RailWest Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 (edited) Is there anyone who may be going to Shillingstone station some time soon-ish and who might be able to take a photograph or two for me of the ETT instruments now installed in the signal-box? [Yes, I have seen the ones on the web, but I need some different views :-) ] If so, then please PM me and I'll send you more details - thanks! In the meantime - glad to see that it is progressing on 'the Dorset' :-) Long may it continue....... Edited November 19, 2015 by RailWest Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted November 26, 2015 Share Posted November 26, 2015 A bit late, but I've just come across this post, but if you still need those pics, I can pop down there weekend after next ( 5/6 Dec, I'm busy this weekend ) as long as I can get access, I will have to check with my contacts first. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted December 6, 2015 Author Share Posted December 6, 2015 Thanks to Paul's kind efforts, pictures from his recent visit have confirmed my suspicion that the right-hand ETT instrument currently in the box at Shillingstone has the vertical check-pin which was a feature of the ETT-6 variant used by the North British Railway. According to info from the Shillingstone Facebook page, the RH of the two instruments now in the box is an original from the Shillingstone - Blandford section (of BR days). If so, then either for some odd reason the L&SWR acquired a NBR instrument in 1905 or it has been replaced at some date (maybe in BR days?). Alternatively, their info is wrong and it must the left-hand instrument which is 'original'. Unfortunately the indicator designations are the same on both instruments (clearly not correct for the prototype Shillingstone) and both have the necessary configuration of descriptions to be correct for the instrument working to Blandford, so no clue there :-( Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted December 6, 2015 Share Posted December 6, 2015 There can be no doubt that the L&SWR occasionally received Stevens-style signalling equipment with Scottish detailing because I have seen odd photos of lattice posts in L&SWR territory with distinctive Scottish-style finials (although they were clearly never numerous). I wouldn't therefore be surprised to find the odd Scottish-style ETT-6 machine since there don't seem to have been any compatibility issues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted December 22, 2015 Author Share Posted December 22, 2015 After some further discussion elsewhere, it would appear that I was misinformed originally on Facebook <doh>. In addition to the two ETT6 instruments shown in the picture side-by-side at the LH end of the lever-frame, I've discovered now that they have a third one at the RH end of the lever-frame and apparently that is the one that is ex-S&DJR. This third one appear not to have a check-pin, so I think I can stop wondering now about NBR instruments! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted December 25, 2015 Author Share Posted December 25, 2015 Merry Christmas all! Dear old Santa has left me a photo seen here http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee224/railwest/SDJR/Scan-462_zpsinccq0b4.jpg It is alleged to be a train approaching Shillingstone, but is it a Down or an Up train? Judging from the background then I am assuming a Down train, but can anyone with more local knowledge confirm this please? It's the first photo that I've seen of either of the distant signals at Shillingstone, so I'd like to be certain. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffers Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Hi Chris If the hill in the background is Hambledon/Hod Hill then it looks like a train travelling south towards Blandford. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 (edited) Merry Christmas all! Dear old Santa has left me a photo seen here http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee224/railwest/SDJR/Scan-462_zpsinccq0b4.jpg It is alleged to be a train approaching Shillingstone, but is it a Down or an Up train? Judging from the background then I am assuming a Down train, but can anyone with more local knowledge confirm this please? It's the first photo that I've seen of either of the distant signals at Shillingstone, so I'd like to be certain. Thanks. Thanks to Google Earth, for a comparison see ;- https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.912261,-2.262453,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1s45609884!2e1!3e10!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2Fproxy%2FythyvqaaLeTbSIU-aFNbCcarO37yft2a_-keEHR8kXkNZCYJ1IP16d6pkSk9P9oCcVpANKPUK9DfQRRLr2PVdl2nIb0JPA%3Dw203-h100!7i4297!8i2109 a photo including the Shillingstone down distant would have been taken in a similar location, not far from Bere Marsh farm, it's the only pic I could find of a similar location, looking in the same direction - ish. Edited December 26, 2015 by bike2steam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 Meanwhile..Does anyone know please the official dates when [a] both the Down Siding East and Down Siding West were taken out-of-use and the Up Sidings were taken OOU at Shillingstone? I am interested in the formal dates please for being taken OOU and/or abolished (not always the same thing), not the dates when they were physically removed.There is a K2 Notice for May 1965 for the two Down Sidings, but as that was apparently the “final” notification, it is probable that the actual closure had taken place at least 3-4 months previous. Both Down Sidings had disappeared from the SB diagram records by the end of May 1965, but the Up Sidings were still included at that time.Also, in earlier days there had been a non-independant ‘Point Disc’ at the trap-point at the exit from the Down Siding West, but that was replaced by an illuminated ‘Trap Points’ indicator in 1939. Has anyone ever seen a photograph of either item please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 If you know anyone that's got the George Pryer book on the Track Layout Diagrams of the S&DJR, then they could tell you - I lent mine to someone a few years back, and can't remember who it was ??? