Abington Township

At the intersection of Meetinghouse Road, Fairy Hill Road, and Beverly Road remains this classic set of Eagles on angled mast-arms. One of the signals in the intersection is a poly TCT replacement, while there’s another pedestal mounted pair of 8″ Crouse-Hinds type Rs with Philly style mounting. Due to COVID-19 budget related issues, Green Light Go program funds were not made for this intersection, delaying any upgrades to this intersection.

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Right around the corner from that setup is another set of Poles Inc era 12-inch Eagle flatback signals on angled mast-arms. The intersection also included a four section head at the corner of the intersection. Some Poly TCT replacement signals are mounted at one corner of the intersection. As a result of the Green Light Go program, this configuration was replaced by a set of Eagle Mobotrex signals in October 2020. Funding was done before the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the Beverly Road setup outliving this configuration. According to PennDOT, these signals have an inspection letter from around the time of when they were first installed, with a date of August 8, 1969. I’m not exactly sure when the 12-inch poly TCTs came in, it was likely an accident induced replacement, since they left everything else alone until the entire intersection was redone.

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At the intersection of PA 611 (Old York Road) and the Fairway are a set of polycarbonate set of 12″ Automatic LFE traffic signals, plus a polycarbonate Eagle Durasig, which was added to the intersection around 2009. The LFE signals, which came up during the Dark Ages, were installed around 1990. Shockingly these early polycarbonate signals are in great shape for their age. LFEs are one of the most hated signal models among the signal fan community, due to their very poor housing durability, just the slightest thing can cause the visors to shatter, so it’s a miracle that these are still in excellent shape.

Some 3M Left Turn Signals mounted at the intersection of Susquehanna Road at Edge Hill Road. It appears that the slightly newer 3M has backward arrow lenses (since the outer color of the lenses is not showing), and the red appears to be unmasked!!!! Pennsylvania is notorious for lousy signal maintenance, there’s anther 3M in Springfield that has the same problem (See Delaware County). The bottom 3M likely original to the intersection, since it has visible Poles Inc era specs.

Jenkintown

At the intersections of PA 611 (Old York Road) at Rydal Road, and PA 611 at Rydal Road, we have some poly Safetran setups. Safetran bodies were higher quality than most signals during the dark ages, but the visors were still very brittle and prone to cracking. What I find funny is, in 2010 PennDOT awarded Jenkintown to do touch ups and upgrades to several intersections along the Old York Road corridor in this borough. (Remember PennDOT doesn’t maintain or own signals, the local municipalities do, PennDOT is only responsible for funding them and issuing the permits), the amber sections and the arrow sections at all the Safetran installs were left incandescent. The first couple intersections in the heart of Jenkintown got fully retrofitted, while the Safetran intersections were left alone for the most part, other than adding a few auxiliary vehicular heads, and improvements of pedestrian facilities. In the third photo, you can see that there’s a poly Econolite Buttonback mounted next to the safetran, the poly Econolite Buttonback was part of the 2010 project, along with the Econolite pedestrian signal, and the Peek signal that has the McCain visors (fourth image).

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Below are some intersections that were almost fully modernized, with some Econolite Buttonback signals, which were also part of the 2010 touch up project that began construction in June 2010, and was complete that October. The 12″ Econolite Buttonbacks shown in the photos below were installed in August 2010. The signal cabinets operating these are pretty basic too, with some modern NEMA cabinets with Econolite controls.

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Some pre-existing signals were left alone, likely due to the fact that they weren’t old enough to be replaced at the time, possibly due to the fact that they didn’t contain specs outdated enough to be upgraded, here are some of those poly McCains.

Cheltenham Township

On the PA 73 (Township Line Road) corridor, there is a blend of various signal brands from different eras, which is relatively common for Pennsylvania. At the intersection of Township Line Road at Washington Lane, we see some third gen 12-inch Eagle Durasigs, with some early General Electric LED modules in each section. Something to note is that Pennsylvania likes to use 8″ vehicular signals as opposed to standard pedestrian signals, because it saves a loadswitch and extra wiring in the cabinet. Within the past decade, standard pedestrian signals have become the norm for new installations.

East Norriton

These are at US 202 at Johnson Highway. The real showstoppers here are the two four section square-door Econolite Bullseyes. Which is not very usual for a setup like this. During the Poles Inc era, District 6 had almost nothing but flatback, while Philly had a mix of Econolite, Crouse-Hinds, and Marbelite, and occasionally a Highway Signal & Sign Co. So it’s pretty neat to see a Poles Inc era install that has something besides Eagle. It seems like they reused some GE groovebacks for the side-mounted signals as well. I also like how the intersection includes some 3M M-131s too, and they age like fine wine. The top visor on the four section bull’s eye has been missing for years. Since PennDOT had plans for the widening of US 202, the death warrant has already been filled out for this install.

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Bala Cynwd

Here’s a classic setup, located at Conshohocken State Road at Rock Hill Road, this is another classic Eagle intersection. However, it’s not your typical classic set of Eagles, because it contains a four section, a dolly, and an Eagle flat-back doghouse on the right hand side of the intersection. All of these are mounted on stainless steel Poles Inc diagonal mast-arms. Since this intersection also contains a dolly, there could be a high possibility that this intersection was used as a test pilot for the configurations that would be used later on. Although other states were using doghouses prior, I don’t think Pennsylvania had any doghouses before these 12″ Eagle flatbacks, given the fact that the doghouse version of them is extremely uncommon.

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At the intersection of Conshohocken State Road at Belmont Avenue, there is an all Durasig intersection with a mix of heads from the second and third generation. If you think there’s a lot of Durasigs in Lower Merion, take a look at King of Prussia, almost that entire suburb is Durasig. One of the visors is missing on the signal in the second photo. The name “Durasig” is ironic, since it’s supposed to mean that these signals are durable, but obviously, it shows, that these signals are not. Either the third generation heads in the intersection were new old stock, or they were added later on.

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Meanwhile, at the intersection of Belmont Avenue at Levering Mill Road, we see another PennDOT classic, a set of Eagles on angled mast-arms. Just like the other one, this intersection contains an Eagle flatback doghouse, which were extremely uncommon during the time these signals were installed.

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Another classic set, instead of the usual 8″ heads being there to guide pedestrians, we have some 9-inch Eagle flatback worded pedestrian signals, and at the time I took these photos, these were (to my knowledge) the final set of scripted pedestrian signals left in Montgomery County. I reached out to PennDOT, and they notified me that these signals have inspection letter for with a date of Spring 1975.

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Another PennDOT classic. Yet another set of Poles Inc era Eagle flatbacks on angled mast-arms mounted at Pine Road and Byberry Road in Lower Moreland, PA. These were shortly replaced after I shot these photos, something to note is that the secondary signals are 12″ instead of 8″.

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