GASSAWAY
WEST VIRGINIA
WEST VIRGINIA
Gassaway is my favorite small town in West Virginia — not because of the town itself, but because of the traffic lights there. Gassaway is home to the single oldest and the two most interesting traffic lights in all of West Virginia, which rank among the the coolest signals still gracing the streets anywhere in the entire country. Though it seems like a nice place and I'd like to spend more time there, I can't say what else is in the town — my visit was on a Saturday evening when everything is closed, and the couple of hours I spent there were passed by taking over 500 pictures and videos of the signals. It was November 14th, 2015, and it was a dedicated trip I took just to Gassaway, specifically to document the signals there. I came through town again on February 20th, 2016 when I made a trip to document Whitesville, Madison, Charleston, Marmet, and more, but that was at night and I only took a few pictures. There are a number of closeups I wish I had taken, so I expect another return trip in my future.
No small town is complete without a couple of 4-ways, and that's exactly what Gassaway has. But these aren't just any old 4-ways — they're really something special. Take a look at thorough documentation and information below to see for yourself.
Admittedly, though some of these photos are among the best I've ever taken, and this ranks among the largest quantity of pictures I've taken in one place, this is not my best photography overall. A number of these photos are redundant, and there are a number of closeups I neglected to take.
Regardless, especially with this page, please make sure to follow the site guidelines, and read the following if you haven't done so already:
WARNING!
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(1) DO NOT TAKE ANY PICTURES OR OTHER MEDIA FROM THIS SITE without express permission. The pictures, videos, graphics, databases, maps, and information within this site are my property (unless otherwise stated) and are for general public viewing and enjoyment only. If you wish to use any of this site's media for your own purposes, please Contact Us.
(2) DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ACQUIRE ANY OLD TRAFFIC LIGHTS DOCUMENTED ON THIS SITE. If you contact a municipality about their old signals, you will draw attention to them and accelerate their removal process. In addition, you lessen the chance of anybody getting them when they do come down, especially if multiple people express interest. If you see signals for the first time documented on this site, RESPECT THE ORDER OF DISCOVERY and leave them alone. I myself may already be in contact with the municipality.
Here is a list of all intersections documented on this page. Click on one to jump to it, or continue scrolling to browse.
Elk St & 7th St
[¶] Here is the first prized signal of Gassaway. This is the oldest and most interesting traffic light I know of in all of West Virginia. It is a 3-section fixed-face 4-way traffic light made either by American Gas Accumulator (AGA) or Signal Service Corporation (SSC). AGA starting making traffic lights in the mid-1910s, and sold their signal brand to SSC around 1932. Originally, the doors on AGA signals were circular. Shortly before they bought by SSC, likely in the final year of production, they changed the design so that the doors are squircular in shape. (And yes, "squircle" is an actual mathematical term.) SSC continued to make that new design up until they were merged with Marbelite around 1945 and this model was discontinued. So, because there is no way to differentiate between the later AGA design and those produced by SSC, this could have been made by either company — but, since this model was made for a longer duration by SSC, that's what it's most likely to be. Regardless, this is a very rare signal to find out on the streets nowadays. There are only a handful left in the wild anywhere in the world, but this one is the very best, no doubt. There are several special things about this general signal model. First of all, as you can see, this is a very ornamental signal. Contrary to the bland designs of today's signals, old ones like this actually tried to look decorative, and this is often though to be one the coolest-looking ever made. (Despite this, unlike other 4-way models, this one has plain, flat top and bottom plates.) Second of all, the visors on this signal are very unique. They were designed so that no material at all was wasted — if you look at the pictures, you can imagine how one visor (upside down and backwards) would line up perfectly with another one on the signal. This was an AGA/SSC special design (though after Marbelite acquired SSC, they created a similar visor using the same premise which they used for a short time.) Third of all, the doors are unusual. Instead of being portholes, or having hinges and a wingnut latch, they have two wingnut latches, with one on either side. So, in order to open the door, you have to remove it completely. This is somewhat of a cross between the older porthole design and the modern hinged design. And, as previously mentioned, the doors are squircular — this may be the only American signal ever made with doors that aren't either rectangular or circular (with, once again, an exception when it comes to Marbelite). And finally, fourth of all, the housing is rather bulky. It makes the lenses look small, though really, they're the same basic 8" size. This uses Kopp diamond-pattern lenses, 9 of which, surprisingly, are original, model number 27. One of the other lenses, a yellow facing west on 7th St, is a later model of the same lens, model number 4627. The two others, which are both greens facing Elk St, are polycarbonate MGM brand lenses. That's one of the oldest brands of plastic lenses, so they weren't replaced recently. It makes sense that those two are the quickest to go, as they are the easiest "targets" — my assumption is that they were shot out. You can see plenty of evidence of this signal being used for target practice, unfortunately. The yellow and red section housings on the northwest corner of the signal has several large holes, though I neglected to get a close-up of the damage. Strangely enough, the metal around the holes is bent outward, implying the bullets came from inside the signal. How is that possible? I have no idea. The angle could be right for a few shots through the south side's green that went all the way through, but those would have destroyed the signals internals in the process. Perhaps they did, and the town just glued the reflectors back together; they are obviously very cheap in maintaining these, so I wouldn't be surprised. A number of the original lenses also have chips taken out of them from BB gun shots on the outside.
