2008 Signal Tours of Ohio, Refuge of the Four Way Signal
for 2007 and Earlier Photos, Next Page >>

Milan (2008)
A travesty! The fickle funds of finance have blown through Milan! Gone are the beat down signals in the center of town. Gone is the Type-M beacon over the firehouse. All has been replaced with rather dapper appearing 12" McCain/TCT LED signals. A rusty spanwire hanger is all that is left to remind us of what once was.

New Philadelphia Signal Shop (2008)
New Philadelphia has a retirement home for some of their more aged signals to burn their last bulbs in comfort.

This is a typical WinkoMatic school zone flasher you'd typically see mounted behind a large sign. It is being tested before installation.


A small Winkomatic diffused Neon who has lost its red tube.


A high contrast Deco with an assortment of glass and poly lenses.


A repaired Marbelite "knockdown" unit. You'd hardly know the green was seriously mangled in the fall.


A classic cast-visor Deco Wait-Walk.


A 70's CH EM unit runs the show.


A true mystery. Has anyone seen one of these before? More details can be found on the Mystery Signal page.

Dover (2008)
Just off the interstate at a gas station in Dover here's McCain's answer to the 3M PV signal including a HUGE doghouse.
 

Salem (2008)
Salem presented a pair of Master's at a 4-way stop hooked up to a much younger controller mounted high up on the pole. Note the two styles of bottom plate, left vs. right hand doors, and the wingnut tabs vs. direct screws. 
   
 

Of course, no visit to Salem would be complete without a stop at the Victorian crazy chimney house (one of a few masonry extravaganzas in the region) and a visit to the FD. Check out the day-glo orange on the ALF!
 

Canfield (2008)
Over towards Canfield hangs the typical Sargent/TSI/TEECO beacon. It is driven from a 
rather unassuming cabinet on the pole.
   

Coal Creek (2008)
Coal Creek has an intersection of Eagles, with an unique approach to hanging signs.
I   

Youngstown (2008)
Youngstown, Ohio's answer to Detroit. A whole lot of bad, a whole lot of neglect, a little 
bit of good, some hidden treasures, and way too many Eagle 4-ways.

A WinkoMatic. Even trick photography can't make these any more interesting. The red is 
pretty well burnt out, literally.
 

A different Eagle 4-way for once! Built-in flasher motor, although this one was probably 
running off the local controller box on the pole. The lens installer also had some fun, 
every lens seemed to be mounted 45° off of horizontal. Diamonds were squares, sawteeth were 
stripes, so much for diffusion patterns.
 

What is it with the coloring of these hydrants?!? All seem to use the same barf-brown with 
random "accent" colors. Yellow is most popular but white, red, etc. were all used elsewhere 
as a second color.


Up next, another intersection, more Eagle signals. Oh wait, this one is kind of odd 
looking, it's a SSC beacon! This odd cluster of an intersection has one Eagle and one SSC 
running off of an Eagle flasher box. Both signals are in good shape, although with a decent 
amount of lens replacements. The visors are a bit dinged and it seems someone rewired the 
signals with Romex?!? and fishing line. Unfortunately the Eagle either wasn't wired as well 
or the bulbs were gone for it wasn't running.
   
 

Another intersection with Type M 4-ways and you guessed it, Eagle EM controllers.
     

I'm not sure to file this under "bad" or "neglect". Looks like a telephone pole was 
replaced at some time recently, and since it would have been an issue to move all the 
hardware to the new pole you just cut all the extra off the old pole and tie the cable 
really tight to the new one! I...really...don't know what to say.
 

Just around the corner is this equally unique arrangement. Some Eagle flatbacks, rodded and 
latest, and a CH Deco 4-way 2-section that was converted to a 3-section probably back in 
the 1960's since the green is a Type-M body. This intersection has the typical local flavor 
of bullets, broken, and burnt lenses. A very hasty wiring job is quite evident by the 
abundance of loops and wire nuts, enough to rewire the whole subdivision. If that wasn't a 
clue enough, the random yellow lights tell you this isn't a healthy signal.
   
      

Just one rare bird would not a tour make. Here is a another SSC beacons with Corning 
large-bead lenses, but this time in a factory three way configuration. Again, like the 
Eagle-SSC pair this is wired from an older Eagle flasher box with Romex. The one signal has 
taken quite a hit sometime in the past. The bottom plate appears to have been replaced with 
a SSC top plate.
   
 

Here is the handyman's surplus special intersection. Several streets in a moderately busy 
part of downtown meet at odd angles. A perfect place for PV signals and lovers. Somehow 
though, this installation is lacking. One Alusig (maybe the newest signal in town) and one 
Eagle flatback 8" fitted with 3M PV adapters, cocked at an odd angle onto a regular 3M PV 
12" section such that the green is highly visible and points towards traffic while the red 
and yellow point to the sky. That alone would have qualified for a photo, but these go much 
beyond. How about using a mast arm style mount but you don't have an Astro-Brac kit. 
Scrounge up some old pipes last used in a spanwire installation, use random holes for wire 
entries, and leave the balancers on there. Strap it all down real tight and you're done.


Downtown features rather normal Astro-Brac style mast arms and some vintage medium-size 
WinkoMatic neon peds. They are aging quick, however, and it was hard to find one of the 
cluster of eight that had a decent green, most of them were a muted pastel of off-white. 
Thankfully it was an overcast day or they might not have been visible at all. The busted 
and burnt poly lens in the 8" Eagle flatback was all too easy to see
   
   

Campbell (2008)
Campbell appears to be in the middle of a project. The unanswered question is if they are 
coming or going? Climbing some truly massive debris strewn hills, the adventure has just 
started. Numerous dirt, paved and something-in-between roads terminate in intersections 
with stop signs, traffic lights, beacons, nonfunctioning lights, bagged stop signs, and a 
mixture of them all including the truly special intersection where nonfunctioning signals 
are hung over stop signs garbage-bagged from view...Apart from that the town has a lot of 
interesting nuances. Embossed signs are still widely used throughout town. Fire hydrants are 
painted in a tribute to the 70's. Many, or should that be mini, street signs are mounted 
mere feet off the ground, not as tall as your average low rider.

Another TSI/Sargent/TEECO running on a Eagle EF series.
     

A 3-way CH-M beacon wasn't running. It seems the problem stemmed from the fact there was no 
wire to the pole and vintage deco flasher box. Even the local crew was puzzled!
   

And concluding the trip through Campbell was a RYG M signal on an Eagle EF, again turned 
off.
 

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This page was last modified on 8 June 2008.