The Billups Neon Crossing Signal was a prototypical

grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

signal installed at a dangerous

Illinois Central The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also ...

crossing on Mississippi Highway 7 (now Mississippi Highway 332) in

Grenada, Mississippi Grenada is a city in Grenada County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 13,092 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Grenada County. History Grenada was formed in 1836, after federal removal of the Choctaw people who h ...

. It was installed in the mid-1930s by inventor Alonzo Billups over growing concern due to numerous accidents at the crossing involving trains and motor vehicles. Like nothing before, the Billups signal was a large gantry spanning the highway and was likely the first such use of a gantry-style crossing of the type now in relatively common use. Upon approach of a train, a giant

neon sign In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in Dec ...

lit up with the words "Stop-DEATH-Stop" beneath a lighted skull and crossbones. Flashing neon arrows indicated the direction of oncoming trains and an air raid siren in lieu of bells provided aural warning. As a backup, standard railway flashers were mounted below the neon sign. The signal was known locally as the "Skull and Crossbones." The onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

brought about a scarcity of neon which, when coupled with maintenance problems with the signal (often manifesting themselves in the siren sounding continuously until a crew arrived to stop it) meant that no further signals were produced. The prototype was removed after less than thirty years of service, being replaced with standard railway crossing flashers and bells. In 2022,

Lionel, LLC Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is headquartered in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line from the Lionel Corporation by cereal conglomerat ...

introduced a working

O scale O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad sca ...

model of the Billups crossing signal for their model train accessory lineup.

References

Kalmbach Publishing Kalmbach Media (formerly Kalmbach Publishing Co.) is an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. History The company's first publication was ''The Model Railroader'', which be ...

, ''TRAINS'' Magazine, May 2003, ''Stop-DEATH-Stop,'' "Railroad Reading"

External links

Photograph
taken in 1940 of the crossing
Photograph
taken shortly before it was dismantled
Video
simulation of crossing in action Illinois Central Railroad Railway signaling in the United States Level crossings Buildings and structures in Grenada County, Mississippi Individual signs in the United States 1930s establishments in Mississippi {{US-rail-transport-stub