RAILROAD SIGNALS of the U.S.
RAILROAD
SIGNS
This section covers signs associated
with railroads.
1) Grade
Crossing Signs
2) Crossbucks
3) RRX Round Sign (on road)
4) Whistle and
Ring Posts
5) Yard Limits
6) Switch and Derail
Banners (targets)
7) Spring Switch
8) Speed Limit
9) Speed Restriction
10) No Trespassing
11) Flanger
12) Clearance
13) Tell Tales
14) Rock/Mud Slide
15) Defect
Detector, Hot Box, Dragging Equipment
16) Mileposts
17)
Train Order
18) Stop
Signs
19) Yard Signs (seen at the
entrance to yards)
20) End/Start Block
21) ID signs on Grade Crossing Equipment
22) Look Out For .....
23) with a Railroad Name
24) Station Signs
25) Other Misc Signs
26) Signals,
Semaphores, and Such
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Railroad signs are every where we go. Signs are about as varied as you can get, for every railroad seemed to have it's own idea about what a sign should look like.
If you are building a model pike, they add a bit of realism to the layout. As you can see from the pictures here, you have great leeway in creating your own if you so choose, it's one place where there are no standards, unless you want to be prototypical.
A great deal of the pictures on this page come from the train show held every year in Gaithersburg MD... the first Sunday in November at the fairgrounds (it's mostly a paper and collectables event, but there are some signals and signs on display). I've included multiple pictures of the same sign to illustrate that not every sign is collectable.
RR GRADE
CROSSING SIGNS
for Vehicular Traffic
A couple of grade crossing signs in
Lutherville MD protecting the Light Rail grade crossing with Seminary Ave.
Pictures taken
Thurs 09/22/2005
The left picture is kind of interesting.....
The vertical line (street) on the sign is Railroad Ave, the horizontal Seminary
Ave.,
In the upper right corner of the intersection, is the old Pennsy Lutherville
station,
An article on it ran in the Baltimore Sun (09/18/2005)
This is a view of the station
from Trackside
More pictures of stations around Baltimore can be found
HERE
Unique crossing protection and signs
on the old N&W south of Roanoke and Salem VA along US11
For a map of the area and where to find this gem:
http://www.railroadsignals.us/virginia/roanoke/salemchase.htm
Whistle and speed limit sign in Clare MI 07/2009
Whistle sign at the crossing in Doswell VA
Yard limit sign across the road from Delrey Tower in Detroit
MI
A yard limit sign at the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer
NC
SWITCH TARGETS and DERAIL BANNERS
You can find this guy at the NC Transportation Museum in
Spencer NC - Great museum and it's convenient to I85.
082805
A couple of speed limit signs on the
CSX in Relay (S. Denis) MD.....
A southwestern suburb of Baltimore MD in Baltimore County
The upper speed is the
speed limit for passenger trains
The lower speed limit is for freights
The signs are 18" square, on 1/8" thick aluminum
The third picture is of the station the signs are next to, which I have heard is
going to be moved about a half mile south (or so) so the MARC passenger
platforms are not next to the Old Main Line.
Speed
limit sign in Albert Lea MN on the (I think) DM&E / IC&E - 2006
Speed limit sign in Doswell Virginia at the diamond
A sign at the entrance to the
parking lot at the NS Manassas yard
A sign from the west end of the NS
Manassas VA yard
A no trespassing sign in
Harrisburg PA at Enola Yard
A sign from (probably) the NYC subway system, made in
Baltimore MD
FLANGER
CLEARANCE
TELL TALES
ROCK / MUD SLIDE
DEFECT DETECTOR, HOT BOX, ETC
82805
A comparatively new, plain aluminum
milepost near Thomas Viaduct on the main line to DC
Located in Relay (St. Denis)
MD, a southwestern suburb of Baltimore MD in Baltimore County
082805
The same style milepost mounted to an
old B&O concrete milepost at the split between the mainline and the old
mainline,
I was told the difference in the two mileages (between this MP and the one
above) stems from the old days when the two routes took different paths through
the city, resulting in a different mileage at this point,
The picture on the left is the mainline going to DC, with the Thomas Viaduct
just barely to the left, and a monument to the original builders of the B&O
railroad,
The picture to the right shows the split in the routes.
Now some classic stuff....
This stone milepost stands next to the "7" milepost above,
Great stuff!
The one side says 9 miles to Baltimore, the other says 31 miles to Washington
DC,
There is another one on the other side of the three tracks.
Unfortunately, these guys disappeared in 2007, and I'm willing to bet they are not down at the B&O Transportation Museum...
Milepost sign in Cadillac MI.
For more pictures of this milepost,
check out my Doswell page:
http://www.railroadsignals.us/diamonds/doswell/index.htm
TRAIN ORDER
082805
The stop signs above were at Relay (St. Denis) MD while CSX was in the process of installing a new signal bridge, about 300 ft down the tracks (it went live in early 2008).... They needed these signs to get the trains to stop before proceeding thru the area.
The Yellow sign with an orange stripe is an "approach" sign for the stop signs, and they are placed about a quarter of a mile in advance of the stop signs.
Both signs are temporary in nature, and are either laid down or removed when not needed.... As in after regular work hours for the construction crews.
The right picture shows the approximate placement next to the St. Denis station when they were being used.
As of 2005, it was rumored that this station would be moved about a half mile or so to the south to get it away from the heavy traffic on the old main line (which is the track to the far left in the first and last pictures), but as of mid 2008, MARC has supposedly given in to users of this stop and plans on keeping the station here.
A couple of signs at Enola Yard in
Harrisburg PA
A few signs at the diamond in Doswell VA, a very good railfan
spot..... for
more cool stuff click
here
Same sign, three years in a row....
ID TAGS ON GRADE CROSSING EQUIPMENT
Doswell VA
Sign on Equipment cabinet in Cadillac MI
LOOK OUT FOR ......
Four years and no sale!
Looks like no-one wants the "look out for the loco or car" signs, they have been to a number of shows.....
Miscellaneous signs found at (mostly) the Gaithersburg MD train show in November. Pictures from the train this train show are labeled something like 5e123, the first number is the year the pictures were taken (exp 5e123 = 2005). A lot of these signs appear year after year.
General views of the stuff Brian typically has every year....
"Enter code now before white sign" by Delrey Tower in Detroit
MI
I'll probably get emails about this one, but it can be found
at the Junction Valley RR, a quarter size RR in Michigan.
You will see about a dozen of these on I85 between Raleigh and Charlotte
082805
This street sign
pays tribute to the fact that Railroad Ave runs parallel to the CSX (B&O)
tracks,
And the Thomas Viaduct is only a few hundred feet away,
This sign is only a few years old, as BaltCo just started using this style about
3-4 years ago,
The thumbnail is a picture of Thomas Viaduct, alas, not a very good one,
Located in Relay (St. Denis) MD, a southwestern suburb of Baltimore MD in
Baltimore County
New: 10/6/2006
Last
Modified: 02-Jan-2012