[¶] On a telephone pole on the southeast corner of the intersection, there is an old Eagle mechanical controller box. This is one of the oldest controllers made by Eagle Signal Corporation after they acquired Harrington-Seaberg, as can be see by the rounded top. Unfortunately, the original controller mechanism has been gutted and replaced by a different controller, one that is still cool, but cheaper and simpler. There is some sort of switch on the outside next to lock — though I didn't open the cap over it, the labels around it say "N.S.", "T.C.", "E.W.", and "AUTO". I'm not sure exactly what those different modes would do, but they have no purpose now since the original mechanism is gone. This box uses a special older Eagle skeleton key that came before the more universal standard skeleton key that is still in use today, which I don't have. A fellow forum member who has the correct key stopped by Gassaway and took a few pictures of the inside, which are shown below as well. The 'new' controller mechanism has a date of July 1990 stamped on it, which I almost find hard to believe considering how significantly outdated the sequencing is. It's also somewhat odd considering the door It has a motor which spins rotating cams against a set of contacts, on a fixed time. This is a very small and cheap controller, with only 4 circuits — the red of the main street is tied to same output as the green on the side street, so they are always lit at the same time. The same is true for the green on the main street and the red on the side street. The other two circuits are the yellow indications for the main street and side street respectively. This controller is built to have yellow overlaps, meaning the yellow indications light up while the green light is still lit, and then they both turn off together when the red light comes on. This is necessary because of the 4 circuits — the green light for the main street can't be turned off without also turning off the red light for the side street, so the green must stay on for the entire cycle and can only go off when the side street's green light comes on. This includes during the yellow clearance phase — so unlike the cycle you're used to (green, then yellow, then red, each with their own phase), this signal originally cycled like this: green alone, then green+yellow together, and then straight to red alone. That may seem strange, but it used to be more common back in the day, because it saved money. Yellow overlap phasing is illegal nowadays, and these two signals in Gassaway are the only two I know of in the whole country that still intentionally use it. Note, however, that I said the signal ORIGINALLY cycled like this — it DOES NOT anymore! The way it cycles now is far more interesting. This thing has (theoretically) been running 24/7, which puts a lot of wear on these cheap and very elementary electrical components. The constant sparking and poor maintenance have caused the contacts to shift slightly out of alignment, so that the timing of the indication changes are off by a few seconds. That is, the sequence is out of line and the lights cut on and off before they're supposed to. This creates quite a light show! You can't find a signal running like this anywhere in the world besides Gassaway. Mostly because it's illegal, and nobody else neglects their active signals quite like they do here — but hey, for us, that's a good thing. This signal LITERALLY lights up in every possible combination. There are times when all 3 lights — red, yellow, and green — are lit at the same time. That is the most incredible opportunity to photograph. There are also times when red is lit at the same time as green, green is lit at the same time as yellow, and yellow is lit at the same time as red. There are times when red is lit alone, and yellow is lit alone, and green is lit alone, like they should be — but this is only between the overlaps. And for the side street, there is even a time when all 3 lights are dark and the signal shows nothing. Again, literally every combination of lights can be seen in this signal. It's truly a wonder watch it cycle. Since I obviously can't describe it in full detail, check out all of the videos below to see for yourself. The most extreme overlap is when 10 out of 12 lights are all on at once, and the most extreme darkout is when only 2 out of 12 lights are on. The controller is set to a 50 second cycle, with a 30 second green for Elk St and a 20 second green for 7th St.
[¶] One thing of particular note about the controller, which I find very strange, is that the overlap sequence has changed since about 8 months before I documented these. A friend and fellow forum member, Steve, visited Gassaway in March, about 8 months prior to my visit, and he took a couple of videos. When compared side-by-side, the timing cycle is the same, but the overlaps are fairly different. They're not any better — they are just as messed up before — but they're messed up in a different order. Some of the indications come on as much as a full second later than they did those 8 months ago. The same can be said for the Darley 4-way signal documented at next intersection. This signal used to have the infamous triple overlap on the main street approach, but now it does that for the side street instead. Just small changes, that wouldn't really be noticeable otherwise, but in reality it's significant enough to warrant concern. My first thought was that somebody altered the controller; but I can't see why they would do that, considering it's still very messed up — if they were going to alter the cycle, I don't see why they wouldn't have fixed it, instead of leaving it just as bad as before. Perhaps it was accidentally shifted if they rewired the controller recently. Steve also believes that the wires running to the signal were different, which would support this theory, but I'm not sure. The only other possibility is that the controller contacts changed alignment on their own due to the constant wear — but these signals are old, and if the indication changes moved apart at this rate of 3 seconds every 2 years, these signals would be completely incomprehensible by now. Perhaps either the shifting of the contacts balances itself out over time, or somebody comes to reset it every once in a while. Another possibility that was suggested to me is that a buildup of debris on the cams finally snapped off — but this would have to have happened to both controllers at nearly the same time. Regardless, for all I know, the signals could've cycled the same way for 10 years, and they just happened to change between our two visits. So for now, I can only speculate.
