Yes, it is a General Railway Signal dwarf signal. Here you see it displaying the normal signal aspect-stop/danger. Universal railway signal practice is that the default aspect for a railway signal to show is its most restrictive aspect. For most railroad signals, that means that they display the STOP/DANGER aspect. The signal is only changed to a more permissive aspect when a train is approaching and the next section of track is clear or the switches are set for the approaching train’s route.
Here the signal is displaying a CLEAR/PROCEED aspect. If the signal were wired to an actual track signal circuit, the signal aspect would “drop” as soon as the locomotive passes the signal. It would automatically change to STOP/DANGER. On color light signals, the red lens is almost always the bottom lamp. This prevents it from being obscured by snow in winter weather and mimics the mechanical action of a semaphore signal falling from the CLEAR/PROCEED aspect to the STOP/DANGER aspect.
I’ve had this signal for years. I got it from the museum I’m associated with it. We got it from the Phelps Dodge mine at Ajo, Arizona when it was shutting down, along with other mining railroad stuff. We obtained official blessing from the mining company to quite literally take whatever mining railroad equipment we wanted. If we could carry it away, it was ours to keep. We took a mining locomotive, a lot of steel rail, and whatever else we could carry off.
In setting it up, I did replace the low voltage lamp bases with bases rated for household current. The switch has two positions: red or green-no off position. It uses small base bulbs or LEDs-the kind used in chandeliers or bathroom vanity lamps. I originally used incandescent bulbs but switched over to low intensity LEDs so that it wouldn’t blind me at night. Those lenses do a hell of a job projecting a beam of light. The inner lens has a feature that is referred to as PhanKill. It prevents sunlight hitting the lens from being reflected by the lens. Early electric light signals did not have this feature and there were wrecks that were caused by the crew thinking that the signal showed a permissive aspect when, in fact, the reflected sunlight overpowered the beam of the incandescent lamp that was displaying a STOP/DANGER aspect. PhanKill prevents outside light sources from causing the signal to show a “phantom” or false aspect.
Now, if a light bulb were to burn out, what would the train crew do? If the signal does not show an aspect, operating rules require the crew to treat the signal as if it was displaying its most restrictive aspect-either STOP/DANGER or RESTRICTING. A train approaching a signal displaying a RESTRICTING aspect will slow to a maximum speed of 15 mph and be prepared to stop short of any obstruction, train occupying the same track or misaligned switch within half of the range of sight.
In rare cases, a train may pass a signal displaying a STOP/DANGER aspect. That type of move will only be made once the crew has obtained permission from the dispatcher and in accordance with the applicable operating rules. When I was working on the railroad, I did one time have to make such a movement.
