# Prewar Telephone/Telegraph Poles & Signs



## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

There have been some Prewar items offered on eBay, and from Auctioneers, that are accessories used in 0 gauge railroad modeling. How many of you have seen these items for sale, and wondered who made them? Most people think they were made by Ives-Bing-Lionel-American Flyer & Hafner. They were not made by any of the above mentioned companies. They were made Oct., 1924 and patented by Alan Robb Fergusson Mfg. Co., Buffalo, N.Y.. He made accessories to be used in 0 gauge model railroads, and was in business from about 1915 until 1930. He had a total of 32 patents, and 6 were specific to 0 gauge RR.

















The key factor to identify that it was made by Fergusson is the bottom base that resembles the letter G. That is highlighted in the first photo with the arrow. Any pole, sign, crossing gate with that style, and the circular base, was only made by A.R. Fergusson. The specific patents to these items were made in the late part of 1924. If you want to look at the patents themselves the numbers are:
1,511,599
1,511,449
1,511,597
1,511,598
1,514,154
1,656,052

Just do a Google search of those numbers, and you can view the patents.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Your moving on. 
Another for your PreWar Lionel book.:thumbsup:

I have seen some with that base for sale. 
Though I don't think I have any of those.

I never heard of that company's name before.
Thanks Doc.


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

Ive never seen that base, but to be honest I probably dont look at the base when browsing stuff. Good info.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Those bases remind me of the old test tube/etc holders that were used in a chemical lab somewhere, back in the old days.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I have seen those before, I checked and don't have one. It was probably at a show.


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

I think I can honestly say that 95% of prewar 0 gauge collectors have no idea who made them. I learned about them from a question posted over on CTT forum, as to who made them. Well you now know, I had to find the answer....."Master of Researching", Hot on the trail. It took quite a while, but I finally identified that Fergusson made them, to sell to the major players in model RRing.

The key thing is the circular bases, that only he made. Nearly every seller on eBay that has them for sale, has been told by me as to their true identity. That's one of the reasons I decided to post it here, so that others will know.


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

Here is a page from A.R. Fergusson's Semaphore, taken from the U.S. Patent website. It is a little tricky maneuvering around the Patent website, but once you understand how to search, it isn't very hard.

http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=...ttp://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/patimg.htm

When you bring up the PDF file, there are arrows about 4 lines down on left side. You can scroll through the pages of the whole Patent.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

teledoc said:


> Here is a page from A.R. Fergusson's Semaphore, taken from the U.S. Patent website. It is a little tricky maneuvering around the Patent website, but once you understand how to search, it isn't very hard.
> 
> http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=...ttp://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/patimg.htm


Took a lot of work just for a toy?
Thanks, I bookmarked the site, will check it out further.


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

I have been poking around on the Patent site, to see what I can find about "Toy Trains" in relation to 2 rail and 3 rail. So far I found 12 patents by Henry C. Ives, found 7 with Joshua L. Cowen (that name as issued), instead of Cohen. Really neat stuff, when you look at these old patents, dating from around 1915 through 1935 period.

I had to get creative with how I searched, but I did find stuff. The original Reversing Unit created for Ives locos, was invented by H.P. Sparkes, March 29, 1927, under patent 1622815. Kind of funny knowing that Ives went bankrupt in Dec. 1929, and Lionel along with Amer. Flyer bought them out in Jan 1930. The Ives Reversing Unit was one of the things that J.L. Cowen wanted, which he later modified. 

The Savior for Lionel has been touted as the Mickey Mouse Loco, with Mickey as the Stoker in the tender. That patent was 2023516, Dec. 10, 1935.


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## 400E Blue Comet (Jul 11, 2014)

I have some of those, currently I can definitely say I have two of those telephone poles and a sign you can rotate that says "Stop" and "Go". It has the same spiral/circular base as these but it comes in two pieces. so you can turn the top part while it's on the base. It also has two little stopper things on the top part so you can't spin it 360 degrees unless you lift it, just rotate it to swap the locations of "Stop" and "Go". It's either a strange train signal or some kind of traffic signal. I probably have more, but I'd need to swim through a bunch of boxes in my closet to find them.


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

Anything with that circular base is made by Fergusson, and no other manufacturer.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Excellent research, Jerry!


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## 400E Blue Comet (Jul 11, 2014)

Did Fergusson make any of the trains? It seems kinda surprising that he'd make the accessories for O scale but not the trains.


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

From what I have found, A.R. Fergusson only made accessories. I was able to find 19 different patents, which included 2 rail track, 3 rail track, switches, and the different Poles, Gates, Clock, Flagpole, etc. He never produced any "Trains" or rolling stock.


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

Referring back to the Patents for Fergusson accessories:
#1511449 - Semaphore
#1511597 - Crossing Sign
#1511598 - Signal Tower
#1511599 - Crossing Gate
#1515154 - Clock
Fergusson also made a Flag Pole, but couldn't find any Patent Number for it.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I guess they look like this.



Sitting in an antique shop in Concord just waiting for me.


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## teledoc (Oct 22, 2014)

Yup, #1511597 to be exact!!!!!


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## Steve "Papa" Eastman (Jan 27, 2016)

Here are the Fergusson accessories I have restored so far.

Steve


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

WOW I like that! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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