Willis Lamm's Traffic Signal Collection

Willis Lamm's
Traffic Signal Collection

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Darley Simplex D480

Darley Simplex signals were among the more unusual signals that were produced over sevaral decades. Their claim to fame was their simplicity, durability and low cost. They certainly weren't fancy but they were stout and many saw service for over 50 years.

The first Darley signal in the collection is this D480 single faced signal. Darley's big sellers were their internally controlled fixed four way signals, however for intersections with odd angles, the Simplex single faced heads were used by Darley customers.

One unique feature of the D480 signal was that the entire faceplate was removed in order to change light bulbs. The sockets were mounted on the back panel of the signal and the reflectors attached to the face plate.

Side view.

Socket layout and wiring.

Back plate.

Reflectors attached to the face plate.

This particular signal is equipped with MacBeth-Evans #4974 "scripted" lenses. The lenses come with the outlines of "GO," "CAUTION" and "STOP" cast in glass but the letters were never painted in. The letters weren't really obvious but color blind motorists could still read the commands.

Face of the MBE lenses.

Yellow lens (true yellow.)

Sample of lettering viewed from the back side.

Red lens illuminated.

(The camera flash tends to wash out the letters when the lenses are illuminated.)

This signal was manufactured around 1944. The factory sequence for this signal was a little unusual by today's standards. The signal sequenced G-Y-R-Y-G, which was fairly common in the 1940s, but when the Darleys turned yellow, they had a one second overlap of green, then one second of yellow alone, then one second of overlapping red. The overlaps were similar when the signal changed from red to green.