wigwag resto page 3

wigwag resto page 3 Wigwag Restoration
Page 3

	Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the masking job that I did. It took an hour just to apply the tape. I painted it in the reverse order that the railroad usually did. Normally they would sandblast (or just sand) the banner, prime it, then apply the white Krylon paint. Take a few measurements, draw some lines and brush paint the black stripes and border. I chose to do it in reverse. For one thing, I did not want to brush paint the black stripes. So instead I sprayed Krylon semi-flat black in the general area of where the stripes and border would be. Let that dry, then masked the black, exposing only what was to become white. According to AARS specs at the time (1940), called for a "...white field, 1" black border and 2 1/2" black cross". None that I've ever seen were exact, but they are close.

	A look at the finished product.

	Light housing after restoration... Compare with this photo!

	Motor box...finished.

	And...yes it works!

Now it's time to move on to the Southern Pacific shop
manual found on this site for adjusting specs.

Basically what I was going after here is the way it looked (upper half of course) when it was in service on the ATSF. Santa Fe set up their wigwags differently than SP (or any other road for that matter). The cantilever and crossbuck came from the same crossing (possibly the same signal) but I purchased them seperately (from the same person). That was another project in itself! From what I understand, Southern California wigwags (on ATSF) were set up similar to this, but with the crossbuck mounted below the cantilever. That would be impossible to display inside a house, so instead I chose to go with the Northern California version. More on specific Magnetic Signal Company wigwags can be found here.

This one stood in Emeryville CA untill 1989. This should give you an idea of what I did whith mine. Again, notice the short cantilever (just under 4').

If you should have any questions, feel free to email me. If I can't help you, I'll refer you to Jim Downard. Good luck!

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Wigwag Banner Restoration

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