Singapore: the SGE signal head survives!

[horsetan]

Have been on holiday in Singapore over the last week, admiring their traffic signal technology. All LED heads.

It had previously been reported that the old GEC/SGE traffic signals (think "bowls on stalks") had disappeared from Singapore's roads in favour of Euro-standard heads. Not so. I have found surviving working examples in Serangoon Central bus terminal, Lorong Chuan, Bishan Avenue 12, and also in the Yishun suburb, as well as an isolated single example in Little India.

I have managed to take quite a few photos. Will upload them as soon as I am able.

Good news for SGE fans.

[horsetan]

At Yishun:

[traffic-light-man]

Although I do have to admit, the replacement scheme is obviously happening much faster than I had origonally imagined.

[horsetan]

I think, Simon, that you ought to persuade your parents to take you on a trip out here to Singapore. Two weeks is all you'll need.

Perhaps if you give the Land Transport Authority a and pester them enough, they'll send you a couple of decommissioned signal heads with the LED inserts still in them.

[siukei]

Right. The pace of replacement is faster than before. Last time when I visited Singapore in March this year, there were still 3 sets of SGE traffic lights on Orchard Road. However, all of them were removed between July and Sep this year.

I also visited Singapore in late September. A few photos have been uploaded on Flickr.

[horsetan]

I have a video of the Serangoon Central set

[siukei]

Also for sharing, enjoy it.

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=38O0huI0oWs

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=bE6FqW4wch4

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=OsZOaKhl7C8

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=OixtUcbBqPg

[M1]

Horsetan, is the bridge in the second pic rail or road?

[siukei]

It's rail, part of the overhead railways of Singapore MRT system.

[horsetan]

SGE video sequence clip here

These are the surviving signals at Serangoon Central bus terminal. They are in excellent condition, unlike the ones at Yishun.

There are also a couple of working SGE heads at Ang Mo Kio - almost forgot to mention these.

horsetan,

great Singapore SGE signal pics posted in the Gallery!

Good to see some SGEs still surviving today, I had an inkling some will hang on especially outside the downtown/Orchard Road areas as those examples horsetan took pics of were near Woodlands (by the causeway to Malaysia).

I bet you didn't see very much SGEs remaining on your recent visit!
I heard a lot were recently removed along Orchard Road and down to Bras Basah Road.

There were none left in the city centre / shopping districts, apart from the solitary head in Little India.

On my visit in 2005 I saw SGEs at the following locations:
- Outside Tampines New Town
- Orchard Road (Scotts Road junction, Bideford Road junction, that really wide pedestrian crossing outside Centrepoint mall)
- Bras Basah Road (the junction outside the Art Museum)
- Bugis Village
- Serangoon Road
- Somewhere on the Bukit Timah Road near the PIE expressway
- A rare sighting of SGE with an amber arrow somewhere in the West I think near Tuas

Only the Serangoon Avenue / Lorong Chuan double head left out of your list

Singapore had been very good with their SGEs like reusing the heads by decapitating these from original posts before fitting on the same post below overhead secondary signals which looked bizarre! I saw a good example outside the Art Museum which looked like these mock-ups:

Example 1, Example 2

They did that on Orchard Road. I really should have taken more pics during my stopovers in December 2002, when SGEs were still very common, and looking very good with their LED inserts installed by Tyco.

What did you take of the new pedestrian lights with the countdown clocks inside the red man aspects? I don't like that as it is too Malay for my liking! I prefer the old style with the red digits in a separate box which is quintessentially Singaporean!

Unlike the Malay examples, the Singaporean ones actually look OK and are properly maintained, since the LTA is fastidious about traffic signal maintenance.

I am in Malaysia for the second week of my holiday, and I can confirm that the Malaysians simply can't be bothered to maintain their animated / countdown pedestrian heads (which anyway are a Taiwanese invention, and are supplied by Taiwanese firms). I have lost count of the number of dead or failing ones.

In KL, they have more or less standardised on Euro Standard 300mm heads, including some of the newer ped heads. However, incandescent 300mm heads can still be found in and around Pusat Damansara / Jalan Maarof.

I should also worn intending visitors that being a pedestrian in KL is basically taking your life in your hands as far as road traffic is concerned. These b*st*rds don't stop even when their lights are red and you've got the green man.

Motorcyclists also don't recognise red lights, rather like most b*st*rd cyclists in the UK

Yesterday, I had the rather surreal experience of getting the green man, stepping out onto the crossing, and still seeing road traffic scooting past. Two drivers in particular saw the red light too late, hit the brakes, and slid across the crossing whilst I was on it. One stopped; the other driver changed his mind and drove on.

Your pics shows the SGEs appearing in a worn state like the paint crumbling away making the authorities keener to get rid rather than carry on maintaining these as sadly we seem to be living in a throwaway society...

The Yishun heads that I have displayed first are externally poor because they are underneath an overhanging tree, which is never going to help.

However, the ones on the opposite side of the road, by the MRT elevated section, are actually still OK.

Likewise the Serangoon Avenue and Serangoon Central bus terminal SGEs are still in fine condition. I was going a bit too fast past the ones in Ang Mo Kio, and Bishan Avenue 12, to be able to examine them more closely.

They all work perfectly, obviously ....hmmm... I really should contact the LTA before Simon does.

[DorsetWay]

Cheers for reply. Didn't realise about this thread until your message on the Traffic Signals thread!

