Elliston Feb 1953 - Oddball Left-Handed Signal

[NW Mailing List]

There were also some on the Roanoke District, so, there must have been exceptions.Jimmy LisleSent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> Date: 7/15/23  6:24 AM  (GMT-05:00) To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org Subject: Re: Elliston Feb 1953 - Oddball Left-Handed Signal 
    Abram,
      
      There are four left-hand signals on the Pocahontas District that
      date back to at least the 1950s. Could they have predated Fed
      regulations and were grandfathered in and/or were considered
      exceptions to address an unusual situation?
      
      Grant Carpenter
      
      On 7/14/2023 8:28 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
    
    
      
       Attached is an image of the 2148 coming east with a
        coal train in February 1953.  The listing, on one of the more
        popular on-line auction sites, gives the location as
        Shawsville.  But there is a middle track visible in the image,
        and there was no middle track at Shawsville, so I think this
        photo was shot at the west end of the Elliston Middle Track. 
         
       Note something very strange in this photo.  See that
        bracket signal mast, back about 15 car lengths in the train?  It
        holds the eastward home signals.  Now look what is on our side
        of that braket signal mast.  It is a ground-mast, single arm
        Position Light Signal governing WESTWARD movement on the
        EASTWARD Main Track.  What is VERY strange is that said signal
        is left-handed for operation on the track it governs. 
        Left-handed signals were outlawed by the ICC at the time this
        photo was made, and were not not made "legal" until sometime in
        the late 1980s when the railroads poor-mouthed it to the FRA
        about the expense of burying a signal cable under a track, to
        ensure all right-handed signals. 
         
       So, WHAT was this oddball (and illegal, too ! )
        signal doing at the west end of the Elliston Middle?  My guess
        is that it was a temporary signal used as Centralized Traffic
        Control (and reverse-running on signal indication) was being
        implemented on this portion of the Radford Division, and was
        used only temporarily until a double bracket signal could be
        erected on the opposite (north) side of the main tracks. 
         
       If this interpretation is correct, this photo
        captures an interesting temporary condition (and method of
        operation) which existed for a short period of time. 
         
       -- abram burnett 
       International Bank of Turnips  
    
    
  

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