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Are these GTE, Eagle Mark, or Siemens?

Started by traffic light guy, December 29, 2017, 11:11:22 PM

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traffic light guy

On my flickr, there are pictures of these "bubbleback" signals. They're all over Philly. I can't tell if they're eagle mark, GTE, or Siemens; someone help me out:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/144426590%40N04/&ved=0ahUKEwjBwr3p7rDYAhXoSN8KHZQ2ATUQjjgIJzAA&usg=AOvVaw3TN56uNBQHA4pO3x87K6wL


basilicon89

History lesson!

"Mark IV"  is an automotive component supplier and they still exist. They branched out in the late 80s and 90s into other aspects of transportation and acquired Automatic Signal in 1986 and Eagle Signal in 1987, ultimately merging the two companies into one with the name "Automatic Signal/Eagle Signal"  and moved operations from East Norwalk Connecticut and Davenport Iowa to Austin Texas. 

Mark IV did not continue to produce the Eagle Signal (ALUSIG brand name by Gulf and Western) or Automatic Signal aluminum signal heads. ALUSIG molds were likely destroyed and Automatic Signal molds were sold to Winko Matic signal company. Mark IV had HBA Cast Products make a new signal design, which we know as the bubble back. HBA also cast Automatic Signal parts. The Mark IV era bubble back design was stamped with Mark IV logos on the back of each housing

In 1997 Mark IV was in debt and sold Automatic Signal/Eagle Signal to Siemens, who renamed the company "Eagle Traffic Control Systems" . Siemens had new molds made based off the Mark IV molds, without the logos. The backs were blank and only "EAGLE"  was stamped on the very top of each housing section. The original Mark IV molds had the logos sanded off, new part numbers added and sold to a small manufacturer named Kennedy.

Around 2015, Siemens sold the signal head and cabinet manufacturing to a company called Mobotrex which own the Eagle brand to this day. They added the words "Eagle Traffic Control Systems"  to the back of the bubble housings.

Unrelated, GTE simply copied the Eagle designs. GTE signal heads have GTE logos but otherwise look very similar to Eagles.

-Nick



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