I will have to go back and look closely at some of the photos of the Cumbres Station but I think that the 'paddles" were for a train order board rather than a semaphore. Semaphores were used with a simple block control. Only one train per block. Train order boards were used to tell the crew of a train coming up to a station whether it had orders or not. If the board was down, in the horzontal position, the train had to stop and the conductor would have to go to the station agent and get his orders. If the board was diagional, they would receve the orders "on the fly" and if it were vertical, there were no orders. Semaphores were usually placed on each side of the track while order boards were usually on the same pole at a station or agent shack. The best way to tell is if they have handles at the bottom. Semaphores were controled by a mechanical box and orderboards were controled by hand with a lever. The one at the CRRM is a train order board by the way.
John V