Traffic Light Signals - Where?

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Ogage:
My layout generally models the steam era from 1930 to 1955. I bought some street traffic signals to erect at a few road intersections in town, but then it occurred to me, where were they back then?

Traffic signals were not hanging from a wire stretched across an intersection in the steam era. I remember the traffic lights on the sidewalk at the corner, so I did some research.

Things were all over the place back then. Here is what the 1948 edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices has to say about signal location:



BTW: If you want to drink from a firehose, you can find scans from the MUTCD editions from many eras here:

MUTCD History

You can find more than you want to know about the minutiae of highway construction through the ages in these documents.

Enjoy!

OMG! I remember those traffic lights in Brooklyn, NY where I grew up. As of 6 years ago in Forest Hills, Queens you can still find them operating on one or two corners on Ascan Ave. between the LIRR station and Metropolitan Ave. I guess it was a neighborhood preservation effort.

Another old (1920s and up) trqffic light location was dead center in the middle of an intersection. Some of these had a little 'STOP' and 'GO' flag that came up along wih the light. They can be seen in some old Hollywood movies.

There is a town in NY State long the Mohawk River that still had a traffic light in the middle of an intersection as late as the 1990s. They painted a big red arrow with "KEEP RIGHT" on its base, to make sure drivers went around it on the correct side.

Ed Bommer

Back then it was a matter of utility construction.
In the big cities you had all underground cables so it was just easier to have a curb side mount or pylon(middle of intersection) mounted signal. If you'll notice in those pictures there are no overhead wires.

In small towns where overhead construction still prevailed you often had ,and still do have 4 poles mounted one on each corner to make an "X" and the light mounted there suspended from 1/4" steel guy wire to keep it from swaying in the wind. Sometimes these poles are made of wood but they found out early on that the wood ones required guy wires or they would start to lean towards the intersection
Most all of the steel poles are self-supporting and don't need guys.

David

quote:

Also notice that the green light is on the bottom.

Yes, the red light is always at the top, so that persons with color-blindness can tell what the signal is, with very few exceptions. There are a couple of towns in the mid-West that were founded by large contingents of Irish settlers. By local law, they used the green at the top. These signals are called "Irish signals."



Tipperary Hill

This is an Irish signal in Syracuse, the original home of the Crouse-Hinds corporation, one of, if not the first, manufacturers of traffic lights. The Irish population vandalized the originals so many times that the city relented and put the green on top.

In NYC, before the amber signal lamps were added, the controllers were wired to show both red and green together (on the avenues) or both signals dark (on the side streets) for a few seconds to indicate "caution."

Traffic Lights

Bowser / Selley makes two light traffic signals in o scale. The part # is 675-10362. Website is www.bowser-trains.com.

Good luck,
Nick