One of the first traffic lights I ever bought was this circa 1950 Crouse-Hinds Type DT. These were manufactured over a relatively long period and widely distributed across the country. These were originally called the “Type D” in the 1930s and ’40s, and then called the “Type DT” in the 1950s. These are perhaps the most popular vintage signals to collect, given how good they look and how familiar they are to collectors. The consistently high demand and ready supply of these seems to have kept them at a fairly stable price over the years I have been collecting.
The D/DT models have an open sectional design that is capped off at the ends with finned plates, and is all held together with a pair of tie rods. They came with either removable sheet metal visors or solid cast visors integrated with the doors, as this one has.
Although this light’s brushed-on yellow finish looked great, I couldn’t resist the itch for a silver signal, like the Type Ds seen in this postcard photo from New Brunswick. In 2020 (17 years after purchasing the light) I finally repainted it in silver.
The result came out great (see photos below). I’ve swapped a variety of lens sets into this light over the years, and in early 2023, I made a very nice trade with New Jersey collector Kasey J to obtain a set of Crouse-Hinds “large-bead Smiley” lenses, which are older than the small-bead lenses it came with originally. The light is just gorgeous!
Garden State Signals 
