Road markings or signs before outward opening level crossing gates.

[ColHut]

Dear All,

 

Does anyone know what road markings or signs there were before outward opening level crossing gates in the 1929s and 30s? I am particularly concerned with the residual numbers of manual crossing gates which opened outwards from the railway of which there were a number still around. Was there a sign telling drivers to stop short at a point to leave room for the gates to be opened and/or on tarmacadam a line marked?

 

regards

[Mark Saunders]

Dear All,

 

Does anyone know what road markings or signs there were before outward opening level crossing gates in the 1929s and 30s? I am particularly concerned with the residual numbers of manual crossing gates which opened outwards from the railway of which there were a number still around. Was there a sign telling drivers to stop short at a point to leave room for the gates to be opened and/or on tarmacadam a line marked?

 

regards

 

Probably a stop line on the road, I think Spittal (south of Berwick upon Tweed) had or still has outward opening gates!

 

Mark Saunders

[ColHut]

Thanks,, quite interesting.

https://signalbox.org/branches/ih/spittal.htm

 

interesting sequence.

[bécasse]

Probably a stop line on the road, I think Spittal (south of Berwick upon Tweed) had or still has outward opening gates!

 

Mark Saunders

 

In the 1930s, many minor roads in the country - the sort where this sort of level crossing arrangement might remain in use - would still have had macadam road surfacing, i.e. layered stones without any tar to bind them, so a painted stop line would have been an impossibility. Given that most users would have been locals, they would have known to stop clear.

[ColHut]

Thanks for that.

 

Yes, with macadam only I wondered if a there might have been a standard sort of "Stop Here" sign.  

 

regards

[bécasse]

Thanks for that.

 

Yes, with macadam only I wondered if a there might have been a standard sort of "Stop Here" sign.  

 

regards

 

"Standardised" road signs were only introduced in the UK in 1935 (in response to an Act of Parliament the previous year). There were several signs related to to both gated and undated level crossings but I have never seen any form of "Stop Here" sign - there was (and indeed is) a temporary white on red "WAIT HERE WHEN RED LIGHT SHOWS" sign used when road works require light-controlled alternate working. Incidentally, those signs (with some subsequent modifications) remained in use until c1965 when they were replaced by the current "continental" style ones. No doubt the old-style signs will reappear after Brexit.

[ForestPines]

Incidentally, those signs (with some subsequent modifications) remained in use until c1965 when they were replaced by the current "continental" style ones. No doubt the old-style signs will reappear after Brexit.

As the current style of signage (on normal roads) has nothing to do with the EU - being designed following the 1964 Warboys Committee report - one would both hope and assume not. Incidentally, the current treaty on international standardisation of road signs, the Vienna Convention, both post-dates the introduction of our modern signage (it was signed in 1968) and also has nothing to do with the EU: both Russia and India have ratified the treaty, for example.