SAL station/siding names on signal structures.

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I know that in the SCL era the name of towns and sidings was painted on the signal carrier/instrument buildings that sit at the ends of many sidings. These are the silver painted metal structures that the signal circuits went into near or at the switches. Here at my town, for example, the south end building had " SE ELGIN " stenciled above the door in six inch letters. Did the SAL paint station/siding names on these buildings and if so, during what time frame ? I have looked through several books I have and what few images of these structures I see show no name. Many thanks !

-- John Potter (Seaboardrrjp@aol.com), September 29, 2002

Answers

John, Sory for the late response, been gone for a tad. Yes the SAL did identify the buildings. Each signaled siding had a name, the signal installation at the north end of the siding would be NE (siding name), such as NE ELGIN; the other end obvioulsy SE ELGIN. For towns with two sidings, such as Franklinton, NC one siding was the north siding and the other the south siding. NENS FRNKLINTON was the name of the north end of the north siding. This is a handy way of identifying locations of photos without captions. John

-- John Edwards (anjedwards@enter.net), October 29, 2002.

On both the ACL and SAL prior to the merger, I am not aware that locations were stenciled on signal houses and the like. Instead, depot buildings still existed in most locations, and they are what carried the location name. (Also, on the ACL at least, in certain locations where the depot had been razed, the town or siding name was mounted on a post.) Shortly after the 1967 merger, the closing of small-town depots got underway in earnest, and station sign boards were often taken down after a depot closed. I don't recall exactly when location names began appearing on signal houses, but I think there was a gap of several years before they did - not until some time in the 1980s, I believe.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), October 04, 2002.

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