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Err...I have the RA Cooke volume for Track Layouts - that makes no comment at all.I have the GA Pryer volume for Signal Diagrams - that gives no dates at all for the Down sidings, and say only "circa 1964" for the Up Sidings. As I am in the process of revising the GAP volume (v-e-r-y slowly indeed, so don't get excited!) for a future reprint by the SRS, I'd like to try and get it as accurate as possible :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted June 19, 2016 Author Share Posted June 19, 2016 I was at Shillingstone recently and managed to take quite a close look at, and inside part of, the ex-S&DJR ETT instrument. Curious..... The ETT6 instruments on the S&DJR 'main line' were characterised by having an extra backlock on the commutator, linked to the 'lever normal' proving of the section signal, along with an appropriate enamel notice about use of the 'foot plunger' fixed adjacent to the commutator. A BR-era wiring diagram confirms that this facility was provided at Shillingstone. Yet I could find no evidence of that lock in the instrument, not did the casing ever appear to have had such a notice fixed to it. But the reputed provenance of the instrument would suggest that it did indeed come from Shillingstone.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 One possible answer is that it isn't the original Shillingstone instrument. If the original had become faulty in the early 60s, it might well have been replaced by a redundant (from line closure) machine held in the Elephant House at Wimbledon. Record keeping wasn't necessarily a strong point with BR at that period, particularly if the exchange took place just before this stretch of line was handed back to the WR. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted June 20, 2016 Author Share Posted June 20, 2016 One possible answer is that it isn't the original Shillingstone instrument. If the original had become faulty in the early 60s, it might well have been replaced...... An idea which did occur to me, so I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking that :-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted September 14, 2017 Author Share Posted September 14, 2017 Time to visit the 'Dorset' again :-) I’m trying to sort out the thorny matter of the ground-frame at Shillingstone. It was not in the 1878 layout, but existed by 1901. Was it perhaps the case that the loop had been lengthened at the south end by that time, putting the facing points beyond the contemporary limit for direct mechanical linkage? The exact date of its abolition is not known, but circumstantial evidence suggests 1915. The 1901 signal diagram marks it on the Up platform at the south end, but maps suggest that it was off the platform (probably just past the ramp). Photographic evidence appears almost non-existent, except that there is a hut of some sort in the background of one view looking south. That hut has similarity with the later greenhouse, but it would be an odd place for the latter so near to the track. Conversely the actual greenhouse appeared to be rather un-greenhouse-like to me, so I wonder if perhaps the greenhouse in fact was the old GF hut modified for a new use? But when was the greenhouse first recorded at Shillingstone? Can anyone add/clarify anything please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 Duncan 'Blandford1969' maybe the best person to supply you with the info you require. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Blandford1969 Posted September 17, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 17, 2017 Sorry, I have not got any info on the ground frame Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted September 17, 2017 Author Share Posted September 17, 2017 Sorry, I have not got any info on the ground frame Shame, but thanks anyway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share Posted September 18, 2017 Meanwhile..... The Down Siding East was opened in 1901. It is reputed that it could hold 14 coaches, but was that its original length or was it extended later, and if so when? What was it used for - I don't recall seeing any photos of any stock in it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 As you may have guessed by now, I’ve been trying for some while to write a web-page about the signalling at Shillingstone (the S&DJR that is, not the NDRT). As it is clear that it will take me quite a long time to do a detailed page on this, I’ve put together a temporary ‘quickie’ in the hope that it may interest some of you in the meantime. This can be found here https://tinyurl.com/yafvl5wt, or from the usual index at www.railwest.org.uk . Any additional material always welcome! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RailWest Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) This photo (by HG Ordish, courtesy Blandford Railway Club) is undated and location (apparently) unknown. After much investigation, I believe that it was taken in the shallow cutting about 500 yards south of Shillingstone station, looking northwards, the signal in the background being the elusive Up Outer Home. Does anyone agree with my choice of location? Edited March 12, 2018 by RailWest Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffers Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Seems a good guess after looking at Google Earth. The river just beyond the trees perhaps. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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