[¶] This signal is hanging in the center of the intersection on a diagonal spanwire, and it's the only signal at the intersection (which is a violation of the MUTCD standards, having only one set of indications per approach — but considering how illegal the signal's phasing is, they obviously don't care about regulations). This signal is extremely unwarranted from what I saw — though there were a few, people rarely pulled up on the side streets. Elk St is Gassaway's main artery (if you can call it that), so it's stupid that the very low-traffic 7th St would have almost the same amount of green time. The main street phase is 10 seconds longer, but still, since it runs on a fixed cycle 24/7, the main purpose it serves is holding up Elk St traffic. Perhaps during school/business hours it is more crowded, but regardless, this intersection could easily get by with simple stop signs for the side streets. My assumption is that these signals help limit speed, and the town actually appreciates the history behind them, so they keep them around. These are, officially, on a state road, but they are obviously maintained by the town, as there's no possible way the state would have let these hang around this long. I was told by another fellow forum member who visited Gassaway and spoke to a local that this signal, like the Darley, did not originally come from this intersection — they were brought here after they were removed from the city of Clarksburg in 1951 — but I cannot yet verify that. That might be true only for this signal, since the Darley may or may not have been made after that year (though this one certainly wasn't). The angle of the sun often creates glare and sun phantoming which can make it very difficult to tell which light is lit — the reflectors could definitely use some re-silvering. You can see from my pictures below that it's perfectly easy to see if you're in the shadows, but when you're on the side with the sun facing it, deciphering the indications becomes significantly more difficult. The sun was glaring full blast into the south side while I was there. But it's no joke, you have to be paying close attention — despite the messed up cycle combined with the difficulty of even seeing the lights, I watched two people in a row get pulled over for running this red light. An undercover police SUV parked next to this intersection on the west side of 7th St. One person ran the cold red light going northbound on Elk St, and the officer immediately pulled out with lights flashing and pulled them over. After that was over, he circled back and parked in the same spot. It didn't take too long to find another red light runner to catch, and he pulled them over too. I don't recall whether he came back after that or not — I may have already moved down to the next intersection. But even though the state rejects maintenance of these signals, they certainly enforce them.
[¶] On a telephone pole on the southeast corner of the intersection, there is an old Eagle mechanical controller box. This is one of the oldest controllers made by Eagle Signal Corporation after they acquired Harrington-Seaberg, as can be see by the rounded top. Unfortunately, the original controller mechanism has been gutted and replaced by a different controller, one that is still cool, but cheaper and simpler. There is some sort of switch on the outside next to lock — though I didn't open the cap over it, the labels around it say "N.S.", "T.C.", "E.W.", and "AUTO". I'm not sure exactly what those different modes would do, but they have no purpose now since the original mechanism is gone. This box uses a special older Eagle skeleton key that came before the more universal standard skeleton key that is still in use today, which I don't have. A fellow forum member who has the correct key stopped by Gassaway and took a few pictures of the inside, which are shown below as well. The 'new' controller mechanism has a date of July 1990 stamped on it, which I almost find hard to believe considering how significantly outdated the sequencing is. It's also somewhat odd considering the door It has a motor which spins rotating cams against a set of contacts, on a fixed time. This is a very small and cheap controller, with only 4 circuits — the red of the main street is tied to same output as the green on the side street, so they are always lit at the same time. The same is true for the green on the main street and the red on the side street. The other two circuits are the yellow indications for the main street and side street respectively. This controller is built to have yellow overlaps, meaning the yellow indications light up while the green light is still lit, and then they both turn off together when the red light comes on. This is necessary because of the 4 circuits — the green light for the main street can't be turned off without also turning off the red light for the side street, so the green must stay on for the entire cycle and can only go off when the side street's green light comes on. This includes during the yellow clearance phase — so unlike the cycle you're used to (green, then yellow, then red, each with their own phase), this signal originally cycled like this: green alone, then green+yellow together, and then straight to red alone. That may seem strange, but it used to be more common back in the day, because it saved money. Yellow overlap phasing is illegal nowadays, and these two signals in Gassaway are the only two I know of in the whole country that still intentionally use it. Note, however, that I said the signal ORIGINALLY cycled like this — it DOES NOT anymore! The way it cycles now is far more interesting. This thing has (theoretically) been running 24/7, which puts a lot of wear on these cheap and very elementary electrical components. The constant sparking and poor maintenance have caused the contacts to shift slightly out of alignment, so that the timing of the indication changes are off by a few seconds. That is, the sequence is out of line and the lights cut on and off before they're supposed to. This creates quite a light show! You can't find a signal running like this anywhere in the world besides Gassaway. Mostly because it's illegal, and nobody else neglects their active signals quite like they do here — but hey, for us, that's a good thing. This signal LITERALLY lights up in every possible combination. There are times when all 3 lights — red, yellow, and green — are lit at the same time. That is the most incredible opportunity to photograph. There are also times when red is lit at the same time as green, green is lit at the same time as yellow, and yellow is lit at the same time as red. There are times when red is lit alone, and yellow is lit alone, and green is lit alone, like they should be — but this is only between the overlaps. And for the side street, there is even a time when all 3 lights are dark and the signal shows nothing. Again, literally every combination of lights can be seen in this signal. It's truly a wonder watch it cycle. Since I obviously can't describe it in full detail, check out all of the videos below to see for yourself. The most extreme overlap is when 10 out of 12 lights are all on at once, and the most extreme darkout is when only 2 out of 12 lights are on. The controller is set to a 50 second cycle, with a 30 second green for Elk St and a 20 second green for 7th St.
[¶] One thing of particular note about the controller, which I find very strange, is that the overlap sequence has changed since about 8 months before I documented these. A friend and fellow forum member, Steve, visited Gassaway in March, about 8 months prior to my visit, and he took a couple of videos. When compared side-by-side, the timing cycle is the same, but the overlaps are fairly different. They're not any better — they are just as messed up before — but they're messed up in a different order. Some of the indications come on as much as a full second later than they did those 8 months ago. The same can be said for the Darley 4-way signal documented at next intersection. This signal used to have the infamous triple overlap on the main street approach, but now it does that for the side street instead. Just small changes, that wouldn't really be noticeable otherwise, but in reality it's significant enough to warrant concern. My first thought was that somebody altered the controller; but I can't see why they would do that, considering it's still very messed up — if they were going to alter the cycle, I don't see why they wouldn't have fixed it, instead of leaving it just as bad as before. Perhaps it was accidentally shifted if they rewired the controller recently. Steve also believes that the wires running to the signal were different, which would support this theory, but I'm not sure. The only other possibility is that the controller contacts changed alignment on their own due to the constant wear — but these signals are old, and if the indication changes moved apart at this rate of 3 seconds every 2 years, these signals would be completely incomprehensible by now. Perhaps either the shifting of the contacts balances itself out over time, or somebody comes to reset it every once in a while. Another possibility that was suggested to me is that a buildup of debris on the cams finally snapped off — but this would have to have happened to both controllers at nearly the same time. Regardless, for all I know, the signals could've cycled the same way for 10 years, and they just happened to change between our two visits. So for now, I can only speculate.
