![]() ![]() ![]() The higher on the pole the higher the permitted speed. The key is in understanding that each head governs a specific speed route. This first diagram shows a typical 3 head color light signal. I will show later how 2 head, and even 1 head, signals fit into the over all scheme. For initial purposes of this discussion I will use only 3 head signals. Many locations had 3 but 2 was the minimum. Where I grew up, and eventually worked on the railroad, the NYC used at least two signal lights on every signal post. ![]() You do not need to memorize all the different signals. Once you realize what that method is you can then know the name and indication of almost any signal in this system just by looking at it. But it was not arbitrary, there was a method to the madness. At first glance at the rulebook it appears that the signals are an arbitrary combination of red, yellow, and green lights. The NYC signal system was very straight forward. You can learn a lot about RR signals simply by observing. I learned about RR signals by observing signal appearances as a train approached, passed or crossed over, and continued out of sight down the track. Manually operated crossovers and manned interlocking towers were located approximately every 15 miles. ![]() It was a pure Automatic Block Signal system (ABS) system. It was signaled for movement in only one direction on each of the two tracks. The New York Central Railroad (NYC) had a double track mainline that ran through my home town. But the NYC system’s general principles can be applied to most North American railroad signal systems. Each railroad used a difference signal system so I was exposed to, and could readily see, the similarities and differences of the two systems. There were two railroads that ran through Miamisburg, The New York Central (NYC) and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O). I grew up in Miamisburg, Ohio, a small town south of Dayton. As I said, the actual use of the word indication is often blurred by crews. In the second case he answered Flashing Yellow which is the Aspect not the Indication. In the first case he answered Approach Medium which is the Name not the Indication. Technically both of these answers are wrong. However in actual practice non-signal department railroad workers often use the word Indication in referring to any of these three attributes of a signal. PROCEED PREPARED TO PASS NEXT SIGNAL NOT EXCEEDING 30 MPH for example. The INDICATION of a signal is not how it appears but rather what you must do when encountering that signal.What that signal is called is its NAME.When talking about RR signals you need to know that what a signal looks like, Yellow over Green over Red for example, is called the ASPECT.With this page I hope to show that they are not arbitrary and there really is a “system” to this madness. I have been told RR signals seem to be an arbitrary collection of colored lights that make no logical sense and simply have to be memorized. Some readers have asked me to explain “signals” to them. When writing about my experiences on the railroad I often mention various signal indications. Maybe not, highway traffic signals have no appeal to me. Railroad Signals have fascinated me from when I was a child. “If a signal is not all red, then it is not red at all.” ![]()
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