Winston Salem District Signals

[NW Mailing List]

The Winston Salem District has raised some questions for me about its
block signal system.

I have seen several old sidings with foundations that appeared to be
signaled at one time, such as at Bassett.  There are Style S case
foundations and bracket signal foundations at what appears to have
been the former north end of the siding.

I have also observed more places like this at Henry, Martinsville, and
the Fontaine Spur hold track.  I'm sure there are even more.

I am under the impression that these are the remains of an automatic
semaphore signal system with hand throw switches.  Does anyone know
for sure?

Then again, this raises questions about the Color Position Signals
too.  There are a great deal of "holdout" signals (control points with
no switches).  Yet, the sidings I mentioned, along with alot of other
former head end or home signals were not made control points with CTC,
such as at Henry.  The north end is a holdout signal, and the south
end has automatic signals.  Of course, it is hand throw switches for
the passing track.  Henry now appears to be no longer used, and will
be loosing all its signals in the pole line elimination.

Finally, the equipment on the district is very OLD!  The signals are
the PL-1 type in most places.  There are a few PL-2's, and no PL-3's
that I've seen.

All this appears to be a hodge podge of equipment and it does not
follow the  practices I have observed on the other districts of the
N&W.

Can someone make sense of all this for me???

Ben Blevins