[¶] This signal is hanging in the center of the intersection on a diagonal spanwire, and it's the only signal at the intersection (which is a violation of the MUTCD standards, having only one set of indications per approach — but considering how illegal the signal's phasing is, they obviously don't care about regulations). This signal is extremely unwarranted from what I saw — though there were a few, people rarely pulled up on the side streets. Elk St is Gassaway's main artery (if you can call it that), so it's stupid that the very low-traffic 7th St would have almost the same amount of green time. The main street phase is 10 seconds longer, but still, since it runs on a fixed cycle 24/7, the main purpose it serves is holding up Elk St traffic. Perhaps during school/business hours it is more crowded, but regardless, this intersection could easily get by with simple stop signs for the side streets. My assumption is that these signals help limit speed, and the town actually appreciates the history behind them, so they keep them around. These are, officially, on a state road, but they are obviously maintained by the town, as there's no possible way the state would have let these hang around this long. I was told by another fellow forum member who visited Gassaway and spoke to a local that this signal, like the Darley, did not originally come from this intersection — they were brought here after they were removed from the city of Clarksburg in 1951 — but I cannot yet verify that. That might be true only for this signal, since the Darley may or may not have been made after that year (though this one certainly wasn't). The angle of the sun often creates glare and sun phantoming which can make it very difficult to tell which light is lit — the reflectors could definitely use some re-silvering. You can see from my pictures below that it's perfectly easy to see if you're in the shadows, but when you're on the side with the sun facing it, deciphering the indications becomes significantly more difficult. The sun was glaring full blast into the south side while I was there. But it's no joke, you have to be paying close attention — despite the messed up cycle combined with the difficulty of even seeing the lights, I watched two people in a row get pulled over for running this red light. An undercover police SUV parked next to this intersection on the west side of 7th St. One person ran the cold red light going northbound on Elk St, and the officer immediately pulled out with lights flashing and pulled them over. After that was over, he circled back and parked in the same spot. It didn't take too long to find another red light runner to catch, and he pulled them over too. I don't recall whether he came back after that or not — I may have already moved down to the next intersection. But even though the state rejects maintenance of these signals, they certainly enforce them.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL GALLERIES:
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Mouse over the full size image (on computers) or tap it (on mobile devices), and image navigation controls will appear at the top. Click the arrows in the top right to browse through the photos. Click "play" to have the photos progress automatically in 5 second intervals, and click again to stop it.
Mouse over the top or bottom of the thumbnail bar at right (on computers) or swipe it up or down (on mobile devices) to scroll through all of the thumbnails. There are almost always more thumbnails to scroll through, as they can't all fit on screen at once. Click on a thumbnail to show the full image.
East Side (38 pictures, 1 video)
Northeast Corner (9 pictures, 1 video)
North Side (19 pictures, 1 video)
Northwest Corner (20 pictures, 1 video)
West Side (24 pictures, 1 video)
Southwest Corner (6 pictures, 1 video)
South Side (29 pictures, 1 video)
Southeast Corner (17 pictures, 1 video)
Controller Closeups (15 pictures)
[BORROWED] Internal Controller Pictures (9 pictures)
The images of the inside of this controller are courtesy of Joe from Tacoma (on the traffic signal forum). He has the correct key to open the box, and took some pictures of it when he visited Gassaway in 2015. These are NOT MINE; however, everything else on this page is. Some of the things written on the door have been edited out. The last picture, also from Joe, shows what the mechanism this controller would have had originally.
