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I have officially figured out that Penn's DOT is a bunch of kids with ADD. (ADHD for those under 30 years of age.)

Headed up to Pittsburgh yesterday to visit some friends in a strange fetish convention at the convention center. Though, by the time I got back from my trip, I couldn't really call their stuff strange, as I had to stop and get some pictures of effed' up signal stuff. So I guess it's all fair in the end.

My route took me along I-68 to US-40 to PA-51 north into the city. Over this roue, I saw a lot of strange PA .. crap. :)

First - no picture of this one, unfortunately - a "DANGROUS MOUNTAIN"!!! I didn't know mountains could be dangerous, honestly. But it's an interesting way of telling folks it's "Steeper Than Hell" -


Click on each image to go to a Google Map to see these.

So, then, coming up into Pittsburgh from the south on PA-51, stoplights were becoming more frequent, and so they started hanging overhead 'Signal Ahead' signs. There were so many styles I can't even list them all here. The most common was plexi, backlit with florescent tubes. There was a couple fiber optic ones that lit up the words "Signal Ahead", with a "Red" above that was dark unless the signal was actually red. (Maryland has these, they're rather neat.)

But then I saw one that really caught my eye. Both in LED and Fiber Optic - "Signal Ahead" symbols!

The LED ones (pictured) had lights that were filled out - while the Fiber Optic ones simply had circles. Oh, gawd, I want a fiber-optic one! Sorry for the rich blue - my good camera was set into "inside" mode for white-balance. The LED and FO signs didn't change when the light was red, as far as I know.

So then, getting closer, I ran into this odd fire signal. Sorry for the bad image quality - the sun was behind the signal, so the signal turned out black in my photo. I had to process it a lot in Photoshop to get the grille detal visible, at least:

And also, somewhere in a south suburb of Pittsburgh, every intersection along PA-51 had these strange auxiliary lights. I never saw one light up - regardless whether the signal was Red, Green, or Yellow. A single 8" section for each approach to the intersection.


Other interesting things I saw - didn't get shots of - was several 3M and McCain signals in use, an intersection near the fire signal above that had steel road signs in use still - hand painted! You could see the brush strokes! And a few Art Deco Eagles downtown.

I have one of those fluorescent signal signs! Got it at OSM in 2011. The single sections are preemption signals to let the cops/firefighters/medics know they have the right-away. It's a southwest-PA thing, at least that's the only area of PennDOT-Land that I know uses it.

Dangerous Mountain
I have heard the wildlife is dangerous in the mountains

coyttl wrote:And also, somewhere in a south suburb of Pittsburgh, every intersection along PA-51 had these strange auxiliary lights. I never saw one light up - regardless whether the signal was Red, Green, or Yellow. A single 8" section for each approach to the intersection.

Would that function as one of those emergency signals, that flashes when emergency vehicles are approaching the intersection? I've never seen an 8" signal used for that, only these.

signal-in-the-box wrote:

coyttl wrote:And also, somewhere in a south suburb of Pittsburgh, every intersection along PA-51 had these strange auxiliary lights. I never saw one light up - regardless whether the signal was Red, Green, or Yellow. A single 8" section for each approach to the intersection.

Would that function as one of those emergency signals, that flashes when emergency vehicles are approaching the intersection? I've never seen an 8" signal used for that, only these.

Its more than likely for pre-empt with white LED. It acts as a confirmation beacon.

Yes, acts the same as the spot lights

coyttl wrote:I But then I saw one that really caught my eye. Both in LED and Fiber Optic - "Signal Ahead" symbols!

The LED ones (pictured) had lights that were filled out - while the Fiber Optic ones simply had circles. Oh, gawd, I want a fiber-optic one! Sorry for the rich blue - my good camera was set into "inside" mode for white-balance. The LED and FO signs didn't change when the light was red, as far as I know.

Now, that is cool!

EPAC-EPIC-MARC wrote:Its more than likely for pre-empt with white LED. It acts as a confirmation beacon.

Pre-empt did occur to me, but NONE of those intersections have any detection hardware, that I could see!

coyttl wrote:

EPAC-EPIC-MARC wrote:Its more than likely for pre-empt with white LED. It acts as a confirmation beacon.

Pre-empt did occur to me, but NONE of those intersections have any detection hardware, that I could see!

They have them, You just didnt notice them.

I can't find the intersection you were at, but here's one (turned the wrong way up...) http://goo.gl/maps/mny4m