Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

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Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by freebrickproductions » Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:14 pm

I have had the questions for a while and I want some answers for them. Sorry if some of them are easy.
1. Are Griswold, RACO, and Safetran the same company? I know RACO and Griswold are but I'm not sure about Safetran and RACO.
2. Did RACO ever make a 12x20 light?
3. Did Griswold ever make any lights other than the "type A" and "type B" lights?
4. Are there any active crossings with all RACO equipment?
5. Did Griswold make any wig wags before they bought Magnetic Flagman Co.?
6. Why don't many people like the Safetran/RACO/Griswold EM gate mechanisms?
7. What do the insides of a RACO Hydrolic gate mechanism look like?
They/Them for me, please.

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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by TrainmanKight » Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:18 pm

freebrickproductions wrote:I have had the questions for a while and I want some answers for them. Sorry if some of them are easy.
1. Are Griswold, RACO, and Safetran the same company? I know RACO and Griswold are but I'm not sure about Safetran and RACO.
2. Did RACO ever make a 12x20 light?
3. Did Griswold ever make any lights other than the "type A" and "type B" lights?
4. Are there any active crossings with all RACO equipment?
5. Did Griswold make any wig wags before they bought Magnetic Flagman Co.?
6. Why don't many people like the Safetran/RACO/Griswold EM gate mechanisms?
7. What do the insides of a RACO Hydrolic gate mechanism look like?
I'm not too big into the history of old signals, nor do I know a lot about old signals from Grisworld and predecessors.
1. Yes/No They merged and became safetran. I have paper work from 2000 saying "Invensys safetran systems" either way in November 2012 Siemens bought Invensys out.
5. No
6. because you had to lay on you back or kneel to work on the damn things.
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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by NSrailfan4life » Fri Mar 22, 2013 9:25 pm

2:No.A look alike brand,Modern Industies did.
3:No
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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by ZachL » Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:54 pm

NSrailfan4life wrote:2:No.A look alike brand,Modern Industies did.
RACO did indeed produce 12"x20" lights..
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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by NSrailfan4life » Sat Mar 23, 2013 4:02 pm

I did not know they made these.Are these rare to find?
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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by YoshiDino90 » Thu Feb 06, 2014 1:00 pm

4. With the exception of the gates and one of the bells, the Route 9 crossing on Roaring Camp and Big Trees railroad has all RACO equipment, with the lights, the cantilevers, and probably one of the bells, but I'm not sure for certain; one of them was a Griswold bell and the other was unmarked, so it could've been either one. Paradise Lane on Strasburg railroad is almost all RACO, but there are Safetran 8 inch lights on the signal without the bell.
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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by ConductorWho » Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:49 am

Addressing #1: Safetran was founded in 1920 as a subsidiary of Burco services (specializing in construction logistics), in Lousville, KY. Griswold was based out of Minneapolis, MN, selling traffic signals such as the "Bobby Signal" at first, then developing the rotating banner signal by the 1930s and buying out MRSCO in the 1940s. I can't find any corporate history on RACO but they came much later, presumably were purchased / purchased by / became a licensee of Griswold before the EM-class gate's production cycle ended (I believe the EMs were even manufactured until the 1980s, under Safetran. A 1987 MRR article deals with making an operating Safetran crossing with EM-class gates) but after the GS-class went out of production. All share a very similar, utilitarian visor design (filleted at an acute angle from the flasher centerline as opposed to a chamfered compound curve, as on WRRS and US&S-lineage signals and "chopped' at the end) and a very similar bell design (nearly hemispherical rainshield) and at a certain point were all geographically-concentrated (Minneapolis, MN, with Safetran in Louisville).

#4: Santa Fe was a major RACO customer back in the 1960s. As a result, many of the lighter-use road crossings received a RACO setup with GS-class Hydraulic gates like the one below, in San Juan Capistrano--
Image

An aside--both of San Juan's MRSCO wigwags are preserved, in part. Here's one of them, out in front of the depot.
Image
This makes San Juan one of the few crossings on the Surf Line with all the "generations" of signaling installed on it preserved or photographed.

But anyway, also to answer #4--Southern Pacific also bought such crossings, such as this one photographed by Bill Steck on the abandoned Strathmore - Hollis branch.
Image
YoshiDino90 wrote:4. With the exception of the gates and one of the bells, the Route 9 crossing on Roaring Camp and Big Trees railroad has all RACO equipment, with the lights, the cantilevers, and probably one of the bells, but I'm not sure for certain; one of them was a Griswold bell and the other was unmarked, so it could've been either one. Paradise Lane on Strasburg railroad is almost all RACO, but there are Safetran 8 inch lights on the signal without the bell.
Not quite...it has Westinghouse Air Brake Company AL-70 "lightweight" mechanisms, colloquially nicknamed "Triangle" gates due to the truss-shaped gate adapter. However, the AL-70 was contemporaneous with the GS-class gates, and many SP secondaries use them in analogous amounts. (i.e. the former West Valley line having mostly AL-70s, while the East Valley line through Exeter uses mostly RACO GS Hydraulics).
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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by 0333 » Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:00 am

freebrickproductions wrote:Are there any active crossings with all RACO equipment?

Many. As stated above, SP and the ATSF were heavy users of RACO, so a lot of their equipment are still there on lesser used lines. They were generally used on gate less crossings or gated ones with the hyraulic gate mechanism. Early SP installs with the Raco hydraulic gate mechanism had mostly US&S equipment. That was the same with the Wabco AL-70 installs. Also, there may be active Raco rotating banner signals out there, but that's unlikely.
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Re: Questions about Griswold, RACO, and Safetran

Post by ConductorWho » Thu Aug 07, 2014 3:21 am

Oh yea, and I can definitely answer #5 as-- "if so, none survived". The only currently known wigwag manufacturers are WRRS (Model 5), US&S (Type DW), and of course MRSCO and later Griswold. Wigwags were outlawed by the ICC in 1949, shortly after Griswold acquired MRSCO. Technically any "grandfathered-in" wigwag would have some Griswold components, assuming it were repaired with 1949 - 1960s era parts.
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