Other Closeups (4 pictures)
Elk St & 5th St
[¶1] Here is the second prized signal of Gassaway, and really, the second best in all of West Virginia (and beyond). This could very well be the last fully functioning one of its kind serving the streets anywhere in America. It is a Darley D-200, which is a 12-bulb 3-section fixed-face 4-way traffic signal with a built-in mechanical controller. (The reason for specifying 12-bulb is that they also offered a version with only 3 bulbs — that means one per section, with all 4 sides of a given section lit at the same time. This also meant 2 faces of the signal had to have green on the top and red on the bottom, and the yellow light came on for all directions during the indication changes.) William Stuart Darley & Company of Chicago, Illinois went into business in 1908 and the company is still alive today, though they now only sell fire equipment. W.S. Darley is among the most famous historical signal companies. They manufactured traffic lights from as early as the 1930s to as late as the 1980s, but for the last decade or more of that time they were only making single-section beacon signals. Like most of their signals were, this one is unpainted, showing off its bare grey aluminum panels. It is extremely simple in design, but it's also very aesthetically pleasing. These types of signals are known as 'portholes', due to the construction of the doors -- you twist them to unhook from the bolts, and then they come off of the housing completely, along with the attached lens. That's how you access the internal parts. The rest of the body is made of simple aluminum panels screwed or riveted together, with a top and bottom plate finishing it off. In this case, the bottom plate is closed, while the top plate has a hole for mounting a hanger. The lenses in this signal, though I'm not sure who made them, are ones that are branded "Lexan" on the inside, which is a brand of polycarbonate plastics started by GE in 1960. Because all of the lenses are the same, and considering how relatively well the original lenses in the even older SSC 4-way have lasted, and knowing how cheaply these signals are maintained, the logical assumption is that they are original to the signal. However, I can't confirm that Darley even made multi-sectional signals by 1960, so it's possible that they are replacements. If they did make these signals that long, this would likely be among the last 3-sectionals Darley ever made. If they didn't, the lenses are replacements, and I can't pinpoint the age of the signal. The theory of the signal being made later on is supported by the type of hanger used — of the two styles they made, this one is newer. So, I can't be sure, but I'd lean towards this signal being made shortly after 1960. Even if it was made in 1960, while that may not seem all that old, having one that is original like this with an illegal, and possibly even original, built-in overlap-based controller still working is extremely rare, and like I said, this could very well be the last one like it left in service in the whole world. The door frame and lens of the yellow indication on the south side of the signal have been shot with something and are both partially shattered — however, they're holding up alright, and are still functioning properly. On that same side, there is a 2-face sign bracket attached horizontally to the base of the signal, using the bolts that were already in place to attach the bottom plate. Conveniently, this allows the front face to bracket to stick out just enough to be in front of the green's door. The bracket extends to the right, and attached to it is a NO RIGHT TURN ON RED sign. It seems that whoever made this sign made a mistake — there is an extra large margin on the top end with two unused holes, but it's mounted from the bottom, where there's no extra margin and the border is blocked by the bracket. It is obviously custom made, but it was made to be bolted on the top side, which it's not. Regardless, this is certainly an interesting way to mount the sign — I have seen signs bolted to signal backplates before, but never one attached to the actual signal itself. Once more, they sprung for the cheapest option, creating this makeshift mount instead of finding a spanwire sign mount. The setup is not new, though; it's been there for a while.
[¶2] So, about the controller: there is an electromechanical control mechanism attached to the inside of the base of this signal. There is no external box — the controller is built into the signal itself. Because of this, I don't know if the controller is original, or if it has been replaced like the one at the other intersection was. Either one is a possibility. If it is original, that's even better. Regardless, it has a motor which spins rotating cams against a set of contacts, on a fixed time. This is a very small and cheap controller, with only 4 circuits — the red of the main street is tied to same output as the green on the side street, so they are always lit at the same time. The same is true for the green on the main street and the red on the side street. The other two circuits are the yellow indications for the main street and side street respectively. This controller is built to have yellow overlaps, meaning the yellow indications light up while the green light is still lit, and then they both turn off together when the red light comes on. This is necessary because of the 4 circuits — the green light for the main street can't be turned off without also turning off the red light for the side street, so the green must stay on for the entire cycle and can only go off when the side street's green light comes on. This includes during the yellow clearance phase — so unlike the cycle you're used to (green, then yellow, then red, each with their own phase), this signal originally cycled like this: green alone, then green+yellow together, and then straight to red alone. That may seem strange, but it used to be more common back in the day, because it saved money. Yellow overlap phasing is illegal nowadays, and these two signals in Gassaway are the only two I know of in the whole country that still intentionally use it. Note, however, that I said the signal ORIGINALLY cycled like this — it DOES NOT anymore! The way it cycles now is far more interesting. This thing has (theoretically) been running 24/7, which puts a lot of wear on these cheap and very elementary electrical components. The constant sparking and poor maintenance have caused the contacts to shift slightly out of alignment, so that the timing of the indication changes are off by a few seconds. That is, the sequence is out of line and the lights cut on and off before they're supposed to. This creates quite a light show! You can't find a signal running like this anywhere in the world besides Gassaway. Mostly because it's illegal, and nobody else neglects their active signals quite like they do here — but hey, for us, that's a good thing. This signal LITERALLY lights up in every possible combination. There are times when all 3 lights — red, yellow, and green — are lit at the same time. That is the most incredible opportunity to photograph. There are also times when red is lit at the same time as green, green is lit at the same time as yellow, and yellow is lit at the same time as red. There are times when red is lit alone, and yellow is lit alone, and green is lit alone, like they should be — but this is only between the overlaps. There is even a time when no lights are lit at all, and the entire signal is dark. Again, literally every combination of lights can be seen in this signal. It's truly a wonder watch it cycle. Since I obviously can't describe it in full detail, check out all of the videos below to see for yourself. The most extreme overlap is when 10 out of 12 lights are all on at once, and the most extreme darkout is when 0 out of 12 lights are on. The controller is set to a 50 second cycle in which Elk St has a 30 second green and 5th St has a 20 second green.
[¶3] One thing of particular note about the controller, which I find very strange, is that the overlap sequence has changed since about 8 months before I documented these. A friend and fellow forum member, Steve, visited Gassaway in March, about 8 months prior to my visit, and he took a couple of videos. When compared side-by-side, the timing cycle is the same, but the overlaps are fairly different. They're not any better — they are just as messed up before — but they're messed up in a different order. Some of the indications come on as much as a full second later than they did those 8 months ago. The same can be said for the SSC 4-way signal documented at next intersection. This signal used to have the infamous triple overlap on the side street approach, but now it does that for the main street instead. Just small changes, that wouldn't really be noticeable otherwise, but in reality it's significant enough to warrant concern. My first thought was that somebody altered the controller; but I can't see why they would do that, considering it's still very messed up — if they were going to alter the cycle, I don't see why they wouldn't have fixed it, instead of leaving it just as bad as before. Perhaps it was accidentally shifted if they rewired the controller recently. Steve also believes that the wires running to the signal were different, which would support this theory, but I'm not sure. The only other possibility is that the controller contacts changed alignment on their own due to the constant wear — but these signals are old, and if the indication changes moved apart at this rate of 3 seconds every 2 years, these signals would be completely incomprehensible by now. Perhaps either the shifting of the contacts balances itself out over time, or somebody comes to reset it every once in a while. Another possibility that was suggested to me is that a buildup of debris on the cams finally snapped off — but this would have to have happened to both controllers at nearly the same time. Regardless, for all I know, the signals could've cycled the same way for 10 years, and they just happened to change between our two visits. So for now, I can only speculate.
