Railroad Signal Recovery Squad, to the Rescue!

May 19, 2007

Location- Munster Indiana, Calumet Avenue immediately south of 45th Street

Purpose- To recover several decommissioned railroad signaling artifacts for later

             relocation, restoration & display at the NWIRPS railroad museum

Here we are, gathered next to the abandoned Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way. Once locally known as the Panhandle or Logansport line--

Tracks and trains used to pass here, this ex-PRR line was downgraded & eventually taken out of service by the early 1980s, the rails & ties were removed.

Yet several visual reminders of railroad passage still remained, never removed by salvage crews hence, the reason we are here. To gather & preserve those remains for historical reasons, for later public display.

Beginning with the removal of the railroad crossing signals that had once guarded Calumet Avenue. Using a cantilevered style that places one set of red flashers high while extending them over the street--

Repeated with another set of flashers mounted lower on the support pole--

Though many years old, this style of railroad signal crossing construction marked the beginning of the Modern Age, still commonly seen and used today.

Signaling devices are tall, heavy and dangerously awkward to work with, it certainly helps having the proper tools, a boom lift truck, an experienced crew who know what they are doing--

After receiving the necessary official permissions to do so, the recovery squad proceeds with the day's mission. Starting with the severing of electric connections, the unwrenching of these grade crossing signals from their mountings--

Next, to install the needed rigging that will be used to lift the signal, as well as safely controlling its movements as the signal is lifted free and moved away from its mounting foundation--

Finding and holding the center balancing point is the key for a successful lift--

The crew feels comfortable with the rigging, time to make a lift!

Except Calumet Avenue is heavy with vehicle traffic, can't risk taking any chances of something going unexpected bad. So a call is made to the Munster street department, the recovery crew takes a powder until the traffic flow can be halted for a few minutes.

Sure enough, a worker from the street dept. arrives--

Who when asked, quickly places a few orange safety cones in the two traffic lanes, stops traffic while the crossing signal lift is performed.

(at this point, your correspondent had to put aside his camera, hold one of the guide ropes as the signal was suspended and being moved so, no photos of it hanging from the boom)

Less than a minute later? Success! The scary part is finished, the lift went perfectly as anticipated--

The crossing signal was elevated, boomed around to the opposite side of the truck and lowered...almost. Still hanging, before it can be fully placed upon the ground for rigging removal, the flasher light assemblies are dismantled and taken away least they be damaged by ground contact--

This particular lifting chore has been completed, the crossing signal will later be gathered and trailered to its new and final destination.

But the day isn't yet over! There are MORE old railroad signals to be plucked & saved!

So off we go to the next target, driving west on what was once the Pennsylvania Railroad right of way --

With its base obscured by overgrown brush, we're seeing an example of a PRR position light signal. A lonesome sentinel that has long outlived its purpose--

Its circular disc face long stripped of the yellow and red lights, visors, this was once the east-facing home signal that had protected westbound PRR train movements over the Grand Trunk Railroad, a few yards ahead of this signal--

Manufactured by Union Switch & Signal and only used by the PRR along with PRR-owned railroads, very little spoke 'Pennsylvania Rail Road' as these distinctive lineside signals once did.

<hey! who has a sharp photo of a complete PRR PL signal/head assembly that I can paste here?!>

Boom truck support outriggers are extended--

Canvas lifting straps are put into place--

The recovery crew had brought along a portable oxyacetylene rig for torching & scarfing any badly corroded attaching nuts that would refuse yielding to any unwrenching. But the pre-lift evaluation revealed that the bottom of the signal's relay pedestal (which also serves as the signal pole mount) was badly rusted and weak from metal perforation, there was little need to do away with the nuts...the signal would have eventually toppled on its own.

It was decided to do an upwards lift, put a vertical strain on the signal pole. Maintain that lifting force while rocking the signal from side to side. Doing so would crush & break what had remained of the already thin weakened metal, releasing the signal from it's earthbound foundation--

Finally wiggled free and broken loose, down she slowly comes--

A few closeup shots--

The rotted mounting pedestal--

Next to this decades-old signal, an equally ancient signal electric relay cabinet that had once controlled the works--

Like the PRR signals it had directed, much of the hardware and circuits have been picked clean. Still, a few examples of old school analog signal controls remain--

And these plastic tags tied with strings, signed & attached by signal maintainers--

Leaves one wondering, who were these men? Have they since retired from the railroad, in this case, whoever would have owned the ex-PRR Panhandle Line were it still in operation during Conrail era and after the Conrail breakup; Norfolk Southern or CSX? Are the signal men who had once maintained the electronics inside of this cabinet still alive?

This signal was also left for later pickup and transport--

No, the recovery chore (along with getting back to nature) isn't quite finished. Yet.

Now it's time to move and set up on the opposite end of the ex-PRR/Grand Trunk railroad crossing--

And grab the other opposing PRR west-facing home signal. This too went effortlessly, pretty much the same connect/lift/lower operation as before--

Except here, a different mounting base was used for this PRR signal. No corroded foundation to deal with, nuts were undone--

But a rocking action was still needed to break the lower ladder legs free--

This railroad signal recovery phase is complete, that'll do...

A very grateful NWIRPS tip o' the hat to Mark Hajduk Sr, Mark Hajduk Jr and Bob Cashman, thank you, guys!

                                                                                                                                                       Barney M. Slifer