Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen

Does the semaphore display green when the office is open, yellow during lunch, and red when closed?  

Don't know, I just happened upon this while looking for something else. I suspect not many railfans know about this, as the road it is on eventually deadends.

Interesting to see the semaphore arm is a piece of plywood not a real metal enameled arm (which no doubt be gone in the dead of night after installation that day).  Not that any railfan would want something like that, mind you.

Actually, some semaphore blades were wooden.  All of the Santa Fe blades I ever saw were wood.  (In fact, the one in the photo may be a Santa Fe semaphore, as ATSF painted the front side of all blades black, or black-and-white stripes when not silhouetted against sky, while the back side of the blade was painted aluminum).  It seems to me that most other roads used yellow somewhere on the blade for automatic signals and red for controlled signals.

I can't say about other railroads' chosen blade material.  Many were steel, though, that's for sure.

Thanks Tom, did not know that, just assumed metal for durability.

I on the other hand do have a semaphore arm three colors roundels and roundel retaining rings given to me, but not the cast metal spectacle carrier .   So located an full dimensioned AAR spectacle drawing, and laid out it out on high quality grade 5/8 plywood, then had a wood shop cut it out.  Proof I got it right was the roundel ring holes lined up dead on, roundel glasses fit exactly in openings, and semaphore arm bolted right on!  Proudly displayed in train room.