[¶4] This signal is hanging in the center of the intersection on a diagonal spanwire, and it's the only signal at the intersection (which is a violation of the MUTCD standards, having only one set of indications per approach — but considering how illegal the signal's phasing is, they obviously don't care about regulations). It's slightly crooked, seemingly rotated several degrees counterclockwise — I said seemingly, however, because the signal was not what was rotated. In fact, the angle of the spanwire itself was changed. Sometime between 2007 and 2015, there was an addition built onto Davis Elementary School at the southeast corner of the intersection. Because of this, the telephone pole holding the spanwire was brought about 20 feet forward. So, now, the signal is slightly out of position — but obviously not enough for them to bother to do anything about it. The fact that they put this signal back up at all shows, at least, that they really want to keep it in service. That said, it's more likely that simply nobody considered the effect of the angle change than that they were too lazy to fix it, since they even added another half-spanwire, coming from one of the corners and attaching at the center of the main spanwire, for extra support. The hanger is likely to be frozen in place, anyway, so they might not have been able to fix it even if they wanted to. This signal is extremely unwarranted from what I saw — though there were a few, people rarely pulled up on the side streets. Elk St is Gassaway's main artery (if you can call it that), so it's stupid that the very low-traffic 5th St would have almost the same amount of green time. The main street phase is 10 seconds longer, but still, since it runs on a fixed cycle 24/7, the main purpose it serves is holding up Elk St traffic. Perhaps during school/business hours it is more crowded, but regardless, this intersection could easily get by with simple stop signs for the side streets. My assumption is that these signals help limit speed, and the town actually appreciates the history behind them, so they keep them around. In the case of this intersection, it controls a school crossing, so that's an added benefit. These are, officially, on a state road, but they are obviously maintained by the town, as there's no possible way the state would have let these hang around this long. I was told by another fellow forum member who visited Gassaway and spoke to a local that this signal, like the SSC, did not originally come from this intersection — they were brought here after they were removed from the city of Clarksburg in 1951 — but I cannot yet verify that. That might be true only for the SSC, since this one may or may not have been made after that year. The angle of the sun often creates glare and sun phantoming which can make it very difficult to tell which light is lit. But it's no joke, you have to be paying close attention — despite the messed up cycle in combination with the difficulty of even seeing the lights, I watched two people in a row get pulled over for running the red light at the other SSC intersection documented above (see that for more details). You can see from my pictures below that it's perfectly easy to see if you're in the shadows, but when you're on the side with the sun, deciphering the indications becomes significantly more difficult. While I was there, the sun was glaring full blast at the west side of this signal, until it started to set.
[¶2] So, about the controller: there is an electromechanical control mechanism attached to the inside of the base of this signal. There is no external box — the controller is built into the signal itself. Because of this, I don't know if the controller is original, or if it has been replaced like the one at the other intersection was. Either one is a possibility. If it is original, that's even better. Regardless, it has a motor which spins rotating cams against a set of contacts, on a fixed time. This is a very small and cheap controller, with only 4 circuits — the red of the main street is tied to same output as the green on the side street, so they are always lit at the same time. The same is true for the green on the main street and the red on the side street. The other two circuits are the yellow indications for the main street and side street respectively. This controller is built to have yellow overlaps, meaning the yellow indications light up while the green light is still lit, and then they both turn off together when the red light comes on. This is necessary because of the 4 circuits — the green light for the main street can't be turned off without also turning off the red light for the side street, so the green must stay on for the entire cycle and can only go off when the side street's green light comes on. This includes during the yellow clearance phase — so unlike the cycle you're used to (green, then yellow, then red, each with their own phase), this signal originally cycled like this: green alone, then green+yellow together, and then straight to red alone. That may seem strange, but it used to be more common back in the day, because it saved money. Yellow overlap phasing is illegal nowadays, and these two signals in Gassaway are the only two I know of in the whole country that still intentionally use it. Note, however, that I said the signal ORIGINALLY cycled like this — it DOES NOT anymore! The way it cycles now is far more interesting. This thing has (theoretically) been running 24/7, which puts a lot of wear on these cheap and very elementary electrical components. The constant sparking and poor maintenance have caused the contacts to shift slightly out of alignment, so that the timing of the indication changes are off by a few seconds. That is, the sequence is out of line and the lights cut on and off before they're supposed to. This creates quite a light show! You can't find a signal running like this anywhere in the world besides Gassaway. Mostly because it's illegal, and nobody else neglects their active signals quite like they do here — but hey, for us, that's a good thing. This signal LITERALLY lights up in every possible combination. There are times when all 3 lights — red, yellow, and green — are lit at the same time. That is the most incredible opportunity to photograph. There are also times when red is lit at the same time as green, green is lit at the same time as yellow, and yellow is lit at the same time as red. There are times when red is lit alone, and yellow is lit alone, and green is lit alone, like they should be — but this is only between the overlaps. There is even a time when no lights are lit at all, and the entire signal is dark. Again, literally every combination of lights can be seen in this signal. It's truly a wonder watch it cycle. Since I obviously can't describe it in full detail, check out all of the videos below to see for yourself. The most extreme overlap is when 10 out of 12 lights are all on at once, and the most extreme darkout is when 0 out of 12 lights are on. The controller is set to a 50 second cycle in which Elk St has a 30 second green and 5th St has a 20 second green.