The currently low numbers of SGEs in Singapore shows a depressing view of the future with the same sort of Euro-standard head seen all over the island! I have a feeling all will be wiped out for good by 2010.

It is just like Kuala Lumpur - first they had SGEs before being replaced by Mellors (with yellow borders on stripey poles) and Futurits with 300m arrow aspects (like those in Hong Kong & Ireland) then it is now just the bog standard 300mm Euro-standard heads all over the place. Wish they had chosen AluStar or Siemens Helios heads instead!


First Dublin now Singapore! I hope some council - perhaps TfL - one day will recognise the historical importance of these signals and bring these back like modern replicias of the originals. They do this with old style heritage street lighting so why not traffic lights too?

This could prove to be difficult with modern standards going on like puffin nearside signalling etc. SGE heads were not really flexible unlike Mellor heads which these were permanently fixed on the post and having double headed SGEs would be awkward. Also imagine seeing a nearsided Puffin crossing equipped with SGE heads - that would be a sight!

[DorsetWay]

Forgot to add this...

If you're still in Malaysia, also if you still got time perhaps you could see the surviving Mellors up in central Georgetown (by KOMTAR tower) that is if they're still there! Penang is about 2-3 hours away if you've got a rental car...

It was funny to see the Taiwanese animated ped signals mounted on the same posts as the British Mellor signal heads in place of the 300mm Mellor ped signals that were there originally!

Seems the Malays were right to kick Singapore out in the '60s that if Singapore remained a Malaysian city today - these SGEs would have been gone many years ago! Singapore would otherwise be ridden with failing signals arranged chaotically like those in Johor Bahru!

Only if KL held on to its Mellors for longer...

[M1]

It's rail, part of the overhead railways of Singapore MRT system.

Thanks. That's what I thought.

[siukei]

Thanks for the video clip. I also missed the one at Serangoon Central bus terminal when I visited Singapore in Sep.

One more informtion: The LED replacement programme was carried out between 1999 and 2001 by Singapore Technologies Electronic Ltd. Full details can be found here:
http://www.stee.stengg.com/lsg-grp/capa ... Lights.pdf

In fact, I wrote to LTA before and they replied that the old GEC/SGE traffic light poles would be removed by 2009. They have several contractors responsible for the replacement of traffic lights in the country. Moreover, I also requested LTA to put some disused old traffic lights in the museum but the reply was negative. What a pity.

Based on my observation (I usually rent a car when visiting Singapore), GEC/SGE traffic lights are still in place at around 20-30 junctions in Sing, compared with around 50-60 junctions in early 2008. For the central part, the replacement speed is quite fast, whilst the replacement speed in the eastern part is relatively slower. (Different contractors for different part of the country)

For you all, one more speical GEC traffic light head in Central Singapore as attached.

[DorsetWay]

siukei,

Fantastic photo - just like my mockup example! I regretted not taking much photos from my 2005 visit however luckily you did!

That you're from Hong Kong, have you seen SGEs around there many years ago or did you see any from old photos?

The current Futurit signals in HK - the ones with large green arrows - are not good as SGEs but a lot of Futurits here in Dublin Ireland disappeared quite recently as were replaced by modern types of the same sort in my avatar.

Shame about Singapore SGEs going for good in 2009 that the authorities appear keen to get rid of so hopefully these will be brought back one point in the future when a future government insists on old type signals be installed on Orchard Road like a beautification project in 20 years time for example!

[siukei]

Hi..

The last set of GEC/SGE traffic lights were removed in 1986 in Hong Kong, most of them were replaced by Philips or Futurits. Now, the most common type is Zelisko, made in Austria. One example can be found below.

Only two old GEC-Elliot warning signals are still in place outside a fire station in Hong Kong. Originally there were three but one of them was seriously damaged after a heavy rainfall in June this year. The warning signal head was finally removed.

You may click the hyperlink below which contains a few traffic light photos in HK.

[jackal]

What did you take of the new pedestrian lights with the countdown clocks inside the red man aspects? I don't like that as it is too Malay for my liking! I prefer the old style with the red digits in a separate box which is quintessentially Singaporean!

Unlike the Malay examples, the Singaporean ones actually look OK and are properly maintained, since the LTA is fastidious about traffic signal maintenance.

Can traffic lights have an ethnicity? Surely they're just Malaysian!

[DorsetWay]

siukei

You may recognise these signals from Dublin in Hong Kong only that they go straight from red to green without red&amber from your photo:

[siukei]

Woow, thanks.

fyi, the Philips traffic lights have also faded out in HK, replaced by Zelisko.

[horsetan]

What did you take of the new pedestrian lights with the countdown clocks inside the red man aspects? I don't like that as it is too Malay for my liking! I prefer the old style with the red digits in a separate box which is quintessentially Singaporean!

Unlike the Malay examples, the Singaporean ones actually look OK and are properly maintained, since the LTA is fastidious about traffic signal maintenance.

Can traffic lights have an ethnicity? Surely they're just Malaysian!

The Singapore ones are different, with red countdown digits sharing the circular red man aspect. Singapore ped heads are very close in size and shape to the old Mellor ped heads, using 300mm aspects.

The Malaysian countdown digits (when they work) are yellow, and share the square aspect with the red man.

Narrowly avoided being run over again today in KL (Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman).

Malaysian motorists increasingly have little or no respect for road rules. It's basically like Somalia, but without the guns.