Meanings of railroad signs and signals

[dea720]

I have recently started doing some volunteer work for the National New York Central Museum in Elkhart, IN. The coordinator asked me if I knew where to find info on what signs such as Yard Limit, semaphores and the like all mean. He has a bunch of them he would like to display in the museums yard along with signs that explain what they mean. I've tried doing a search online with no luck so far. Is there anyone more knowledgeble in this area? I really don't know where else to look as my searchs have come up empty so far. A lot of what he has are the older signs and signals I don't even know the names of.

[JRMDC]

Hey, since TO is on my mind just now, I suggest you take this question to TrainOrders, you are more likely to get responses.

But there are basics. A semaphore is a type of signal; signals are loosely speaking like traffic signals for cars, telling them whether to go or stop. IIRC, the red/yellow/green of highway signals came from the RRs who developed the concept first. A sempahore gives its indication by position of the arm instead of color or position of light (some semaphores are combined arm and light signals). A yard limit sign indicates the end of a yard and I believe it governs how far a train switching in a yard can go before it has officially exited the yard and thus is governed by other rules.

Obviously I am not sure of these things but I am not one to know the details of the nuts and bolts.

You should spend some more time on the web searching as there is a lot of detail available.