[¶3] One thing of particular note about the controller, which I find very strange, is that the overlap sequence has changed since about 8 months before I documented these. A friend and fellow forum member, Steve, visited Gassaway in March, about 8 months prior to my visit, and he took a couple of videos. When compared side-by-side, the timing cycle is the same, but the overlaps are fairly different. They're not any better — they are just as messed up before — but they're messed up in a different order. Some of the indications come on as much as a full second later than they did those 8 months ago. The same can be said for the SSC 4-way signal documented at next intersection. This signal used to have the infamous triple overlap on the side street approach, but now it does that for the main street instead. Just small changes, that wouldn't really be noticeable otherwise, but in reality it's significant enough to warrant concern. My first thought was that somebody altered the controller; but I can't see why they would do that, considering it's still very messed up — if they were going to alter the cycle, I don't see why they wouldn't have fixed it, instead of leaving it just as bad as before. Perhaps it was accidentally shifted if they rewired the controller recently. Steve also believes that the wires running to the signal were different, which would support this theory, but I'm not sure. The only other possibility is that the controller contacts changed alignment on their own due to the constant wear — but these signals are old, and if the indication changes moved apart at this rate of 3 seconds every 2 years, these signals would be completely incomprehensible by now. Perhaps either the shifting of the contacts balances itself out over time, or somebody comes to reset it every once in a while. Another possibility that was suggested to me is that a buildup of debris on the cams finally snapped off — but this would have to have happened to both controllers at nearly the same time. Regardless, for all I know, the signals could've cycled the same way for 10 years, and they just happened to change between our two visits. So for now, I can only speculate.
[¶4] This signal is hanging in the center of the intersection on a diagonal spanwire, and it's the only signal at the intersection (which is a violation of the MUTCD standards, having only one set of indications per approach — but considering how illegal the signal's phasing is, they obviously don't care about regulations). It's slightly crooked, seemingly rotated several degrees counterclockwise — I said seemingly, however, because the signal was not what was rotated. In fact, the angle of the spanwire itself was changed. Sometime between 2007 and 2015, there was an addition built onto Davis Elementary School at the southeast corner of the intersection. Because of this, the telephone pole holding the spanwire was brought about 20 feet forward. So, now, the signal is slightly out of position — but obviously not enough for them to bother to do anything about it. The fact that they put this signal back up at all shows, at least, that they really want to keep it in service. That said, it's more likely that simply nobody considered the effect of the angle change than that they were too lazy to fix it, since they even added another half-spanwire, coming from one of the corners and attaching at the center of the main spanwire, for extra support. The hanger is likely to be frozen in place, anyway, so they might not have been able to fix it even if they wanted to. This signal is extremely unwarranted from what I saw — though there were a few, people rarely pulled up on the side streets. Elk St is Gassaway's main artery (if you can call it that), so it's stupid that the very low-traffic 5th St would have almost the same amount of green time. The main street phase is 10 seconds longer, but still, since it runs on a fixed cycle 24/7, the main purpose it serves is holding up Elk St traffic. Perhaps during school/business hours it is more crowded, but regardless, this intersection could easily get by with simple stop signs for the side streets. My assumption is that these signals help limit speed, and the town actually appreciates the history behind them, so they keep them around. In the case of this intersection, it controls a school crossing, so that's an added benefit. These are, officially, on a state road, but they are obviously maintained by the town, as there's no possible way the state would have let these hang around this long. I was told by another fellow forum member who visited Gassaway and spoke to a local that this signal, like the SSC, did not originally come from this intersection — they were brought here after they were removed from the city of Clarksburg in 1951 — but I cannot yet verify that. That might be true only for the SSC, since this one may or may not have been made after that year. The angle of the sun often creates glare and sun phantoming which can make it very difficult to tell which light is lit. But it's no joke, you have to be paying close attention — despite the messed up cycle in combination with the difficulty of even seeing the lights, I watched two people in a row get pulled over for running the red light at the other SSC intersection documented above (see that for more details). You can see from my pictures below that it's perfectly easy to see if you're in the shadows, but when you're on the side with the sun, deciphering the indications becomes significantly more difficult. While I was there, the sun was glaring full blast at the west side of this signal, until it started to set.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL GALLERIES:
Mouse over the full size image (on computers) or tap it (on mobile devices), and image navigation controls will appear at the top. Click the arrows in the top right to browse through the photos. Click "play" to have the photos progress automatically in 5 second intervals, and click again to stop it.
Mouse over the top or bottom of the thumbnail bar at right (on computers) or swipe it up or down (on mobile devices) to scroll through all of the thumbnails. There are almost always more thumbnails to scroll through, as they can't all fit on screen at once. Click on a thumbnail to show the full image.
Mouse over the full size image (on computers) or tap it (on mobile devices), and image navigation controls will appear at the top. Click the arrows in the top right to browse through the photos. Click "play" to have the photos progress automatically in 5 second intervals, and click again to stop it.
Mouse over the top or bottom of the thumbnail bar at right (on computers) or swipe it up or down (on mobile devices) to scroll through all of the thumbnails. There are almost always more thumbnails to scroll through, as they can't all fit on screen at once. Click on a thumbnail to show the full image.
