Western Railroad Discussion > PTC Installation at Helper

A deeply discouraging sight at West Helper on Saturday afternoon. Sad to see PTC wipe out the last vestiges of the bygone Rio Grande between Helper and Provo.

James Belmont
Salt Lake City, UT

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Even if PTC wasn't being installed, the moving parts and incandescent bulbs of the searchlight signals doomed them.

Sigh - One has to admit the clearances of the new signal bridge are a heck of a lot more adequate... === === = === JLH

Aren't there any other signal manufacturers out there? Is this SAFETRANS hooded signal the only thing available??

How about circle tri-lights?

It's all the same, everywhere!

This is not being driven by PTC.

Labiche Wrote:
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> This is not being driven by PTC.

It's ALL being driven by PTC. There's no way in Hell that these RR's would do this unless forced by congressional mandates (all knee jerk, BTW) to replace all existing systems w/ PTC compatible ones. And, to James Belmont, I share your loss-- this past week I saw UPRR pull most of the searchlights OOS on Donner Pass-- sad to see.

Posted from iPhone

So no more shots like this? Bummer........

-Trevor

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IC_2024 Wrote:
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> Labiche Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This is not being driven by PTC.
>
> It's ALL being driven by PTC. There's no way in
> Hell that these RR's would do this unless forced
> by congressional mandates (all knee jerk, BTW) to
> replace all existing systems w/ PTC compatible
> ones.

On the contrary, the searchlights are high maintenance (especially because of the moving parts) and are probably near the end of their useful life. The advent of PTC MIGHT affect the schedule for replacement but they would be replaced soon in any case.

Positive spin / silver lining on the cloud:

It is *good* to see UP investing in the future of Soldier Summit. I used that spin for all the signals on the Moffat and throughout the rest of the former Grande system. With all the money UP has sunk in signal upgrades between Denver and Salt Lake, at least we know the line isn't going anywhere. :)

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com