B&O's Colored Positional Lights

Because any remaining old style signals are going to soon be replaced to implement Positive Train Control, some railfans are taking pictures of the signals instead of trains. B&O and Pennsy were the two railroads that had their own unique design of signal heads. I have already covered Pennsy's yellow light positional design.

This is looking south along the former B&O branch line (Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton) in Deshler, OH. The tracks just on the other side of the depot is the former B&O mainline to Chicago. Both of these routes are now CSX.

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I cropped the above picture to make it a little easier to see that the horizontal red lights really are lit up. Also, you can see in the lower left corner that the signal head for southbound traffic on the southeast quadrant has a stop aspect.

I stepped to the side for the closeup because I was trying to reduce the effect of the sun that was still rather high in the sky. What I inadvertently did was demonstrate how well focused the searchlights are. You can see the red in the straight-on picture above, but you can't see them in the off-angle picture because they aim all of the light's energy at the oncoming locomotive. In fact, the upper lights may be lit but we can't see them because I'm too low because I'm too close. A locomotive engineer's eye would be higher and a lot further away. Since some signals, especially out west in the mountains, are just battery powered because there is no close by grid lines, it is important that the focusing of the beam allows the engineer to see the aspect even during a bright day with only a 10-watt bulb. Jon Clark's Flickr photo shows how tight the beam is. When someone posted this picture on Facebook, he labelled the indication as "Medium Approach." There were lots of comments about it is "Approach Medium." Then Tom Duffy supplied this B&LE  reference.

The "Darth Vader" (new) signals have already been installed on the mainline.

Here is another inadvertent demonstration of the tight angle of the focusing of the searchlights. Zooming in on the two signals that are on opposite sides of the track shows we can see the one in front of us but not the one on the other side. At that distance, the angle of the one on the right is rather small, but the angle is big enough to be out of the light's beam.

I violated my "no trespassing on railroad property rule and walked down an access path" to get a picture of the signal that is south of the junction. As I walked back, I did not spare the electrons.

During my July, 2015 visit to the Illinois Railway Museum, I noticed that they had constructed their signal exhibit. (On previous visits I had seen a bunch of signals lying on the ground.)

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Unfortunately, their display demonstrates the importance of maintenance. The left head should be showing a green light at the bottom and the right head should show a red light on the right. That is, each aspect is supposed to have two bulbs lit to show a direction as well as a color.

I had taken pictures of some other things and on my way back past these signals I discovered that they were animated. Here we see the "backslash" lunar as well as the diagonal yellow. I also did a better job of not skunking the sign behind them. The lunar indication was a permissive stop --- you can proceed past the signal at a speed slow enough that you can stop within half the distance you can see. That is, proceed but be prepared for trouble. The red indication was an absolute stop, which means you must stop at the signal and stay there until the indication changes.

Tim Wilson posted
Former B&O CPL's going to the scrap yard - March 2015

Christopher Rinker posted
Jason Lambert They are at the west end of the the bridge over 65/70 just south of Washington St
[Comments indicate that if the top bulb burned out it would be a Slow Approach Slow]

Christopher Rinker commented on his posting

Doug Howell posted, cropped
B&O CPL at Seymour, IN on the ex B&O Indiana subdivision. 12/29/2016
[CSX probably wants to tear up this track rather than update the signals. They have already torn up the route in Ohio and disabled the route in most of Illinois. This is a junction with Louisville & Indiana/Pennsy]

John Rusell posted four photos with the comment: "I happened across these CPLs on Zimmerman St in Hamilton OH." (So this is the "Hamilton" of the above referenced Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton. Obviously that route got extended all the way to Toledo.) Pennsy and Erie shared the CHD route through town. And NS got the Penssy rights here since CSX already had the B&O rights. Thus we see a NS locomotive on tracks that use B&O signalling. John caught all three "semaphore positions" of vertical, diagonal, and horizontal.

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[I include this closeup because you can see that they have prepared a foundation for the replacement signal. Once I spotted that, I notice there is one on the right of the first photo also.]