North Side (23 pictures, 1 video)
Northwest Corner (26 pictures, 1 video)
West Side (15 pictures, 1 video)
Southwest Corner (48 pictures, 1 video)
South Side & Southeast Corner (26 pictures, 1 video)
East Side (17 pictures, 1 video)
Northeast Corner (29 pictures, 1 video)
Other Focuses (8 pictures)
510 Elk St
Earlier, I may have said that there are only two signals in Gassaway, but that's not actually true — though it's not a full signal, there is one single-section light. Facing southbound traffic just north of the Darley intersection, there is an abandoned 8" Eagle Alusig school beacon. It's incandescent with a poly yellow Eagle lens, is either missing its visor or never had one in the first place, and has a yellow body with a black door. It's strange in a few ways — first of all, it appears to be attached to an abandoned wooden pole that once held a business's swinging sign (the sign is gone, only the arm it would have hung off of is still there). Second, it's mounted to pole with metal straps around the housing. Nothing but friction is keeping it from falling down. This also makes maintenance impossible because the straps hold the doors shut — you'd have to cut it down to change the bulb. They certainly spared every expense with this. And finally, despite the bottom mounting hole being completely open with no weather cap, they decided to drill another hole to feed the power wire through.
The building on the southeast corner of the Darley intersection is Davis Elementary School, which was what this was used for at one point. Presumably, there was a sign that said "SPEED LIMIT 15 WHEN FLASHING" hanging below it, which has since been removed (though they didn't bother to remove the beacon with it). Like normal school beacons, it would have come on during set times of day when there are students coming to or leaving the school. Apparently, that system wasn't worth maintaining, so they just abandoned it — and instead, they put up a sign that says "SPEED LIMIT 15 WHEN CHILDREN PRESENT". That's a much more general statement which is probably difficult to enforce, but it certainly is cheaper. There used to be a companion abandoned school beacon on a facing the other way a bit further down Elk st (on the other side of the school) — it was last seen on StreetView in October 2008, at which point it was hanging backwards off the pole by its wire only. Whatever it was mounted to the pole with had broken off. At some point after that, given how it is gone now, the beacon was either removed or stolen.
You can see the Darley 4-way in the background of a few of these pictures — note that in the second picture in the gallery below, I incidentally caught its all-way darkout phase.
The building on the southeast corner of the Darley intersection is Davis Elementary School, which was what this was used for at one point. Presumably, there was a sign that said "SPEED LIMIT 15 WHEN FLASHING" hanging below it, which has since been removed (though they didn't bother to remove the beacon with it). Like normal school beacons, it would have come on during set times of day when there are students coming to or leaving the school. Apparently, that system wasn't worth maintaining, so they just abandoned it — and instead, they put up a sign that says "SPEED LIMIT 15 WHEN CHILDREN PRESENT". That's a much more general statement which is probably difficult to enforce, but it certainly is cheaper. There used to be a companion abandoned school beacon on a facing the other way a bit further down Elk st (on the other side of the school) — it was last seen on StreetView in October 2008, at which point it was hanging backwards off the pole by its wire only. Whatever it was mounted to the pole with had broken off. At some point after that, given how it is gone now, the beacon was either removed or stolen.
You can see the Darley 4-way in the background of a few of these pictures — note that in the second picture in the gallery below, I incidentally caught its all-way darkout phase.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL GALLERIES:
Mouse over the full size image (on computers) or tap it (on mobile devices), and image navigation controls will appear at the top. Click the arrows in the top right to browse through the photos. Click "play" to have the photos progress automatically in 5 second intervals, and click again to stop it.
Mouse over the top or bottom of the thumbnail bar at right (on computers) or swipe it up or down (on mobile devices) to scroll through all of the thumbnails. There are almost always more thumbnails to scroll through, as they can't all fit on screen at once. Click on a thumbnail to show the full image.
Mouse over the full size image (on computers) or tap it (on mobile devices), and image navigation controls will appear at the top. Click the arrows in the top right to browse through the photos. Click "play" to have the photos progress automatically in 5 second intervals, and click again to stop it.
Mouse over the top or bottom of the thumbnail bar at right (on computers) or swipe it up or down (on mobile devices) to scroll through all of the thumbnails. There are almost always more thumbnails to scroll through, as they can't all fit on screen at once. Click on a thumbnail to show the full image.
All Pictures (15 pictures)
VARIOUS THINGS AROUND TOWN
Here you will find all miscellaneous non-signal-related pictures I took while in Gassaway, mostly of signs and other street furniture that were not at any of the intersections documented above. Things shown here were not documented thoroughly, there are only one or two photos of each item. I did not seek out these items with the intention of documenting them either; they are just things I happened upon while I was there. Each photo will have a description below it explaining what it is of.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL GALLERIES:
Mouse over the full size image (on computers) or tap it (on mobile devices), and image navigation controls will appear at the top. Click the arrows in the top right to browse through the photos. Click "play" to have the photos progress automatically in 5 second intervals, and click again to stop it.
Mouse over the top or bottom of the thumbnail bar at right (on computers) or swipe it up or down (on mobile devices) to scroll through all of the thumbnails. There are almost always more thumbnails to scroll through, as they can't all fit on screen at once. Click on a thumbnail to show the full image.
Mouse over the full size image (on computers) or tap it (on mobile devices), and image navigation controls will appear at the top. Click the arrows in the top right to browse through the photos. Click "play" to have the photos progress automatically in 5 second intervals, and click again to stop it.
Mouse over the top or bottom of the thumbnail bar at right (on computers) or swipe it up or down (on mobile devices) to scroll through all of the thumbnails. There are almost always more thumbnails to scroll through, as they can't all fit on screen at once. Click on a thumbnail to show the full image.