"Pole and Paddle" semaphores

[NW Mailing List]

Frank - 

I never heard the term “pole and paddle”.   To what, exactly, do you refer?  Do you mean the bi-directional signals seen at interlocking towers and some stations?

N&W adopted the automatic block signals three or four decades before your modeling era, and originally used lower quadrant semaphores and then upper quadrant semaphores which in turn were supplanted by position-light signals.  

If you refer to the train order signals used at stations and towers, they didn’t have anything to do with automatic block signals.  They were not preserved to salute railroading in years gone by – they had a different purpose entirely, which was to let trains know to pick up train orders at that particular point.  In years before ABS, they were used to block trains.

EdKing

From: NW Mailing List 
Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2013 11:38 PM
To: NW Mailing List 
Subject: "Pole and Paddle" semaphores


I model N&W c. 1950 and plan to install 2-arm "Pole and Paddle" semaphores which I believe were rendered obsolete with N&W's adoption of the Automatic Block Signal system.  

Is it true that the "pole and paddle" devices were deactivated upon the introduction of ABS, yet preserved as static salutes to railroading in years gone by at N&W interlocking towers and stations where telegraph offices were located?

When, roughly, did N&W adopt ABS?

Thanks.  Frank Gibson



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