Railroad Signal Bridge with Phase Break Indicators, Pennsylvania Railroad, Perryville, MD, 2010
All the pixels, but none of the voltage, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4509479059
Discussion
Railroad Signal Bridge with Phase Break Indicators, Pennsylvania Railroad, Perryville, MD, 2010
All the pixels, but none of the voltage, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4509479059
Signal bridges like this are found every few miles along the former Pennsylvania Railroad's Northeast Corridor, but these particular signals are unusual. They're used to warn oncoming trains of a temporary interruption in voltage between two track sections fed by different power substations, called a "phase break". There are only a handful of them in the system.
Infrastructure is heroic.
@mattblaze I had to re-read this a few times before I realized you meant permanently temporary in distance, and not temporarily permanent in time. 😌
@indigoparadox no, it’s both. For permanent phase gaps, they use a sign. When the phase gap is only sometimes, they use a lit signal.
Captured with a DSLR camera and an 85mm shifting lens (with a small amount of vertical shift).
This "Signal Bridge" is a fairly iconic example of industrial design from the electrification of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the early 20th century (and largely still standing today). It supports the electrical catenary wires over the tracks as well as signals that control train movements.