My examination of the photo shows smoke all right, but it doesn't show an engine. The smoke could still be drifting away from the area back beyond the depot where the engine came from if the stack was "blacked up" good back there.
so I still think the pic was taken looking backwards along the string of empty flats while the train was in motion and with the engine just past the depot.
But I could be wroooong,, wouldn't be the first time.
There is also another possiblility:
That the station was closed or abandoned
at the time and the signal perhaps somehow
had slipped to the "stop" position in that
one direction (or the cable broke). I seriously doubt the signal was "backwards", but it could have also been just disregarded and no longer in effect on that particular day of operations.
Railroad operating rules varied somewhat in regard to the use of train order semaphores.
Some roads kept the semaphore at the "clear"
indication except when there were orders or some other reason for the train to stop (ABS rules).
Others kept the semaphore in the "stop" position at all times the train order office was "open" and only "cleared" the signal when it was OK for a train to pass without stopping (no orders, ,etc).
The order board would be placed to "clear" when the engineer called for signals, kept there until the marker lamps signalling the end of the train had passed, then restored to the "stop" position to give protection against following trains. In the instance of calling a train ahead against a "stop" indication to deliver orders, the operator would "dip" the blade in response to the train's "call for signals" whistle signal, and on receipt of the train's
response (two short whistle blasts) would restore the signal to "stop" and then go out on the platform with a yellow flag or lamp at night and give a manual "proceed" signal to the train to come ahead at reduced speed to receive "hand up" orders or a clearance. The board stayed at "stop" during this process, the operators hand signals superseding the semaphore indication.
The Train Order semaphore at the depot in Ft. Garland Colorado in the San Luis Valley east of Alamosa was one of thes old lower quadrant cable operated types....I had a chance to closely examine it one time while working there.
Later T.O. semaphore types used pushrods instead of cables to operate them, and there both "upper quadrant" and "lower quadrant" types.
Interestingly, all the T.O. Semaphores in use on the Narrow gauge Alamosa-Durango line in late years were the cable or pushrod operated "upper Quadrant" types like the one preserved at Cumbres Pass.
