Road hazard warning.

[Rene Luethi]

There is a washout on the country road through my hilly HO layout that is dated in the 1950's. What kind of signalisation was then used to warn the people of that road condition? Are there pictures in the web? Thanks for any suggestion!
Rene.

[jrbarney]

Rene,
Others please feel free to correct my memory, but for the 1950s I would suggest just a wooden black and white zebra striped sawhorse on either side of the washout. You would also want some lanterns - either dull black spherical, smoky flare pots or red lens kerosene lanterns similar to railroad crew signal lanterns. If the lanterns were on the ground possibly you could light them using fiber optics, as an LED would probably be too big for an HO scale lantern. Don't know of any Web pictures, but maybe someone has just this setup on their layout.
Bob

[Anonymous]

Rene:

If memory serves, Bob's recitation sounds about as I remember. If you want some period confirmation how about going to a large library and looking at some old microfilm of newspapers of the era or perhaps general circulation magazines such as Life, Look or Colliers? The library is always my first stop with such questions.

Good luck

Randy

[ndbprr]

My memory is failing me to a degree but that definitely predates flashing yellow lights. There were these little 4-6" cannonballs with a spout on top and a wick that burned kerosene. In Pennsylvania I think we called them smudge pots. They were black due to all the carbon they generated. They gave off a heavy black smoke and a little 1" flame. They also tended to go out a lot. It all predates everyone being a victim and being responsible for paying attention to what you were doing. Like avoiding running into construction areas.