When railroads retire signals they are typically thrown in the scrap heap, sold off to railfans or sent down to the C&S shop to keep any of their surviving kin up and running. For anyone interested in seeing these antiques, it typically means a visit to a museum or a backyard collection. After all, railroad signals are fairly specialized pieces of equipment that don’t really work well for general illumination, but despite this there does seem to be one little exception. Every so often a railroad will down-cycle its surplus signaling equipment into the somewhat less exacting world of grade crossing protection. Now this isn’t exactly common as traffic control signals tend to cast their light for a short distance over a broad angle compared to railroad signals that tend to do the opposite. Still, grade crossing applications can give life to signals far beyond their typical sell by date.