Hello to everyone. Hope you are all doing well. I would like to know what type of signals the Frisco used between the 1950's till the merger. I am doing a modeling project of sorts and this information would be great help. Thanks in advance to anyone who posts a reply. Hope you all have a great evening... Daniel T. Edwards
The Frisco used search light signals in the CTC territory I ran in. I can't vouch for the spot on accuracy, but I believe these are close: All Tomar: 1. single head 81-858, 2. double head 81-873, 3. triple head 81-858. In the ABS territory I ran in they used upper quadrant semaphores. I have purchased Tomar: 1. 81-854 with relay base, and 2. 81-870 without relay base. These are not spot on accurate, but the only Frisco semaphore signal I have seen for sale is very expensive, and is hard to get. Maybe others can shed more light on the subject. Hope this helps, Terry
The St. Louis Subdivision, River Division timetable for the late 50s indicates Block Signals - OBS - MP T-7+18 to MP T-135+22. This would roughly correspond to the area from Southeastern Junction (7.3 miles from St. Louis) to an area between Marquette, MO and Nash, MO south of Cape Girardeau (MP 134.0 and 139.2, respectively). The book Frisco in Color has at least one nice photo of a southbound freight south of St. Louis with a semaphore in the 1970s. An engineer whose family we knew in Chaffee had one of these old semaphores at the end of his driveway in the late 70s. Now, someone will have to remind me: what does the "O" in "OBS" represent? I'll be darned if I can find it anywhere here or online otherwise. Best Regards,
Terry and Chris, Thank you very much for the information. It will be of great help. Sincerely, Daniel Edwards
Chris, I wonder if it isn't ABS (Automatic Block System) which was the system used south of Sapulpa on the Creek Sub. The signals themselves were upper quadrant semaphores. I have never heard of OBS so I can't help you on that. Terry
Terry, that's plausible. I guess there could be a typo in the ETT Special Instructions? I tried Googling "OBS" and "signals" without any success.
One issue of FMIG LINES (can't remember which) has a nice E. S. Dellinger fiction story about a signal maintainer. His fiction was heavily influenced from his days working for the MoP and SL-SF. The issue is downloadable from frisco.org. My little icon shows two searchlight signals at the wb entrance to the siding at Dixon, MO. Doug
Doug, Is it "Block Signals" in FMIG Lines Newsletter #108? (from July 1939 Railroad Magazine, based on the Lebanon subdivision)? Slowly working my way along with the newsletter indexing project. Best Regards,
