Western Railroad Discussion > Wig Wag on BNSF

A BNSF eastbound Z train passes the Wig Wag signal at Camden, Missouri may 2001.  Location is east of Kansas City and MP 417 on  the BNSF Marceline sub.

Thanks for viewing

Ron Hirsch
Springfield, Mo.

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Really nice audio in this one! Cool angle too! 

For some reasonanta Fe liked those short wig-wags. There was on  the old Santa Fe sub through Lindsay and Porterville, CA. It is still there-I think-but I only saw it work back in 1956 at night!

Thanks for bringing back good memories of of the Camden, MO wigwag. I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon at that same crossing back in October 1998 taking video of all the trains. Glad to see the wigwag lasted into the 2000's.

Larry

That's a goodie.
sd-45

TomPlatten Wrote:

> For some reasonanta Fe liked those short wig-wags.

What kind of wigwag should they have used instead? 

Other than a preference for Magnetic Signal Co. wigwags, I haven't noticed that Santa Fe really favored any one configuration.  Indeed, the variety of different configurations among Santa Fe wigwags is almost bewildering.  They had  upper quadrant wigwags mounted on a battery case or not, long mast or short, on a concrete base in the middle of the road or mounted off to the side.  They had lower quadrant with widely varying cantilever lengths and placement on the mast, above or below the crossbuck.  The three lower quadrant Santa Fe wigwags that still exist within a few blocks of each other in Lindsay, CA are all different.  Santa Fe even tried Model 11 "peach baskets" where the banner swung inside an octagonal cage.

I agree with Evan here.  This one, and the one east of Rutledge, MO were the only two I saw, but they were not alike.  The one at Rutledge
was an upper quadrant cantilever type.  I was told the reason they were removed was that they could not longer get parts for them.  Thanks
for posting.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/20 08:13 by ntharalson.