RailWest

On the subject of captions...on looking at the splendid view on Page 218 at Wincanton, where the camera is clearly pointed southwards, then I would suggest that the photographer must have climbed the Down Starting signal and not the Up as quoted :-) If only we could still do the same sort of thing these days <sigh>.....

I think he may be mistaken.....for a start, I'm sure the SRS diagram for St Dennis Jcn shows one on the line from Drinnick Mill.

Well, I know the GWR had such things, and indeed I have seen a photo of one somewhere, but forget the details now. IMHO the arm would have a black chevron - after all, it was essentially a 'normal' distant - and the ring would be white, which was the usual GWR practice.

Yes, I would say that ring was black.

Usually, but....:-) Certainly there were pair of ringed arms at the exit from the Lower Yard at the former Templecombe No 3 Junction post-1933. There was also one at the exit from the loop at Westerham IIRC. Using them on exit signals appears to have been the older practice before the use for entry to goods lines was adopted, but not sure when the SR did the latter.

Curious....AFAIK the ring on SR arms was always black, at least in later years. Also, I've never seen any example of ringed 'yellow' arms - that's not to say they never existed, but I can't find any on the SREMG site to which you refer....

Looks nice...but a shame that the diagram on the cover of Part 2 appears to be incorrectly numbered...:-(

Sorry, not for WR discs - it was a yellow stripe on a black background, as was also the case for SR discs.

I saw this in operation (if that's the right phrase!) at RailWells today. As an aside, the GWR signal-box at North Crofty, which controlled access to the branch, was unusual that it was a block-post and had signals on the Up line only.

By that time the 'standard' for electrical releases was top half of the lever blue, bottom half brown. Sadly the only interior photo that I have seen is too dark and from the wrong angle to tell if the lever was two-tone or not. 'Mice' have a lot to answer for.....:-)

Errr....nice lever-frame, but - sorry to say this - it has been put together the wrong way round! The catch-handles should be at the back of the levers, not the front. Lever 27 seems to be a curious colour and, as an electric release, should have a cut-down handle - as can be seen in a interior view of the prototype photo - not that many people will see into the box that far to notice :-)

>>>Initial sales in the last month have been very strong....... I must have missed any announcement then :-(

Time to 'wake up' this topic again :-) This photo came to light recently (courtesy of Derek Phillips) showing Edington Junction in a view taken from the Highbridge end looking east through the station towards the level-crossing . Of particular interest to me on the LH side in the foreground is the rear of shunt signal 11PUSH, which is clearly of the Stevens 'flap' type but with an elongated 'pillar'. No doubt this design was used to give better sighting for a driver stuck on an engine far away at the east end of a long train in the platform, but I have not previously seen one like that. Unfortunately unless a ground-signal was 'elevated' on quite a tall post (eg probably more than the 2'-odd used for one at Bridgwater North), then such things were not specifically drawn as elevated on signal-box diagrams, so they only come to light if/when a photo turns up. Given the white stripes on the canopy stanchions, then clearly post-WWII. However visible in the foreground is part of FPL 24, which appears to have been removed somewhere about 1948/49 and also at the same time the ground signal was moved from outside the Down loop into the 6-foot (and maybe replaced by the later SR half-disc type?).

"There was a siding between the running lines stopping just short of the level crossing which was terminated with a buffer stop that had a three-link coupling used to stop wagons running downhill..." To clarify - the coupling was on the buffer-stop at the north end of the siding, next to an accommodation crossing, not the one at the south end near to the public road level-crossing.

The 1938 RCH Handbook says that Evercreech Jcn had a 1-ton crane.

As an aside, but talking of 'backing' signals reminded me that I encountered someone recently who thought that the GWR signals were called 'backing' because when a train was stopped at such a signal and then the arm came 'off' the train had to 'back away' from it (ie go into reverse)! I've come across a few weird misconceptions about signalling, but that was a new one on me :-)

..except perhaps Swanage or Bude, or the Bay line at through stations such as Yeoford or Okehampton etc :-)

Strictly speaking those levers are for the FPLs themselves, which usually incorporated mechanical 'locking bars' as part of their mechanism. 'Detection bars' - usually electrical, but originally mechanical - were often used with trailing points to enforce clearance on converging routes.

I would assume that would be the odd occasions when a engine might depart from Platform 1 to proceed only as far as shunt disc C in order to go over the cross-over into the run-round loop and then back into the carriage siding to collect some ECS? So you need a shunt signal under the P1 starter as well in order for the engine to 'draw ahead' to disc rather than get the main arm and then stop part way for the points to be changed. Getting ECS from the Carriage Siding to P1 is going to be a cumbersome process - especially if P2 is occupied! - unless the head-shunt beyond disc A is a lot longer than the drawing suggests.

As regards 'stacked' signals, IIRC the comment referred to having what appeared to be multiple stop arms on a post. As regards ground signals IMHO it is fair to say that the SR never did that, although the L&SWR often had two side-by-side,

The point leading into the carriage siding will need to lie normal the other way than shown so as to act as a trap to protect platform 2.

1. Scrap the distant arms 2. Get the arms to point the correct way (to the left) for the direction of travel it makes it easier to understand the drawing then :-) 3. With all due respect to a previous suggestion, I would avoid non-terminal stations such as Okehampton etc as (a) they're not really relevant and (b) some of them had later upgrades that might not match your 'history'. 4. For ex-L&SWR termini you need to look at places such as Sidmouth, Bude, Ilfracombe (maybe), Swanage etc. 5. Although not unknown, IMHO ex-L&SWR termini requiring trains to be propelled back out again in other to run-round appear to have been in a minority.

As a general point, MDF and moisture usually do not go well together over a long period, so (a) try not to 'wet' your track too much and (b) keep the baseboards away from damp locations :-(

I can't work out what 4 is mean to be ? To be honest, if the station is now 'good only', I would suggest that ALL signals would have been removed and just the two connections off the main line worked from a small ground-frame.

But...you can still go from St Erth to St Ives (and back again) :-)