The signal at West Cherokee was taken out of service this morning and it came down, the signal bridge above took its place. I am going to display it with the Frisco cabooses I have in West Tulsa, also I got another one similar from the opposite lane, and I am going to send it to Heritage Park to be displayed with 4500 (if they want it)
Hi Terry. Yes I did get that signal too, saved it from the scrap dumpster. Also I got 3 dwarf signals. I would like to send the triple signal and the dwarfs to some organization that would want to display them, like Heritage Park with 4500, or the Oklahoma Railway Museum, or even the park at Springfield with the 4-8-4. Just want to send the signals somewhere Frisco related. If anyone knows of an interested party, let me know.
I hope the Heritage Park people will recognize the significance of the signal and accept it. The interesting thing about that signal is that even though it had three signals only two signals were ever anything other than red. The track that went straight at the signal from the freight lead was the 100 yard lead which was not part of the CTC as that switch was hand throw only and not controlled by the dispatcher. When that switch was thrown it would prevent an other than red indication for both inbound and outbound movements on the route using the switch. I don't remember which signal was the constant red. It would have been either the high or low signal. The switch crew was supposed to line the switch only when a white indicator light at that location was lit. This gave them permission to line the switch to leave the 100 yard lead to proceed east back to the yard or west up the lead. When we started using radios as an added precaution, we would talk to the yardmaster to make sure no train was going to be lined up before we could line the switch and enter the freight lead from the 100 yard lead and proceed to the yard. The normal position for the switch was for the crossover which was unusual because the dispatcher could have the middle hump crossover lined away from this route which under normal operating rules would be a violation (both ends of a crossover lined the same). I remember one night the yardmaster gave us permission on a yard move to the 100 yard to go ahead of tr. 39 which was the hotshot evening train to Irving. They were close to leaving so this was unusual that he would let us go ahead. When we saw this triple signal, the dispatcher had already lined up the CTC for 39 which meant the white light I mentioned earlier was not lit. The foreman, George Metevelis, and I were in a quandary because of this situation, but I told him that we didn't have any choice because we had to clear for 39. When the switch was hand thrown the signal for 39 went red which really put us in a very nervous state because we didn't know if the signal would restore to green again after the switch was relined for the crossover. It must have because 39 came through with no signal problem. We were certainly relieved when 39 left with no issue with the signal. Terry
The S case at West Cherokee and 33rd was removed a few weeks ago. The Oklahoma Railway Museum asked to have the internals and they will be sent to them. Happy to see these old parts continue on working. I thought I would shorten the mast pole on this case and restore it and convert it to a gun storage case.
