The Traffic Signal Museum

This page features Four Way Signals.

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CROUSE HINDS TYPE T PAGODA PORTHOLE 4 WAY SIGNAL

Crouse Hinds Pagoda Porthole 4 way signal Here is a Crouse Hinds type T pagoda porthole 4 way signal. This signal was made from 1922-1925. The body of it is one solid casting. The roof is removable and is made of cast iron. The rest of the body is cast aluminum. This signal was in pretty good condition for it's age. The parts inside the signal that hold the glass reflectors were made of steel and were rusty. I found some rust remover and soaked all of the reflector holders in that and then repainted them. The body, doors, visors and roof of the signal were all powder coated. This signal weighs 137 pounds!

 

CROUSE HINDS DT 2 SECTION 4 WAY SIGNAL

2 section Crouse Hinds 4 way signal This is an unusual looking signal but in the very early days of traffic signals a lot of them were made without the amber section that we are familiar with these days. A clearance time was still needed though so this was achieved by both the red and green lights on for 3 or 4 seconds to show that the signal was about to give the right of way to the opposing traffic direction. This signal has a controller in it that does both sequences shown here as well as 4 way flash and bouncing ball beacon. You would need to change the lenses for the bouncing ball sequence. Put your mouse on the left animation above to put the signal into flashing 4 way stop mode! I personally never have seen any signals like this actually in use and figured it was a thing of the past BUT there were still some signals WITHOUT the amber indication still in use in New York around 2000. 

 

Crouse Hinds 2 section 4 way signal

UPDATE! I swapped out the green lenses and have this signal as a bouncing ball 4 way stop in the animation below.
The circuit board controller in the signal can do red green operation as well as bouncing ball operation as seen below.

CROUSE HINDS DT 3 SECTION 4 WAY SIGNAL

Click here for breif history on this signal
The pictures here are of the same signal, just taken at different times. Put your mouse over either picture to animate them. Click on either picture to learn more about this signal and how it was restored. 		 Click here for breif history on this signal

EAGLE 4 WAY SIGNAL #1

Aluminum Eagle 4 way signal 8 inch glass lenses This Eagle four way was won on Ebay. It came from a seller in Ohio. It was in such good shape that it was left in original condition. Put your mouse over the left picture to make it sequence. You can view an animation of this eagle 4 way signal being disassembled by clicking here. The animation is made from 45 separate pictures, so it may take some time to load completely. Aluminum Eagle 4 way signal 8 inch glass lenses

EAGLE 4 WAY SIGNAL #2

Aluminum Eagle 4 way signal 8 inch glass lenses This 4 way came from Royal Oak, Michigan. 
The city of Royal Oak used many of this type of 4 way up until the mid 1990's.  Note the visor configuration is the same as the pictures of Eagle clusters from Oakland County. A retired city worker from Royal Oak had this signal in his basement for many years. It became part of The Traffic Signal Museum in July of 2006. Put your mouse over the picture to make the signal sequence.

CROUSE HINDS ART DECO 4 WAY CLUSTER

Crouse Hinds Art Deco 4 way cluster flashing

A group of signals in a set up like this is called a cluster. This set up is not a true 4 way signal, but it seems appropriate on this page since it is a 4 way cluster. Click here if you would like to see what these signals looked like when they were received and the process of restoring them. Put your mouse over the picture on the right if you would like to see the signal sequence. 

 Crouse Hinds Art Deco 4 way cluster

WILLIAM POTTS 4 WAY SIGNAL REPLICA

Replica of a William Potts 4 way signal Here is a replica of the first 4 way signal ever built.
The original Potts 4 way now hangs in Henry Ford Museum.
To see more information on the original Potts
and how I built the replica, click here.
This replica is controlled by a custom built circuit board controller.

SOUTHERN AUTOFLOW 4 WAY SIGNAL

Southern Autoflow with Eagle visors

This 4 way was made by The Southern Switch Co, of  Shreveport, La. They were originally a maker of electrical devices.  This particular signal design was made in the late 1940's. This signal came with only 3 visors. They were cutaway style. Southern Autoflow signals are not very common so I opted to replace the hard to find original visors with modified Eagle tunnel visors. Put your mouse on the picture to make the signal sequence. You can see what this signal might have looked like with its original visors on Signalfan's web site. To see more of this signal, click here.

