quote:

Back when personal automobiles were still relatively new, and railroad crossing warning devices had not yet been fully standardized, a Mississippi inventor by the name of Alonzo Billups, concerned with the number of accidents at a particular railroad crossing, took it upon himself to design a special signal to warn drivers of approaching train traffic. 

As you can see, he didn’t gently caress around.

In addition to the standard double flashing red lights, the skull and crossbones logo, and the admonishment “STOP - DEATH - STOP” Billups also connected his crossing signal to an air raid siren. 

The skull and crossbones and “STOP - DEATH - STOP” were both lighted with neon for extra night time viability. 

The Billups crossing neon crossing signal, as it became known, was intended as a prototype for future crossing signals of its kind, but war time neon shortages, coupled with continual maintenance problems meant that it was never reproduced.

One of the reported maintenance problems was that the air raid siren would go on and not go off until a signal maintainer crew could arrive to fix it.

The Billups crossing signal was built in mid 30s and was finally dismantled in 1970. Very few pictures exist of it online, and unfortunately none of it in action after dark, but someone created a computer simulation (headphone users beware):