"I'm thinking about that signalbomb thing-a-ma-jig found on the freight rail line in southwest Philly."
Signal bomb? I missed this one. I remember a story where they found a device on the rail line tracks but after investigating, it was learned that it was an alarm device that an employee left on the tracks. Apparently, the employee was catching up on naptime while on the job and he set up a type of alarm system on the track to warn him/wake him when his boss was coming. Was this the same thing or another incident that I missed?
Yes it was the same thing and you have to read the news in Philly between the lines of the democrat/unionized context to extract any truth from it. And you have to realize when truth is politically squelched. And you have to recognize when it is squelched to keep ripples of panic from forming. Philly is a city of 4 million with a highly reactive and volatile population like most large Northeast cities and a highly reactive and volatile oil refinery in the locale of the device which was placed there unknown to the railway folks.