Wigwag signals protect a highway crossing in Baraboo, Wis., for the last time on Monday, March 28. When a Wisconsin & Southern train passed the crossing the next day, the signals were inactive. Crews took down the signals later that day on March 29.
John Gruber
A pair of rare, former Chicago & North Western wigwag signals at Baraboo, Wis., wig-wagged their last in March. They were replaced by cross bucks at Vine St. on the line operated by the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad.
Railroad crews dismantled the signals and delivered them to the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society, at nearby North Freedom, Wis.
There is no documentation, but observers believe that the Baraboo wigwags were built by Western Railway Supply Co. and installed in the 1920s. The wigwag, or automatic flagman, was adopted as a standard crossing device by the American Railway Association in 1923. For years, the wigwag was the preferred type of grade-crossing protection in the Midwest and far West U.S. They have been replaced by flashing signals and crossing gates.
A website devoted to the once popular crossing signal says 41 of the signals were known to exist in the U.S. With the demise of the two in Baraboo, only 39 remain.
James, I have http://www.trainweb.org/dansrailpix/WIG_WAG_PAGE2.htm and http://www.rxrsignals.com/Signals/index.html for signal sites that include wig wags.
Glad no one tried to steal them.
Might they be put in service at Mid-Continent?
Glad they were donated instead of scrapped.
What is that website that keeps track of them?
Similar signals still in use on the Niles Canyon RR in Niles California.