SignalTraffic Forums

by **B 67** on Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:22 am

Hi everyone. I thought it might be time I got back into contributing to this forum and including some photos of some of my smallish collection. We signalfans are small in number in Australia it seems.

SD 009rr.jpg

I was cleaning out my shed on Sunday, in order to make a bit of room to do some signal restoration. This neon ped is by Parco - who I do not know much about. But apparently they were in production in Melbourne for only a short time and only a couple hundred were made. Needless to say, it is quite rare and so far I only know of one other in private hands.
Unfortunately the neons are missing, but replacements should be obtainable according to the owner of the other one.
I got this one on eBay and was the only bidder. It had red and yellow incandescent lamps inside and was painted a lemon yellow.

Here we have a pair of 1970s Eagle Signals Australia G+W signals and a pair of AWA signals. These had been used as stage lighting for a band. I bought them mainly to get the AWAs which are not so easy to find in Australia.

Here's another AWA. This one shows signs of its original striped yellow and black paint scheme. The top and bottom of the body would've been yellow, with a yellow band across the amber lens. The rest was black. Naturally it is my intention to repaint it in this style.

by **Magnetboy** on Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:32 am

I really like those AWA's and the rodded Eagle flatback too. The AWA's resemble Plesseys. Is there any relation between the two manufacturers? That's also a pretty neat Parco ped. Please post more pics of it. Thanks for sharing pics of your lights. :thumbsup:

by **B 67** on Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:43 pm

Yes, the AWA signals are actually Plessey signals. AWA = Amalgamated Wireless Australiasia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamate ... ia_Limited.

Yes, will post more photos of the Parco soon. In the meantime, here's a scan from a book showing one in Melbourne in the late '60s or early '70s. This intersection no longer exists.

SIG_0015r.jpg

by **LarryC39** on Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:25 pm

Any internal shots of the Parco?

AWA also made signals of their own design. The G+W Eagle is very similar to the US version.

by **B 67** on Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:16 am

Unfortunately there's nothing inside the Parco to take photos of. It's completely empty. I think it had been used as a shop display before I got it, and whoever had it then had probably removed the neons (likely not working) and replaced them with coloured bulbs in crudely made brackets. I didn't even bother trying to wire them up to try them out. No doubt they'd have looked hideous.

I may be able to obtain some neon replacements to restore this signal to working order.

And yes, I have an example of one of AWA's own signals.

by **Ampelfreund** on Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:30 am

Very Beautiful Trafficlights!!! it was sure very expensive to buy it :)

can you upload some pictures from inside?

how much Ped signals do you got?

by **B 67** on Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:18 am

Hi Ampelfreund. Looks like I was editing my post to include a photo as you were making your post. :grin:

No, it was not expensive to buy. I was expecting it to go for a silly price, but nobody else bid, surprisingly enough. So I think I was meant to have it, as I don't pay high prices for signals as a rule. The fact that the original neon and transformers were missing may have been part of the reason, but also that it was located not so far from me (not in a city) that may have helped. Plus there does not seem to be so many Australian signalfans to compete with. :cool:

I do not have a large collection. I just try to have an example of the major types of signals I'm familiar with in my home state of Victoria.
The photos below were taken years ago, but gives you an idea of what I do have.

Eagle text pedestrian signal. Despite what I just said above, these signals were not commonly used in Victoria, but I wanted one as it shows the progression from the neon peds to the current red / green man signals we now have.
Ignore the "embossed" 12" lens. It's actually card letters stuck on the inside of the lens. :grin:

This set-up used to be in my hobby (model railway) shop, powered by a Lights-to-Go controller. I wouldn't mind getting more, but my enquiries to them go unanswered.

Here's that rodded Eagle you see on the bench in the Parco ped pic. It was black when I got it, but some careful use of paint-stripper brought back the original yellow paint.

My Eagle Signals Australia neon ped, with some other far less interesting items around it. :sleep:

And another shot of the Eagle neon, just to show that the Australian ones turn green, not white.

Here's another you may appreciate. Although almost never seen in Australia today, my old Eagle electro-mechanical controller is still set up to do the red and amber before green sequence.

Most of these photos you may already have seen if you've visited my long-neglected website.
http://www.signspotters.hobbiesplus.com.au/

by **silverjus** on Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:14 pm

Very nice signal !!! :good:

by **3liteguy** on Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:47 pm

There was nothing in any of those pictures that was uninteresting :drool:

Loving every minute of it!

by **nyratk1** on Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:10 pm

3liteguy wrote:There was nothing in any of those pictures that was uninteresting

Loving every minute of it!

Yeah, although I'm very interested in what appears to be a rusted out bus/trolley or something behind the lights :drool:

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