Mike's photo below is a reminder that B&O bought the Chicago & Alton in 1931 and renamed it the Alton Railroad. In 1947 the Alton merged with Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. [Industrial Scenery] Obviously B&O upgraded the signaling because you can see the red aspect of a B&O's signalling head over the right-side of the caboose cupola. This March 8, 1976, photo shows the 1972 ICG merger is pooling the power of IC and GM&O but hasn't had a chance yet to repaint the IC equipment in the ICG livery.

Photo from Mike Matalis, I  believe this is east of  the Page Bascule Bridge over "Bubbly Creek" looking 

Joe Garnett posted two photos with the comment:

Soon to be gone, these old N&W CPL's are quickly becoming history. These are located between Abilene and Crewe, VA on the Blue Ridge District. NS crews were working diligently the day I was down there ( a week ago today) on getting the replacements ready.

[I was not aware that railroads other than B&O used CPL.]

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Patrick O'Connor posted heads that have all four aspects (i.e. includes "backslash").

Michael Rogan posted four photos.

Josh Kellerman posted nine photos, including one still using blades.

Larry Wojcik posted a video of the lights changing.

Mark Kubala posted a signal guarding the CSX/B&O vs. NS/PRR crossing on the east side of Attica Junction, OH.

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Another signal head design has a unique position for each color. But the lights are so close to each other that the position doesn't mean much. This is more like an older version of today's "tri-light" signals.

I came across a photo that had all three colors displayed so that we can determine green was upper-right, yellow was upper-left, and red was at the bottom. It appears the New York Central used this style.

Conrad Baker posted
J.R. Valderas CP 502 EB signals. This is East Chicago, Indiana, not Hammond.

J. R. Valderas commented on Conrad's posting
Back in the day, I would ride Amtrak's Pere Marquette from West Michigan to Chicago and photograph out the back window of the last coach (or cafe car) - it was the only train that did not have a locomotive (or cabbage) at the other end of train (the Wolverines and Blue Water did), allowing for this oppurtunity. When the train switches onto the NS at Porter, I would photograph everything I see (including the signals) and good thing I did since much of everything has changed from seeing the NYC searchlights and color position signals (including the PRR signals) changed over the signals NS recently put in their place. Here's a shot of the same signals (CP 502) as seen from the the rear of Amtrak's Pere Marquette in September 16, 2014 (I was riding aboard their 30th anniversary train which I got to ride in their Inspection car - click the link to see additional images from that trip - https://www.facebook.com/jr.valderas/media_set...)

Josh Kellerman posted
LaPorte, IN
Josh Ośmiałowski
These are US&S signals,
and aren't modified...
 but they are called the 'CR-2'

More examples of NYC's tri-color signal heads.

Josh Kellerman posted
Some classics still standing but not for long in LaPorte, IN

Jack Stoner posted
"Linking 13 Great States With the Nation" - A CSX Manifest led by a nice standard cab C40-8 thunders west through though the Potomac River Valley at Hansrote, WV on March 20, 2011. Progress has claimed the classic B&O CPL set here, but the magnificent scenery remains - "Quantun of Solace".

Stan Carlson posted six photos with the comment:

Did you ever see a B&O training CPL? These were made by GRS in 1945. We have this one at the Salamanca Rail Museum in Salamanca NY. It has been in Salamanca for 70 years, and has not been lit since the 1980's. The markers on top work now, we still have to wire up the bottom markers.

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Aaron Bryant posted
A westbound stack train is on the far side of Bluefield yard, as this old CPL from the N&W days, still survives and gives a restricting indication 24/7. Photo date: 12/02/18.

Sometimes CPL signals are installed on a railroad simply because they have no moving parts and were probably cheap. Specifically, a comment on a posting:
Bob Lalich The CPLs were installed on the C&WI in the early 60s when tracks 3 and 4 were removed between 80th St and Pullman Jct, and tracks 1 and 2 were signaled in both directions. Funding came from the Dan Ryan project. CPLs were also installed on track 3 between 81st St and 47th St, and portions of the line from Pullman Jct to Mainline Bridge. A former C&WI dispatcher told me that CPLs were picked because there are no moving parts and they got a good deal.

More examples of CPL signals:

• Harpers Ferry tunnel
• "Big Tunnel"

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