Photo of the Week: 4/1/2011

Today, April 1, brings another foot of snow to New England, canceling my class for today. So rather than study about electrical estimating, I found some spare time to work on model trains, and write this photo of the week post. The photo I chose is from the last time I was in New York, the day after last week's photo was taken. I went to Floral Park and Bellerose to do some railfanning for a change of scene. Floral Park is where the Hempstead Branch splits off from the main, and Bellerose is the location of the famous Bell Interlocking. Both stations have four elevated tracks and position light signals, all reminiscent of the Pennsylvania Railroad days. Anyways, enough talk, here is the photo:

I was shooting in black and white because while it was not raining, it was very overcast and the lighting was horrendous for color photos. It's not perfect for black and white either, but it doesn't look as bad.

This is an Oyster Bay train heading through Bellerose towards Oyster Bay, under the new signal towers that protect Bell Interlocking. The railroad recently rebuilt the interlocking. The trains can now cross between tracks and full speed, and the famous "Bellerose Bump" when the train crosses tracks is now gone. The new tracks all got concrete ties and the signal towers were rebuilt and moved. They left the position light signals up rather than install new colorlight signals, which surprised me, because the railroad has been phasing out the position light signals recently, and this was a golden opportunity to put up new signals here.

Position light signals are interesting. Rather than use different colors like most signals, there are seven lights arranged in a way that three are lit at any given time, and depending on which three are lit determines what the signal means. Three horizontal lights mean the same as a red signal, three diagonal lights mean the same as a yellow signal, and three vertical lights mean the same as a green signal. These signals have several advantages and disadvantages compared to colorlight signals. If one bulb is out, you can still tell what the signal means because the two other lights still show a position. However, it is harder to tell what the signal says from further away, because it is just yellow. The Pennsylvania Railroad developed these signals and used them throughout their system. The Long Island Railroad continues to use them, although they are being phased out.