MARBELITE 4 WAY SIGNAL

Marbelite 4 way signal

This 4 way was made by Marbelite. It is a very sharp looking signal! It has unusual visors that look like a combination of tunnel and cutaway visors. Many signal collectors refer to these visors as tunnaway visors. The lenses and reflectors are all glass. The lenses look similar to large bead smiley lenses used by Crouse Hinds, except obviously, no smile. There is a logo on the lens. It is a capital M with a lightening bolt going through it. Put your mouse on the picture to make the signal sequence. To read a little recent history of this signal click here.

HARRINGTON SEABERG 4 WAY SIGNAL

Harrington Seaberg 4 way signal

This is the oldest 12 light four way signal in this collection. A guess would have this signal being made in the 1920's. That is just a guess though. Harrington Seaberg eventually became Eagle Signal. Eagle had operations in Moline Illinois at one time and the round port hole doors on this signal also say Moline Illinois on them. There are a lot of similarities between this signal and other signals of this era. The roof is a perfect match to the roof on the Darley 4 way beacon in this collection. The four sides of this signal are each one solid panel, not sections like four ways that were made later. Darley signals had port hole doors that had to be completely removed from the signal in order to change a light bulb. The port hole doors on this signal have hinges, preventing the signal tech from accidentally dropping the door on the ground. Most of the command lenses in this signal are Crouse Hinds lenses, but they fit the era of this signal. Put your mouse on the picture to make the signal sequence. Click here to see some before - during - after pictures of this signals restoration.

GENERAL ELECTRIC 4 WAY SIGNAL

General Electric 4 way signal

Here is a General Electric 4 way signal. This signal is similar to the General Electric 4 way beacon in this collection. If you want to see more pictures of this signal click here. Put your mouse over the picture to make the signal sequence.

DARLEY 3 BULB 4 WAY SIGNAL

Here is Darley 4 way. Darley made many variations of 4 way signals. Single bulb beacons, 4 bulb beacons, 2 bulb 4 ways (red, green lenses only) 8 bulb 4 ways (red, green lenses only) 3 bulb RYG 4 ways and 12 bulb RYG 4 ways. This is a 3 bulb RYG signal. It has one bulb per level or section, so on the main street sides of the signal, the lenses are arranged normally with red on top and green on the bottom, but on the side street sides, green and red are in reversed positions. To the left is an animation of the signal sequencing with both the main street and side street views. Thank you Bear for doing the animation for me!!! You can also view a video of the signal sequencing here. This signal is the only signal in this collection that has an original controller mounted in the bottom of the signal. To see pictures of the controller, click here. You will notice that green Darley lenses are more green than other green lenses in other signals.

DARLEY 2 BULB 4 WAY SIGNAL

Here is a very unique signal. Like the Darley 3 bulb above, it only has 1 bulb per section,
so the lenses are reversed on two of the sides. A clearnace is achieved by having both bulbs
on at once. A homemade cam driven controller runs this signal and is mounted inside of the signal.
A video of the controller is below.

 

 

MASTER 4 WAY SIGNAL

Master 4 way signal

Here is a Master 4 way signal. This signal originally served in the small town of Bluffton, Ohio. It was taken out of service in 2011 and then listed for sale on Craigslist. The lenses are type E, which look very similar to Marbelite long bolt lenses and Crouse Hinds large bead smiley lenses (without the smile). To see some before/after pictures of this signal click here.

SINGER 4 WAY SIGNAL

Singer 4 way signal

Here is a Singer 4 way signal. This signal is believed to have served in Henderson, Texas. It did not see much street service and is in very nice original condition. Singer made traffic signals in the 1970's so this 4 way is likely the "youngest" one in this collection. Sargent Sowell, TSI and Teeco 4 ways are all almost identical to this signal. The Singer name is cast into the roof of this signal. This signal came with poly lenses, but I changed them out for glass Kopp 4777 or sawtooth lenses. Sawtooths were seen in TSI and Teeco signals.

 

 

 
 

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