a plastic red usually cannot support the weight. Thats why many doghouses, if they aren't already "all metal" have at least metal reds. Plastic may hold for a bit but as it ages it will get brittle. It can't support the weight of all the heads and hardware underneath it.
It was probably roped up temporarily, because these can't be fixed right away, the people in charge have to ORDER the signal, and wait for it to get shipped to the warehouse. Then they go up there and fix it. It's how it works.
Oh this is fixed by now, I think one of his contractor friends took this picture while getting up to work on the signal and replace it.
They do good emergency signal work too.. Remember I caught WL contractors replacing a traffic signal because the other one broke? The old one (that I got to keep) Had a cracked housing, and it was only being held up by the backboard! But they replaced it and I got to keep the old signal, it was a durasig. And was on a span wire setup. I dunno how long it was sitting there like that but... They had to order the signal too before they put a new one up. So that might not be the best emergency situation.
Is it common for span-wire setups to have backboards? Because it's very common here, I see span wire setups have backboards on all the traffic signals.
Well, span wire signals with backboards are very common in Ontario for temporary setups. There are some permanent setups with span wire but they're sort of rare here.
I'm not exactly sure when backplates started to be used here but I think they were first used on the right hand signal heads here when they started using 12-8-8 right hand signal heads here in the 50s-60s. Some 8-8-8 left hand heads here remained backplateless until the mid 90s. Almost all our signals have backplates now though.
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They do good emergency signal work too.. Remember I caught WL contractors replacing a traffic signal because the other one broke? The old one (that I got to keep) Had a cracked housing, and it was only being held up by the backboard! But they replaced it and I got to keep the old signal, it was a durasig. And was on a span wire setup. I dunno how long it was sitting there like that but... They had to order the signal too before they put a new one up. So that might not be the best emergency situation.
Is it common for span-wire setups to have backboards? Because it's very common here, I see span wire setups have backboards on all the traffic signals.