My Traffic Signal Controllers

“Just as God intended!” ~ quoting Buster from the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, when we came across an electro-mechanical controller at a Baltimore intersection

While some of my signals are running nicely on hobby circuit board controllers – Sean Breen in Canada being my favorite provider of these – there’s something special about the look and sound of an electro-mechanical (e/m) controller. These old devices use outdated but fascinating technology, implemented in a variety of ways, to run signals. Here are the street controllers, electromechanical and otherwise, that I have owned.

1960s Eagle EF-20

In June 2019, after five years without hearing that familiar “ker-chunk” of an e/m controller running my traffic lights, I acquired a working 1960s Eagle EF-20 put together by a collector in Ohio.  The controller unit itself (the pale green box with the timer dial window) was legally procured years ago from Lewiston, Idaho surplus by a signal technician/collector in the Pacific NW. The Eagle EF-20 seems to have earned a reputation as a reliable controller, and so there are lots of them and lots of parts for them out there.

My EF-20 was already configured for two-way vehicular and pedestrian motion with solid-state flash, so I only had to wire up the signals and power chord to the panel board and paint the cabinet. I am currently using it simply to run my NYC signal using the old-fashioned sequence of green->dark->red.

2000 General Traffic Equipment (GTE)

The previous e/m controller I owned was a General Traffic Equipment (GTE) controller built in 2000 that was retired from Brooklyn, NY.   I picked this one up from the GTE warehouse in Newburgh, NY in 2012.

I had a very cool display going with this controller for a while in my old place. Much thanks to New Jersey collector Steven Gembara for helping me set it up.

1993 GTE Model B3

My first controller was a GTE Model B3 controller made for New Orleans in 1993.  This manufacture date came as a surprise to me – up to that time, I had assumed that e/m controllers ceased to be manufactured sometime around 1970.  I acquired this controller from a very nice collector who shipped it to me from Louisiana in 2003.  I had it running my lights when my kids were just little tots playing around them in the basement…great memories!

When I first got my NYC red-green signal, I configured the B3 to run it in the sequence that NYC used for red-green signals starting in the ’50s. Instead of a dark caution phase, they illuminated green and red simultaneously :