My WSRR signal tower is now back in service-Lit

I originally rebuilt this tower roughly 10 years ago. But time and weather was giving it a beating. the screws were corroding and not holding well. Wood was splitting and so forth. It was getting so bad, that I was really surprised that it was still standing after the big windstorm this past spring. So, before it came down uncontrolled, I tore it down myself. A controlled crash you might say. Here are several pictures from tear down to relighting along with demonstration videos [I love my signals!].
*****Not certain how big the pictures will be. I use the same method on other sites without a problem.soooooo

The tear down:





90% rebuilt. Outside door lighting was used and is placed behind the plastic red lens. After compounding each lens, I put blue tape over each one to protect them from either painting or a scratch. The compounding did an amazing job of polishing the lens clear. Everything was transferred from the old post to the new one including electric connection boxes, wiring and lights. New stainless steel screws were used.



Blue tape removed:


It is very top heavy. It took two people to get it into the post holder. Then I attached the crossing sign. Thank goodness it is relatively light. Then I plugged it in.


This first video shows how I rigged the signals to my garage doors. Top 3 are connected to the right garage door due to that side being the most busy....."Main Line." The bottom one is connect to the left door as this is rarely used in comparison to the right...."a siding or perhaps a spur."

The second video shows how the signals go dark due to the timers in the garage door openers. I don't have to worry about shutting them off. The left door has a switch on the button that allows me to turn the bottom signal on and leave it on 24 hours a day if I want. This is as close as I can come to mimic the real thing.

https://youtu.be/i02X6oCdb6o

https://youtu.be/HdSSybsVj8c

That is awesome!

Thanks. I love coming home at night and opening my garage doors and this lights up. They are really bright due to the compounding I did. Can't wait for winter and blowing snow to see if the "red beam" of light will show up.

one word - SLICK........................

I know you also mentioned once seeing the WS crossing signals in the grass along side Transit road . do I dare ask where they ended up?

or that a case of woulda shoulda?
Mark

These are the signals recovered from the ditch along transit road in the late winter of 2005. I only recovered the black search light portion. Everything that it was attached too was still connected to the "pole."

Personally I'd consider that a signal mast, not a tower. Cool anyway!

I agree with you. Mast is better.

Maintenance was required on my signal mast due to top light outage. So before the winter storm arrives repairs were made. Bottom light was operational and no repair needed.

Before repair:


After repair:

This was taken after our first reasonable snowfall today. I just finished snowblowing the driveway. It was only a few inches but I needed to test the blower and test me to make sure I’m ok to do it. You can see the crescent moon through the trees.

With the impending blizzard just around the curve, I became worried that my signals would not handle sustained high winds with gusts to 70mph. They have handled storms of the past but this one seems different. So I thought I should partially dismantle them and put them in the garage.

The smaller signal/mast was easy to take down. Very lite and easily pulled out of the holder. But the 4 signal mast is a different story. I first took off the RR crossing sign to lose weight. My friend and I then tried to pull it out of the holder. Wouldn’t budge. Tried and tried again. Wouldn’t come out.

The only other option was to secure the mast and screwed in support brackets. ……..and cross my fingers. Here are a couple of pics:


Lights ready:


The mast will likely survive but what worries me the most is the black searchlights getting blown off. Of course that’s kinda funny because is was the wild storms of 2000 that got theses into the ditch in the first place.

You need something besides a stack of red! Get something more permissive displayed, your ghost trains are getting tired of just sitting.

What I need is a green lens to attach to the signals upper right. Does anybody sell them at shows?

Are those actually grade crossing flasher units? I think I have something that would fit. I have 2 reds and a green, looks like 8 1/4" diameter. I THOUGHT there was an amber and another green but may have sold those off years ago. Shoot me a PM if you think these would work. and we can discuss it further.

I never thought of swapping a red lens for a green one. I was going to add a smaller green lens [5-1/2"?} to the upper right of the top signal. It would be easier to install yours. I'll have to wait until the storm has passed to inspect the upper lens. I'm not certain how easy the swap would be. It won't be an easy unscrewing it.

I'll keep you in mind....thanks a lot.

This is the kind of lens I’m looking for. About 4”. Should fit on the existing metal.