My Four Way Traffic Signals

This page features Four Way Signals.

Some of the pictures below are animated gifs and may take some time to load completely. Some pictures will load a static (non-animated) picture that can be animated by placing your mouse over the picture.

CROUSE HINDS 2 SECTION 4 WAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL

This is an unusual looking signal but in the very early days of traffic signals a lot of them were made without the amber section that we are familiar with these days. A clearance time was still needed though so this was achieved by both the red and green lights on for 3 or 4 seconds to show that the signal was about to give the right of way to the opposing traffic direction.

Crouse Hinds 2 section 4 way signal

Put your mouse on the animation above to put the signal into flashing 4 way stop mode! I personally never have seen any signals like this actually in use and figured it was a thing of the past BUT there are still some signals WITHOUT the amber indication still in use in New York. Click here to view a website featuring some of these.

Another use of 4 way signals in this configuration is 4 way stop or stop/caution beacons with a wig/wag effect like with rail road crossing signals. There would be two lenses of the same color on each side and they flash back and forth creating a wig/wag effect between the top and bottom lenses.

CROUSE HINDS 3 SECTION 4 WAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL

Click here for breif history on this signal

The pictures here are of the same signal, just taken at different times. Put your mouse over either picture to animate them. Click on either picture to learn more about this signal and how it was restored.

EAGLE 4 WAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL #1

Aluminum Eagle 4 way signal 8 inch glass lenses

This Eagle four way was won on Ebay. It came from a seller in Ohio. It was in such good shape that it was left in original condition. Put your mouse over the flashing animation to change it to an animation of the signal in normal sequencing mode. You can view an animation of this eagle 4 way signal being disassembled by clicking here. The animation is made from 45 separate pictures, so it may take some time to load completely.

EAGLE 4 WAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL #2

This 4 way came from Royal Oak, Michigan.
The city of Royal Oak used many of this type of 4 way up until the late 1980's or early 1990's. Note the visor configuration is the same as the pictures of Eagle clusters from Oakland County. A retired city worker from Royal Oak had this signal in his basement for many years. It became part of The Traffic Signal Museum in July of 2006. Put your mouse over the picture to make the signal sequence.

CROUSE HINDS ART DECO 4 WAY CLUSTER

A group of signals in a set up like this is called a cluster. This set up is not a true 4 way signal, but it seems appropriate on this page since it is a 4 way cluster. Click here if you would like to see what these signals looked like when they were received and the process of restoring them. Put your mouse over the picture on the right if you would like to see the signal sequence. The green and yellow lights in the animation on the right side had to be altered in a photo editor because they bleached out in the original photos.

WILLIAM POTTS 4 WAY SIGNAL REPLICA

	Here is a replica of the first 4 way signal ever built. The original Potts 4 way now hangs in Henry Ford Museum. The colors are hard to see in the picture, but it is animated to show how this signal sequences. It is controlled by a modified P3 from Lights To Go. The true sequence of the original signal is unknown. The sequence of the animation on the left is based on what was seen at the museum. The museum has the original only lighting up 2 lights, the bottom one and the middle one, then back to the bottom again. The original sequence could have been as shown in the animation or it could have been as outlined below...
	TOP (red & green) TOP AND MIDDLE (red & green with yellow - yellow indicating a change was about to occur) BOTTOM (green & red) BOTTOM AND MIDDLE (green & red with yellow - yellow indicating a change was about to occur) then back to the beginning.
	To see photos of the original and of how I built my replica, click here.

Since the original posting of the Potts replica, the sequence has been changed. A different custom controller chip was made by Lights To Go so the yellow indication stays on with the red/green (depending on which side is being viewed) as the right of way is about to be changed. To see a video clip of this new sequence, click here. If that link does not work, click here for an alternate method of viewing the video clip.

SOUTHERN AUTOFLOW 4 WAY

This 4 way was made by The Southern Switch Co, of Shreveport, La. They were originally a maker of electrical devices. Sometime in the early 1950's, they began manufacturing traffic signal equipment, including 4-ways, called Autoflows. This signal came with only 3 visors. They were cutaway style. Southern Autoflow signals are not very common so I opted to replace the hard to find original visors with modified Eagle tunnel visors. Put your mouse on the picture to make the signal sequence. You can see what this signal might have looked like with its original visors on Signalfan's web site. To see more of this signal, click here.

MARBELITE 4 WAY

This 4 way was made by Marbelite. It is a very sharp looking signal! It has unusual visors that look like a combination of tunnel and cutaway visors. Many signal collectors refer to these visors as tunnaway visors. The lenses and reflectors are all glass. The lenses look similar to large bead smiley lenses used by Crouse Hinds, except obviously, no smile. There is a logo on the lens. It is a capital M with a lightening bolt going through it. Put your mouse on the picture to make the signal sequence. To read a little recent history of this signal click here.

This is the oldest 12 light four way signal in this collection. A guess would have this signal being made in the 1920's. That is just a guess though. Harrington Seaberg eventually became Eagle Signal. Eagle had operations in Moline Illinois at one time and the round port hole doors on this signal also say Moline Illinois on them. There are a lot of similarities between this signal and other signals of this era. The roof is a perfect match to the roof on the Darley 4 way beacon in this collection. The four sides of this signal are each one solid panel, not sections like four ways that were made later. Darley signals had port hole doors that had to be completely removed from the signal in order to change a light bulb. The port hole doors on this signal have hinges, preventing the signal tech from accidentally dropping the door on the ground. Most of the command lenses in this signal are Crouse Hinds lenses, but they fit the era of this signal. Put your mouse on the picture to make the signal sequence. Click here to see some before - during - after pictures of this signals restoration.

GENERAL ELECTRIC 4 WAY

Here is a General Electric 4 way signal. This signal is similar to the General Electric 4 way beacon in this collection. If you want to see more pictures of this signal click here. Put your mouse over the picture to make the signal sequence.

The Traffic Signal Museum