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The first signals employed on an American railroad were a system of flags used on the Newcastle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road in the 1830s. The railroad then developed a more effective system consisting of wooden balls, painted red, white or black, and hoisted up or down a pole on a rope-and-pulley system.
Railway signal in Ploiești West railway station, Romania. This type of signal is based on the German Ks signals. The signal head is the portion of a colour light signal which displays the aspects. To display a larger number of indications, a single signal might have multiple signal heads.
The first reached by a train is known as the home signal. The last stop signal, known as the starting or section signal, is usually located past the points etc. and controls entry to the block section ahead. The distance between the home and starting signals is usually quite short (typically a few hundred yards), and allows a train to wait for ...
Signal aspect and indication illustrations instead appear in each railroad's system special instructions or operating timetable for the region or division where the aspects and indications apply. This practice is necessary due to the lack of uniformity in aspects between the multitude of railroads participating in GCOR, which includes a number ...
A British Upper Quadrant semaphore signal. In the days of the first British railways, "policemen" were employed by every railway company. Their jobs were many and varied, but one of their key roles was the giving of hand signals to inform engine drivers as to the state of the line ahead. [3]
A single signal may be equipped to function both as a stop signal and a distant signal. Some distant signals are in the form of a 'fixed distant'. That is: they only ever display a 'caution' aspect and never a 'clear' one. Such signals are usually in the form of a standard distant arm fixed in the horizontal position to the signal post.
The basic running signal was the Home signal, an absolute stop signal with a red arm. Route signalling was used to indicate the line to be taken at junctions. Advance warning was given by a Distant signals. Subsidiary signals for shunting moves differed between States, just as they did between the different railway companies in Britain.
"Wigwag" was the nickname given to a type of crossing signals once common in North America, named for the pendulum-like motion it used to signal the approach of a train. Albert Hunt , a mechanical engineer at Southern California 's Pacific Electric (PE) interurban streetcar railroad, invented it in 1909 for safer railroad level crossings.