Potts 4 way replica
In the summer of 2003 I paid a visit to The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn
The pictures above show the signal on display in the museum. Thanks to John of www.signalfan.com and Jeff of www.railroad-signaling.com for the photos.
After seeing this signal on display, I wanted to add one to The Traffic Signal Museum. Since there is no chance of obtaining an original, I decided that I could make a replica to look like the original. Below are photos of my version of the Potts 4 way. The goal was not to make the signal the same way Potts made his, but just to make one that looked like a Potts.
Below is a picture of all of the parts involved. The first parts I obtained for this signal were the lenses. I could not make the lenses so I had to get them first and then make the rest of the signal to fit them. From information obtained on the web, and from seeing the signal in person, I learned that the lenses were 4 inches in diameter. I found 4 complete sets of these, made by Kopp Glass, from a seller on ebay.
The parts that make up the body of the signal are 3/16" x 8" steel plates. Before I started the project, I emailed Henry Ford Museum and asked for the dimensions of the original. I waited for a reply for quite some time, but after a while I figured I would not get an answer. Based on pictures and the knowledge that the lenses were 4 inches in diameter, I made a guess as to the rest of the dimensions of the signal. I made my signal 8 3/16" wide and 28 1/4 inches long with 9 inches from center of lens to center of lens. After I finished making the body panels of the signal, I got an answer from Henry Ford about the size of the original Potts signal. It is 9" wide and 29" long with 9 1/2" from center of lens to center of lens. I was floored that I made all of my guess's to within an inch of the original!
Below is a picture of one of the body panels next to a standard 8 inch signal to give an idea of the size. Also pictured are the visors. This was the trickiest part to make. I found aluminum chimney flashing and cut the visors out of that, then riveted the ends together to hold the round shape.
Here are some more pictures of this project as I assembled it for the first time, unpainted.
Finally, below are some pictures of this signal after it was painted. The original signal in the museum looked black to me, so I painted mine black, but the one picture above of the original looks like it could be dark green.
