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Callow Lane - the next signal

Captain Kernow

Entry posted by Captain Kernow

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I've made a start on the next signal, which is the Down Inner Starter for Callow Lane. This one is going at the end of the Down platform, adjacent to the water crane that featured in the 'query' post I put up a couple of weeks ago. It is a Model Signal Engineering kit for a Midland Railway wooden post lower quadrant semaphore signal. The kit can also be made into a distant signal, should the builder wish this.

 

What is unusual (for me, anyway, as I've only built GW and L&SWR/SR signals before), is that the arm rotates on a fixed axle, rather than the axle being attached to the arm.

 

The arm isn't permanently fixed to the post in these images, and of course, the ladder and other details, such as the lamp and finial are still to be added. Also, the back blinder isn't bent into it's final position yet either, this being to facilitate the removal of the arm from the spindle during construction and painting. The spectacle plate is actually two etchings, with room to slip some pre-coloured glazing between (also supplied with the kit).

 

The water crane is also now in it's final position.

 

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  • RMweb Gold
The Stationmaster
  • RMweb Gold

Presumably the term 'Inner Starter' is some fiendish Midland terminology? I would have hoped that by the time of your representation of Callow Lane the Western would have got to grips and it would simply be the Down Starter (even if it was still a Midland signal ;)

 

Interesting too to see that it is what looks like a wooden arm - and some did survive until then but I've an idea (judging by the one I owned for some years but eventually sold) that the spectacle plate was rather more substantial - do MSE do different patterns of spectacle plate for Midland arms I wonder? (or is my memory confusing the weight of the thing with its visible 'meatiness'?). Anyway nice to see the place still has some signals with arms which move in the proper quadrant Cap'n.

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Jon Fitness

Nice looking MR signal! Will it be servo operated? MSE do what looks like some nice kit for that now.

Just one more question (says columbo...) If the signal rotates on a fixed axle how does it work the backblinder?

JF

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  • RMweb Gold
Captain Kernow
  • RMweb Gold

Mike, perhaps I am confusing everyone with my casual signal naming. This signal is certainly the Down Starter, but there is also another semaphore stop signal applicable to the Down direction ahead of it, which I would call the Down Advanced Starter (this is actually off the scenic section, so won't get modelled).

 

The spectacle plate will certainly end up being pretty substantial, as there are two thicknesses of brass etch, plus a small gap between them for the tinted glazing. It certainly seems to match the photos I've found of various Midland signals of the era. The arm does represent a wooden one. The catalogue number for the kit is S4/KM5 on Andrew's website.

 

Jon - I was thinking of trying one of Andrew Hartshorn's servo mechanisms, might get one from him at Wells this weekend. The backblinder is actually soldered to the back of the arm, its etched arm is bent in two places to clear the lamp.

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