During the mid and late 1950s, GE produced 8″ signal heads with round lamp housings made from sheet aluminum. These lightweight signals are usually referred to by collectors as “Streamline” signals, because of their round shape. They are extremely cool. To me, they feel something like old camping equipment.

The corner of Washington Ave and Pascack Road in the Township of Washington in Bergen County was one of the last holdouts of GE Streamlines left in the state, and had been photographed by several collectors over the years. The banner picture at the top of the page was taken in 2018 by Kevin Mueller.

The township auctioned off two of the hanging 2-way GE clusters in January 2023. Steve Conboy, a friend and fellow collector, won the auction. Steve has loved these particular lights since his early childhood living down the road from them. I offered to pick them up from the town on his behalf and store them in my garage until he could make a trip back to Jersey to get them. As a generous token of gratitude, he let me keep one of the two clusters!

I took apart the cluster and gave one of the signals away (spreading some of the joy around, why not?). The signal I kept had been somewhat damaged, most likely due to a truck collision. It still has a couple dents, which don’t affect the appearance much, but I was able to straighten the alignment with very little effort. These lights are a whole different animal to work with compared to cast metal. But they are really lightweight, and oh – so cool looking!

Below, I displayed this light in my former NJ basement, and more recently, I have hung it from my shed soffit in my Illinois back yard where I will enjoy it a lot more!