trail, which had no use for the mechanism (they did want to leave
the signal standing, which is why I repainted it for them).

So, if someone is into one to one scale railroading and needs a
semaphore signal mechanism ...

I don't want this boat anchor to be used as a boat anchor, but it
does weigh enough to use as one.  If someone needs a working
searchlight signal head for a museum exhibit or to bring life to
a real railroad signal, it's available to be lugged away.

		Doug Jones
		jones at cs.uiowa.edu