Photo of the Week: 2/5/2011

Today is Saturday, which means I am once again late for the photo of the week. However, late is better than never, right?

Today's photo comes from September, when I drove up to the furthest north part of New Hampshire and spent the day there, only because I had never been there before. One of the places I had planned to stop at was a town called Whitefield. Back in the day, the Boston & Maine and Maine Central lines crossed here. The diamond was protected by a ball signal, which was the last ball signal in active service in the country. It is no longer used now though. But enough talk, here is the photo:

The Boston & Maine line to Wells River goes off to the left, the Maine Central line to St Johnsbury is to the right. Both lines are now owned by the New Hampshire Central, a shortline that operates some little-used rail lines in northern New Hampshire. Because both lines are owned by the same railroad, the ball signal is no longer needed, but it looks like the railroad or the town has preserved it. The railroad lines here see very little action, behind the photo on the MEC line is a string of stored tank cars, right on the main. Aside from regular railroad operations, NHCR makes money by storing freight cars for other railroads that don't have the space for it.

Ball signal operation is very simple but effective. All trains had to stop 500 feet from the junction. If both balls were down, nothing was cleared across the diamond. If one ball was up, the Boston & Maine line was cleared across the diamond and the Maine Central line was not. If both balls were up, the Maine Central line was cleared across the diamond and the Boston & Maine line was not. This is where the term "highball" originated. A "high ball" on the signal meant that the train was cleared to go.