West Highland Railway signal on dvd

[souwest]

I recently got a copy of Steam on the West Highland Railway, an 18 minute film of a railtour by Glens Loy and Falloch, from Queen Street to Fort William.  The date was around 1960, as the north Glasgow electric posts were shown at Ardmore.

 

My question is, that between Fort William Station and Rannoch, shortly after leaving FW, you have  a clear shot of a signal with a home arm on either side, both showing clear (upper quadrant).  I'm sure that the WHR did not have rock fall signals like the Oban line, but I am perplexed by this signal. 

 

Can anyone help?

 

Souwest

[keefer]

the thing i'm thinking of (and I am certainly not an expert on signalling and/or the line) is:

1) the signal is on a single-line stretch and has up/down signals on the same post

2) the signalbox controlling the signals is 'switched out' - so both arms show 'off'

 

if the railtour was run at the weekend, it's entirely possible that's when certain signalboxes are not 'needed', as the traffic/movements they would control is absent.

Edited January 4, 2018 by keefer

[souwest]

Appreciate your comments keefer.

 

WHR is single track, but I would have thought the early 1960s a bit late for up/down signals on the same post - is this right?

 

The footage is black and white and from a moving train, but the location looks quite rural and remote - I know there were various sidings around the Fort William area but this is "out the line".

 

All thoughts and ideas welcome.

[Caley Jim]

WHR is single track, but I would have thought the early 1960s a bit late for up/down signals on the same post - is this right?

Not knowing the location, my guess would be that these are the two starting signals for adjacent sections and the box in advance is switched out (possibly only open at certain times).  Is the signal on the outside of a curve?  this could explain why both were on the one post with one on the 'wrong' side of the line, to make sighting of it easier.  This would be the case whatever the date.

 

Jim

[clachnaharry]

There were some request halts with that sort of signal, but these tended to be on the platform, and I don't think I ever saw a picture of an upper quadrant example.

[Graham R]

I own a VHS copy of that video which I have transferred to hard disk, so was able to take some screenshots which may help. The sequence shows 62496 "Glen Loy" and 62471 "Glen Falloch" heading an excursion back to Glasgow. Here it is as a clip on youtube, but it's easier to see the detail in the screenshots below:

 

The signal post is clearly not at a platform or halt; there is a telephone at the base of the post.

Just past the signal location there is some kind of industrial installation or depot below rail level which might help identify the location.

 

Quite a mystery! It does look awfy like the Pass of Brander though ...

 

regards

Graham

 

[DOCJACOB]

Look at my topic on Pass of Brander signals in this sub section. They looks awfully like the same to me, so with Graham R.

 

As to the reasons why?

[Graham R]

A friend of mine knowledgeable about both signalling and the water industry thinks that the sequence is of the Pass of Brander - he tells me "the ‘industrial structure’ is the Awe Barrage (the dam/gates that control level of Loch Awe) and the structure to right is a trash rake for removing debris in front of drum gates". So, weel spotted souwest!

 

As to why a snippet of C&O was sneaked into a film about the West Highland, who knows ... maybe Rule 1 was applied :-)

[GNSRAMemsec]

That's definitely in the Pass of Brander and those are the Stone Signals/Rock Fall Indicators which are still there today albeit without finials (sacrilege) . I agree with Graham, how that sequence ended up in there I don't know although do remember Glen Douglas and Caley 123 went to Oban double headed.