Sunday, July 16, 2023

Searchlight Missing Part Obtained and Installed

 When I installed the Southern Pacific H-2 Searchlight Signal I had brought together parts from various locations.  You can see the searchlight and read about putting the parts together in an earlier blog. 

 https://spsbsub.blogspot.com/2017/05/searchlight-signals.html

The one missing part was the part that holds the door tight against the case.  I tried finding the part but did not really dig deep into the search.  Whenever I talked to someone I thought might be able to assist, I would ask.  I talked to former SP employees and other rail artifact collectors.  

Recently, I was visiting a friend up near Donner Pass.  He was a former Amtrak employee. He had a couple of  rail artifacts in his yard including a dwarf signal and so I asked if he might have a lead on acquiring the missing part.  He said he had a friend who might have one.  He called and the friend confirmed that he had the part.  My friend was traveling down my way before he could get the part from his friend so he removed the part from his signal and brought it down.  Here are two photos of the part.


So when he delivered the part to my house, I asked him to hold the ladder while I pulled the wires that had held the door closed, installed the part, screwed it nice an tight so the door was sealed and dropped the hasp over the loop for the lock and we were done.  Here is a photo of the finished installation.