My traffic signal collection

[Mdcastle]

Thought people here might be interested in my traffic signal collection. Most of them are from New York or California as they have more interesting stuff than we do here, and I'm acquaintances with a collector in each place, but I do have a couple of examples that saw service in the city of St. Paul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBkYR7qf-7c
My first working setup. This is now dismantled and I'm redoing it more permanently with a few different lights and with pipe instead of shelves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDeLPEl_GXM
Interesting hybrid controller from the 1960s. The timing is generated electronically with vacuum tubes but the switching is still mechanical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLD6Cadkcs0
My favorite light, a neon command pedestrian.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUoHkTjkB1s[/ur]
All the ones I don't plan to install in the first phase of my new permanent setup.

[thatchio]

Those are pretty neat. I've often thought it'd be great to collect items like this but your videos show me that it'd be way out of my league to try and figure out all the electrical and gear required to run them. Very cool.

[Mdcastle]

It doesn't have to be that complicated. There's enough people that want a light or two for their man cave that there's single board controllers on eBay that wire directly to the mains. You just wire the hot and neutral from the power line and the three hot wires and the neutrals for the bulbs to the boards and adjust the timing with a screwdriver. The limitation is that you can only do one or two phases, and they can't drive weird loads like neon or low voltage halogen. My setup has two vehicle phases, two vehicle overlaps, two pedestrian overlaps so I'm beyond what a single board controller can do.

[Mdcastle]

Neon pedestrian signal done. I had to use the parts from two lights and to make one good one, this project cost several times what I thought it would in the beginning, but I think it was worth it. Most of it was originally on 5th and Market in Sacremento.

Off

IMG_3259 by North Star Highways, on Flickr

Don't Walk (In reality the lettering is the same brightness)

IMG_3262 by North Star Highways, on Flickr

Walk

IMG_3263 by North Star Highways, on Flickr

Inside. 4000 volt "Walk" transformer on bottom, 7500 volt "Don't Walk" transformer on top.

IMG_3270 by North Star Highways, on Flickr

[Mdcastle]

Some newer photos of my traffic signals


My display controller. by North Star Highways, on Flickr

My display- SE corner by North Star Highways, on Flickr

100-IMG_3219 by North Star Highways, on Flickr

[City slicker]

Did any of you know that Minneapolis has the worst set stop lights in the entire nation? If your downtown and you make more than 2 in a row you should drop what your doing and fly to Vegas because its your lucky day. However don't take broadway east to 280 to get to the airport, because your luck will run out at the first light. Guaranteed. Plus you'll miss every light after, especially the no name streets where there shouldn't even be a stoplight stopping the much larger flow of traffic on broadway for no reason. I have a friend who works for the Mndot and he told me that over half the lights in the city of Mpls have not been reset since the 80's! I was on Marshall st. NE heading south and I, like 12 other cars stopped for a yellow at 27th st NE. To my amazement an elderly woman who's car was parked facing west bound on 27th, slowly walked to her car, got in, put on her belt, adjusted her mirror, and slowly accelerated through the green light on 27th NE. Meanwhile myself and now about 25 cars 2 Semi's and a cement truck idled on Marshall (the busy Main Street) while she disappeared slowly southbound. The gas, wasted time and wear/tear on brakes is in full force in Minneapolis because its stop lights

[Mdcastle]

Made a video of my 5 hand/man pedestrian signals cycling


And my 3 countdown signals. The one on the left was a very early model before white LEDs were affordable, so the Man is fiber optic.
http://youtu.be/tWnpgZyhMqA