Nice find! Incandescent signals are getting harder to find here too, until around a year and a half ago there were still some left. And is that a wasp nest I see on it.
Nice. There are LOTS of incandescent ped signals and still quite a few incandescent signals in the Blackstone Valley area or RI. RIDOT never converted many ped signals, but they did convert most of the traffic signals to LED. We have soem older LED versions of this with the words. I've noticed this style doesn't have the ' after the "n" in "DONT"
Hmm never heard of a LED worded insert for a ped before, those ones you are talking might be fibre optic inserts, we used to have them back in the incandescent days.
I'm pretty sure LED modules weren't out in 80s and was released during the 90s. Here's a fibre optic pedestrian insert. It uses two MR16 halogens and colour filters (one for don't walk and one for walk) to light the indication.
99% sure what you saw was Fiber Optic. If there was a fade-out, then they used the low voltage halogen bulbs behind the fibers.
However... GE did develop an LED worded pedestrian signal in the late 1990s. They were tested and quickly pulled in favor of the federally mandated symbols.
Most are still around, although none are lit. The lamps more than likely died. I don't know if there was a fade out, but the "diodes" are exposed and there is a black board that fills the rest of the space just like the fiber optic signal in the link, so most likely they are fiberoptic.
BTW, how come the worded ped signals aren't made anymore? I like those better. Also, we use fully lit LED lands here versus the outlined ones...
what you call "diodes" on a fiber optic is actually the end of the fiber strands. Federal law requires all new pedestrian signals to be symbolic. Worded can be used till they are replaced. Outline symbol LEDs were pulled off the books as well.
Nice pedestrian signal. That is a 16" Marbelite model MPS-20. It was similar to the model LPS-20 in that both used the same pedestrian signal housing. Although the only difference between both was that this used colored lenses for the indications, while the LPS-20 used colorless indications. Of course, because of that, the LPS-20 required colored incandescent light bulbs. Very nice overall. Thanks for sharing the picture.
However... GE did develop an LED worded pedestrian signal in the late 1990s. They were tested and quickly pulled in favor of the federally mandated symbols.
BTW, how come the worded ped signals aren't made anymore? I like those better. Also, we use fully lit LED lands here versus the outlined ones...