Myself and two CSX train service employees have been able to save Five (5) former B&O CPL's from around the Cumberland, MD Area. Unfortunately several sets of the CPL's went to the scrap yard within days of being dropped.

Our signals were in a pile within the Cumberland yard and as such the CSX Supervisor would only allow the employees in the compound to tag the signals and disassemble the ones we wanted.

This morning, paperwork was exchanged, the signals were loaded, and off to their new homes.

Pictured is the CPL I claimed. I'm exploring several options but for right now it's safe and not in the local scrap yard.

CONGRADULATIONS ON SAVING SOME OF THE B&O'S FINEST SIGNALS AND FOR AQUIRING THEM IN THE PROPER WAY !

kevin k

I picked up a N&W CPL last year. For the most part it's sitting in the garage taking up space but I'm slowly working on it, even though I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm also taking the "6 foot" approach meaning it looks good at 6 feet away.

OK, so I'm curious, based on past discussions here. Can you tell us what the paperwork you got was? Let's say you're selling this in 20 years, and they ask about "provenance", what do you have to prove it was legally acquired? Is it simply a receipt that looks like it came from the corner diner? Official CSX letterhead with the president's signature? Something in between? Interested to know what the legit paperwork is.

Signed receipt from local signal supervisor with their name, title, and employee number on it.

I have a Chicago & Alton signal that's identical except it has all 4 aspects: red, yellow, green, lunar.

Aside from the Yahoo group are there any good resources for signal restoration out there?

Do you know which location this particular head came from? One of my favorite places to visit when the CPL's were still standing.

No clue to the location where it originally stood. The ones we saved were in a pile behind Mexico Tower in the Cumberland Yard.

All the recently dropped CPL's on the Mountain Sub last month went into a Scrap Yard with a "NO RESALE" policy......

Well done. Nice saves!

I will *never* understand the 'no resale' policy. it just makes no sense to me, and I'm open to hear explanations.

20+ years ago, I was given written permission from from a northeastern commuter line to go into one of their yards and pretty much raid their scrap pile. I hired a log truck with a crane and told the operator "OK, give me that, and that, and that, etc." A few masts and GRS 2-A mechs later, I was out of there. I probably could have taken even more than I did, but I didn't want to push my luck.

From what I've heard from friends who work 'on the line', there isn't a snowballs chance in hell that i could ever do ANYTHING like that ever again. The times have indeed changed.

Still, though, it's nice to think back to a day where any fear of legal repercussions and backlash from the 'suits in the office' didn't hinder efforts to save history before it got turned into razor blades.

The government is even worse. For example, space program collectors were crushed when the launch tower for pas 39B at Kennedy Space Center was srapped in 2011, only to have all the metal sent for recycling and the contractor was forbidden to sell even the smallest piece of it. It had to be melted down and nobody was allowed to have any part of it.
And if you look on the GSA auction site and see a military aircraft, don't bother bidding as the remains must be shredded down to pieces about the side of a knuckle on one of your fingers before you're allowed to even get close to it.

Gee, I guess we'd better keep quiet about the Simpson 269 Series 2 multimeter we found in my late friend's basement the other day. And I won't even mention the signal spectrum analyzer (original price $23,000+, according to the inventory tag)........