Hello Eric,

I'm a retired Signal Supervisor of the Canadian Railway system and have recently
restored a GRS Co. type 2A semaphore with a base-of-mast mechanism. In Canada,
semaphores were mostly at interlockings with arms mechanically controlled through
pipelines. I don't recall any used in mainline signaling service as most block signals
were color light signals. This is the original photo I took back about 1981. I took some
more photos a year or so later that but by this time they were heavily vandalized. The
one illustrated came off a branch line at an automatically interlocked diamond. I
purchased it from the company about over 12 years ago and only now have gotten
around to restoration. They were in fairly good shape at the time but sat outside for
years which added to the rust and corrosion. There was no way I was going to fool
around with a 22 foot mast, so I had 10 feet cut out and the mast re-welded. So now I
have a nice double arm signal, totaling 18 feet high. It runs like a watch, I have it set up
with automatic electronic timers and it will do whatever I set it at. It's quite a sight,
if I do say so myself, but a lot of work.

Sincerely,

Ray Clancy


Note from Semaphores.com

Thanks for sharing this with us Ray! The Northern Pacific Railway was almost the
exclusive user of GRS Co. base-of-mast type 2A semaphores, thus finding out other
patron railroads and locations is certainly interesting. Maybe you wouldn't mind
sharing other details like the original location and railroads interacting with the
former interlocking.

This is a very important component of the history!