The original train order semaphore in the photo of the Cumbres depot is very similar to the one that was in use at Fort Garland at the last.
Pull-Cable operated, lower quadrant type. Cables went from the blades down around some pulleys and inside the depot to some bell cranks. The operator pulled down on some handles on the end of ropes on the end of the bell cranks and hooked them on hooks to set the semaphore to "clear" (semaphore blades pulled "down" at a little more than a 45 degree angle).
When the ropes/handles were released from the hooks by the operator, the counterweights on the semaphore arms caused the signal aspect to go to "stop" (horizontal) position. It Fail-safed to the "stop" position if the ropes or cables broke or became disconnected.
The semaphore lamp was positioned on the very tip of the mast where the
red roundels on the vertical projections above the blade pivots showed the red aspect when the blades were horizontal in the "stop" position. It appears there were "green" roundels in the counterweights that showed the "clear" aspect when the blades were pulled down by the operator.
If I recall correctly, in the early 1960's the Cumbres Section House had the same kind of cable-operated lower quadrant semaphore and mast(with the blades removed as "out of service") as on the original Cumbres depot.
I think the present T.O. signal on the Cumbres Section house today (rod-operated "upper quadrant" type) is of a later design from somewhere else (maybe La Jara???)and not original to the location.
Somewhere I read (Mebbe something John Norwood sent me)that Cumbres was sometimes equipped with a "swift" type order board (like the one at Dulce) to accommodate an operator with a crippling disability that rendered him unable to climb to the top of a regular semaphore mast and maintain the lamp.