Signals with "bats".

I read somewhere that in the very early days of railroad, signals used things called "bats". And the signal states were set by pulling on chains which controlled the bats. Is that just describing what we now call semaphore signals, or was it something even more primitive? Can anyone point me to photos or diagrams of the "bat" type of signal? Also, what era would they have been used in?
 
I have never heard of these, but might it refer to the early days of railways when "signalling" was carried out by "policemen" who gave visual indications to drivers - maybe they used some form of bat, as is used for ground control of aircraft movements?

I've had a quick look through Edward Beal's "Modelling the Old Time Railways" and there is no mention of bats. Online photos all show "policemen" with flags.

Ray
 
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As I understand it, “bat” was an American colloquialism for these things, so I presume the signals were American. The bats had chains attached which were pulled manually to move them. So they must have been mounted rather than hand-held. And that’s about all I know.
 
In my small collection of early RR books (mid to late 1800's) the only time I see the word " bats" is for the small billy club brakemen used to set the individual breaks on cars before air brakes were used. I'm curious to see if you find out anything with bats being used for semaphores or switches.
 
The ball signals aren't related to this, and there is still an active one located in Maine on the former crossing between the Maine Central and Boston and Maine lines in Whitefield.

Here's my post on it from nearly a decade ago!
https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?81273-Last-operational-Ball-Signal-in-the-US

There are references to a stop board or a bat-like arm that I can't find a picture of. These are used as an additional warning device found near swing bridges. The arm will be deployed when the bridge is opened. If a train fails to stop at the red signal and hits the arm, the points are thrown on a derailer to prevent the train from going off the open bridge.

This setup was used on the bridge in New Jersey that failed some years ago that caused a Conrail freight carrying tank cars to take a plunge into the river. In that case, the bridge failed to close properly and the signal showed red and the crew ignored the signal because there were issues with the interlock on the bridge not switching the signal properly. In this case the signal was correct and the train derailed.

The setup is also used on transit systems such as the New York City "L" and subway.
 
I guess I should declare what sparked my interest in signal bats.

There is a very weird song called "Bat Chain Puller" by Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. It's like spending 5 minutes in an insane asylum. Captain Beefheart was an American musician, poet and painter, whose real name was Dan van Vliet. I had heard his music back in the 1970's, but dismissed it then as too unmelodic and hard for my young brain to absorb, but I recently became fascinated with it. I wanted to find what the hell this song was about, if anything. Extensive searches on Wiki and YouTube. To quote;

"A bat chain refers to the chain that hangs down from a signal post on a train line. The signal device that was pulled down was called a bat and different bats had different colours to signal the train driver as to the condition of the track ahead, or whether the train could proceed. The bat chain puller was the person who set the signals for the approaching train according to track status reports received by telegraph."

"He said it was the sound of the windscreen wipers in the rain giving the beat. A magnificent, off-the-wall song."

So it was about trains, more or less. I was toying with the idea of making such a signal, complete with bats, chain and perhaps a human figure, the bat chain puller. It would be my little homage to the late Capt. Beefheart. The plan was to put it on the DLS without explanation, and see if anyone recognized what I'd done and got a bit of a laugh out of it. But I could not find any images to base models on, so I decided to throw the topic open on the forum.

~ D

p.s If you are mad enough to listen to the song, it helps your sanity to have the lyrics close at hand. Wear floppy boots on this tropical hot dog night and enjoy the ride.

Bat chain
Puller
Bat chain puller
Puller, puller

A chain with yellow lights
That glistens like oil beads
On its slick smooth trunk
That trails behind on tracks, and thumps
A wing hangs limp and retreats

Bat chain puller
Puller puller

Bulbs shoot from its snoot
And vanish into darkness
It whistles like a root snatched from dry earth
Sodbustin' rakes with grey dust claws
Announces it's coming in the morning
This train with grey tubes
That houses people's very thoughts and belongings.

Bat chain puller
Puller puller

This train with grey tubes that houses people's thoughts,
Their very remains and belongings.
A grey cloth patch
Caught with four threads
In the hollow wind of its stacks
Ripples felt fades and grey sparks clacks,
Lunging the cushioned thickets.

Pumpkins span the hills
With orange Crayola patches.
Green inflated trees
Balloon up into marshmallow soot
That walks away in faulty circles,
Caught in grey blisters
With twinkling lights and green sashes
Drawn by rubber dolphins with gold yawning mouths
That blister and break in agony
In zones of rust
They gild gold sawdust into dust.

Bat chain puller,
Puller puller.


.
 
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His lyrics are a bit nutty! Bats in his head perhaps.

The early signals were manually operated using people pulling levers or pulling a chain with the ball attached such as the one I referenced above, but from what I've researched, I've never come across anything like that.
 
Hey, I think that's pretty neat. I wish I could write lyrics like that. I was good a music / chord arranging but not so hot with lyrics.
I can write stuff like " I want you baby......I need you baby..........you're a dream come true"......but I think they've been used before.

So Deane........what era are we talking about with the bat pull chains ? The visual I get is from antique toilets that had pull down chains you had to reach up to.
 
Hey, I think that's pretty neat. I wish I could write lyrics like that. I was good a music / chord arranging but not so hot with lyrics.
I can write stuff like " I want you baby......I need you baby..........you're a dream come true"......but I think they've been used before.

So Deane........what era are we talking about with the bat pull chains ? The visual I get is from antique toilets that had pull down chains you had to reach up to.

Jim, it’s probably the steam era, but I only say that because the lyrics allude to smoke billowing from the train’s “snoot”. I couldn’t pin it down more precisely than that. To even know the term “bat chain puller” is a strange thing, and to incorporate it in a song, even stranger. If he had picked it up from conversations in early childhood, that would put it sometime in the early 1940‘s, but he could have heard it from some old guy who used to work on the railroad 50 years before that. And maybe the term was only local jargon which might explain why it’s not ringing any bells here. Beefheart lived in Arizona according to an interview he did on the Dave Letterman show.
 
In UK railway slang at least till the 1960s, signals were referred to as "Boards". A stop signal (red with white stripe) was known as a "Brown One" and a Distant was called a "Yellow One".
 
In UK railway slang at least till the 1960s, signals were referred to as "Boards". A stop signal (red with white stripe) was known as a "Brown One" and a Distant was called a "Yellow One".

The American ones could have been round like table-tennis bats, or tapered like baseball bats. In the absence of some pictures or someone old enough to really remember them, I guess we will never know.
 
Something like this?

180px-Smashboard_1921.jpg


or this:

160px-Hall_disc_signal_1909.jpg
 
Apparently John's first picture is of smashboards presumably as a last warning that the bridge was open. In the full size picture they appear to be pivoted like a normal signal. The second picture is of a Hall Disc Signal, the first US electrically operated signal patented in 1867.
 
Never mind. This whole thing was only going to be a bit of an inside joke on my part, had it been possible. It's looking like a dead duck, spitting out pieces of it's broken luck.
 
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