Crawford Staples vintage 1/4" signals

Pretty elaborate signals for that time period.  That is quite a catch finding all of those signals, plus the paper. 

Carey,

Very nice...I see that they appear to have been manufactured out of Swissvale, Pa., once the home of Union Switch & Signal (US&S), founded by George Westinghouse.

A few Google searches found several patents Crawford E. Staples was involved with for US&S. So, it seems he had a side business for toy train signals.

They are beautiful.

Tom

PS-Carey, Where did you find them if you can share?

Tom

@PRR8976 posted:

PS-Carey, Where did you find them if you can share?

Tom

That's a great question; I wonder that about everything Carey finds! 

Mark in Oregon

Hello all...yes Crawford worked on the big ones ..and the small ones ...  I purchased two groupings   and a few loose signals along the way ... they do surface ...  keep your eyes open ..  cheers Carey

Carey comes up with more stuff than I ever dreamed existed.  He even has a cast aluminum PA - might be the only one in existence.

Hats off to a guy who obviously keeps a very sharp eye open at train shows and beyond.

Bob

Great find.   Very clever using tube pins/sockets to mount the signals.

Staples also made the H-5 style searchlight signals used on the old Museum Of Science And Industry O scale layout in Chicago.   They used old tube pin type mountings as well.

Several months ago the shop where I work (Nick’s Trains, Raleigh, NC) bought a collection of early O scale. Included were a number of signals almost identical to the ones in this discussion. They have the same radio tube base and the same die cast mast base and foot.

The main difference is that these Crestline signals from Walthers. The instruction/plan sheet has a 1938 date.

Any ideas?