Western Railroad Discussion > Searchlight graveyard at Kelso

I went driving from San Diego to Las Vegas last week taking "the long way" - up to Riverside, hook a right to Palm Springs, run up to Twentynine Palms, up through the desert through Amboy (where we saw a lot of BNSF trains), Kelso (where we saw no UP trains), over to Cima, then up to I-15.

On the south side of the tracks at Kelso are a number of retired searchlight signals, waiting disposition.

--j

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And you will see more of these boneyards around the railrood as the newer LED PTC signalling comes online and the older signals are phased out.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Bob, I don't think all of the signals will be LED.  When UP upgraded signals on the Baird Sub in Texas a lot of LED lights were put in and in about a year were  taken out.  Never could find out why.  Sweetwater and west of there , there are many LED signals.

New signals put in around Tower 55 in Ft Worth with the last upgrade of track in last couple of years are bulbs, not LED.  So there is no definate pattern down here.

Hope it's possible to buy one too.

I thought that LED lamps do not generate heat, and when it snows, you can not see them. Bulbs generate heat

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Not as much heat as you'd think. The bulbs are generally 10v, 8 watts give or take (basically an automotive bulb).

Using approach lit lightning, cold air, metal enclosure, there is not enough heat generated for the time on to do much of anything.

We switched to LED on a very snowy part of track subject to massive winds and drifts - and haven't had any different luck - in fact, the brighter LED penetrates the packed snow a little better.

I do need a pair of those semaphore bases if anyone knows of them closer to Colorado :)

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tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bob, I don't think all of the signals will be LED.
>  When UP upgraded signals on the Baird Sub in
> Texas a lot of LED lights were put in and in about
> a year were  taken out.  Never could find out
> why.  Sweetwater and west of there , there are
> many LED signals.
>
> New signals put in around Tower 55 in Ft Worth
> with the last upgrade of track in last couple of
> years are bulbs, not LED.  So there is no
> definate pattern down here.
​I agree as I know some of the traffic lights here in Cheyenne got changed back as the LED's were burning out too fast.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Gen 1 LED's are fairly junk. The current GEN3's are pretty good. They resignaled Track 3 in Cheyenne and all new signals west of Rawlins are LED.

There is a change in circuits due to the low voltage and and LED replacements outside of a signal project is routed they Signal Design in Omaha for approval.

Posted from iPhone

That pile appears to contain a roughly equal number of searchlights and hooded three-bulb colorlights.