Nostalgia & History > Milwaukee Signal Returns To Life

A century-old Union Switch & Signal Company equipment cabinet stands along the former Milwaukee Road right-of-way at Ralston, Washington last Friday.

This signal is being restored to operation. A solar panel will power the signal to display green, red, and yellow, on a 5-minute, alternating cycle.

A crew last week installed the signal mechanism, wiring, and solar panel. It should be fully operational before the end of 2026, hopefully much sooner.

The second photo, looking east, shows the signal lit green. After initially getting the signal illuminated, we experienced some power issues. It was taken out of service for troubleshooting.

This is one of those two-steps forward, one step back projects. It's almost done.

The signal stands along the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, at Highway 261 in Ralston. That's about 8 miles south of Ritzville.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/26 10:40 by walstib.

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Clever project, gents.  Thanks for the timely update.

Keep us posted on how it all turns out, looks like a fun project. With the many PTC and subsequent signal upgrades taking place across the US the last decade search light style signals are up for grabs. We have a scrap yard in Klamath Falls that still has a pile of them from when the UP cutover the Cascade sub 10 years ago.

Beautiful restoration.
Bob

I wonder how long it'll be before somebody comes along and uses it for target practice; probably not long.

Railbaron Wrote:
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> I wonder how long it'll be before somebody comes
> along and uses it for target practice; probably
> not long.

Sadly, I wonder about that too.  That's just the way things are.

Nice Job on that, guys.  There are a couple more Milwaukee searchlights at Calder, Idaho that could use a nice fix up.  I've got one from the NP with two lights in my yard.  They're fun to work on and pretty easy, but heavy and a bit aukward to set up without some good equipment.  We bought a couple NP semaphores, a bunch of years ago,a and few days before they were taken out of service, one of the ones near the Idaho/ Montana. state line, got brutally shot up.   Mine had a couple bullet dents in the cabinet but otherwise OK.   The other one was OK and happily stands in Sagle, Idaho.  

Craig Hanson
Vay, ID.