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Old crossings with odd signals.
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 3:06 pm
by ToledoRailfan
I came across this old photograph with several railroad crossings with odd signals. They almost remind me of those Lionel 83 crossing signals.
Here is the article that the photograph comes from.
http://www.shorewoodnow.com/news/ghost- ... 54921.html
I came across this article and photograph from a post on the Abandoned Rails Facebook group.
Re: Old crossings with odd signals.
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:29 pm
by freebrickproductions
They look like Mushroom beacons, which, IIRC, were used in medians along roads to keep drivers from hitting said medians. IDK though, I'll have to ask on Highway Divides and see what the people there think.
Re: Old crossings with odd signals.
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 10:11 pm
by freebrickproductions
Yep, they are "Mushroom" beacons, which were used to mark curbs in general.
Re: Old crossings with odd signals.
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:14 pm
by ToledoRailfan
freebrickproductions wrote:Yep, they are "Mushroom" beacons, which were used to mark curbs in general.
Now that I think about it, I don't even think there are any railroad crossings in that photograph!
Re: Old crossings with odd signals.
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 1:23 pm
by cabman701
I like the idea though! With LED technology... I'm surprised we haven't seen something similar to this today.
Re: Old crossings with odd signals.
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 2:01 pm
by freebrickproductions
Re: Old crossings with odd signals.
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:38 pm
by cabman701
I know we are going a bit off subject... but back in my hometown, one of the first intersections to get double left turn lanes (back in the 90's) had lights similar to those in your last link, but they weren't solar powered.
The lights were embedded in the roadway between the double left turn lanes as they curved through the intersection. The lights only lit up when the left turn signal activated. The idea was to help people turning stay in their appropriate lane since at the time double left turn lanes where a fairly new concept... at least for Springfield.
The roadway lights only lasted a year or two and started malfunctioning from being repeatedly run over. They were finally removed a year or two later.
They generated quite a bit of hype when they were first put in. There was an article in the local paper... it was the talk of the town for a little while.
Here is that intersection today:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7639859 ... 6656?hl=en