W. S. Darley 4 Way Beacon
Here are some pictures of my W. S. Darley 4 way Caution/Stop beacon.
Although Darleys were known to have original lenses with the commands embossed in them, the lenses in this signal are not original. Original Darley lenses are very hard to find.
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The first thing that I notice about Darley signals is that there are no doors like all the other signals in my collection. Instead there are what is called "port holes". The lenses (and reflectors if equipped, the earliest Darleys did not have reflectors) are mounted directly to the port hole frame that is held in place on the body of the signal with 4 bolts. Here are some pictures of the port hole frame with lens and reflector in place.
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This darley is equipped with reflectors, but a reflector does its job best when the light source is located inside the "cone" of the reflector itself. In this signal the bulb is located behind the reflector, so it doesn't actually do much reflecting, rather it keeps outside light from shining in one lens, through the signal, and out the lens on the other side. Darley signals with this type of set up have a much dimmer light output than most other signals that use a conventional reflector set up. The white part of the light socket is original to the signal. I have screwed a socket/plug adapter in the original socket and installed a "plug-in" socket on top of that to elevate the light bulb closer to the center of the reflector holes. Without this added height, the light output is even less than it is with the current set up. |
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Here are a couple pictures of the Darley disassembled.
Darley castings seem to be of a cruder quality than newer signals. They seem easier to crack and have a rough texture to them. I usually like to restore most signals that I add to my collection, but this one is so old and the paint job is good enough that I am going to leave it "as is".
Page originally posted on 6-18-2002.