RailWest

I'm glad you found that picture Tim, 'cos I couldn't ! Certainly IIRC the skew bridge was renewed in BR days.

I'm puzzled really why you have bothered to include the Minehead Down Distant anyway, especially given that it in reality it would have been much further away and hence 'off scene'?

"There is a picture somewhere on the internet showing Dunster signal box being jacked up and loaded on to a well wagon (I would assume). It also shows a junction bracket signal with two arms albeit without the arms themselves, both red!" That photo would date from early years of preservation, when the signal-box was moved to its current location at Minehead. The bracket signal in the view would be the one that was installed in 1966. Do not forget also that you will need a trap point at the exit from the west siding and a ground disc there. Also, looking at the pix, videos and plan, I can't see any sign of an Up Home to protect the siding connection and the west crossing, nor a Down Home at the other end. If you are going to spend time making working signals, then I think it would be worthwhile looking more closely at this matter so that you put the right ones in the right places

"...a shorter arm on the bracket signal for a main to siding movement is quite acceptable ..." I would say not merely 'acceptable', but essential. However it should be noted that the older GWR used a particular type of small bracketed arm for goods entry. As regards Milverton, old pictures may show that type of arrangement, whilst in BR days the bracket was removed altogether and replaced by a ground disc. The 'problem' here - whilst recognisng the well-known 'modeller's licence' - is that the layout as shown combines a variation of both early and late BR period signalling superimposed on a track layout which never existed, ie a down facing siding off the single line just west of the level-crossing. IMHO either you need to replicate an actual layout and its signalling, or else modify the signalling to match the layout that you wish to use.

>>>Please excuse my ignorance but out of interest who is Polly...... Clearly not a Tri-ang 0-4-0

To go back to an early question which seems to have been overlooked, the Bay on the Up side at the London end was used for departing Up trains only, so the relocation of the crossover is unlikely to impact any prototype-like operation. I don't know though what local services started from there. As has been mentioned, after the goods sidings were removed and the platforms extended the ex-sidings areas were remodelled quite a bit. Far more extensive remodelling (some would say vandalism) has taken place within the last 2 years on the up side site, where the whole elevated area and approach ramp etc has been removed completely and converted into an attempt at a ground-level 'piazza' (don't ask, Bath 'planning' is a nightmare mystery understood only by few and cursed by many !).

>>>it is not too dissimilar to Swanage from memory, definatley LSWR, correct me if i'm wrong...... The kit is based on Alresford, which was a L&SWR 'Type 1' box. Swanage was a 'Type 3a' - lots more glass in the windows! Alresford is somewhat unusual for such boxes, in that the superstructure had been panelled over with sheet material rather than the usual weatherboarding. Nice work, but I would point out that most signal-box diagrams (excepting such things as the GWR power boxes at Bristol TM etc) are black writing/lines/symbols on a white background.

If you are going to model any station on the Minehead line, then I would strongly recommend that you study the definitive histiory of the line: "The Minehead Branch 1848-1971" by Ian Coleby, pub Lightmoor Press 2006. There will be enough plans, drawings and photographs to give you probably all the info that you need. To answer your specific question, the Down Starting signal (25) was a tubular post signal on the RH side of the line (facing Down trains) directly in front of the signal-box.

The line from Dunster to Minehead was originally single-track. It was doubled west of the station level-crossing, and the (2nd) signal-box opened, in 1934. In 1966 the signal-box at Minehead was closed , after which the double-track was operated as two seperate single lines. The bracket Down Starting signal adjacent to the SB dates only from 1966, having previously been a single arm on a straight post. If for your model you are going to use the Up side of the double-track simply as a siding, then I would suggest that the bracket would have only a shunt disc reading in to it.

I forgot to mention - sorry - that in the Seaton example there was track-circuiting all the way from the Home to the running shunt and through the facing points for 'route locking' purposes. If you are going to move the (Outer) Home a long way out, then you might find it better just to leave the Inner Home in place after all As rgeards 'yellow' shunts, there were quite a lot of locations where one might expecxt them, but they were never fitted. I suspect it was a case of not spending money unless it was a new installation or they were doing other work there at the time. Interested to know on what two diagrams you were working as a basis please???

PaulRhB - as I read your diagram now, the Outer Home is now at almost the same distance from the signal-box as the Advanced Starting, in which case I would suggest that - with respect - it is of no use for the purpose that you specify. As you will no doubt know anyway <g> acceptance of a Down train from Norden will require the block section to be clear all the way to the Outer Home and then past it to the clearing point. Normally the CP would be 440yards, but in the case of terminus would be the buffer stop if nearer. To maintain a CP for acceptance therefore the Outer Home should be not just 440 yards in rear of the Inner Home, but in fact 440 yards from the Advanced Starting. Otherwise, any train shunting out towards the Advanced Starting fouls the CP. I know that there was a situation similar to your proposal at Exmouth, but even there it was not permitted to accept a train from Lympstone if there was train shunting out to the Advanced Starting. Indeed, when Lympstone closed as a block-post, in order to maintain the line capacity an additional Outer Home was added 440 yards in rear of the exiting one, which then became an Intermediate Home, specially in order to provide the necessary CP. An alternative perhaps would be a situation similar to arrangement for the new box at Seaton in the 1930s - abolish the Inner Home, leave 8PULL in place as a 'running shunt', with another disc at the foot of the (Outer) Home for 'draw ahead' purposes. I would still suggest that for your period the distant would be 'fixed'. Indeed, if the line was built under a Light Railway Order, then a distant would not have been needed at all if the (Outer) Home could be viewed for the appropriate braking distance. And finally <g> - would not 12 be a 'yellow' disc of the 'miniature semaphore' type?

Thanks for the update! "That diagram also has the odd situation of an advance starter but no equivalent outer home..." IMHO the provision of an Outer Home would have been much more of an odd situation, unless the traffic levels and operational requirements really demanded it.

A couple of comments/queries about the signal diagram. I would have expected the Distant to be 1 and the Home 2 originally, but for the Distant to have become 'fixed' at some stage and 1 become a spare (or re-used for another purpose). As for 7PULL, the reason for a 'S' (Shunt Ahead) arm baffles me, as I would have expected either a shunt disc or a ringed arm. Interested to know your rationale behind it please?

It's not just the insulation that can be a problem in garages. In the storms last year mine flooded from the inside - the ground in the surrounding area was so water-logged that it bubbled up through cracks in the concrete floor like mini-springs :-(:-(

Well, then.....the section from West Moors to Verwood was Tyer's No 6 Electric Train Tablet configuration 'A', whilst the Verwood Fordingbridge section was ETT6 configuration 'B', so if you were able to enlarge the picture accurately enough you might see the round identification hole in the centre of the tablet being handed down off the engine :-) The signal on the left was the Up Starting (No 7). In the background above the engine can be seen the bracket of the Down Homes, the RH (higher) arm being the Down Home (no 2) and the LH (Lower) arm being the Down to Up Line Home (no 10). The latter was added (and the lever-frame extended) in 1931 when the Up loop became bi-directional as a result of Verwood being adapted by the SR to 'switch out' as a block post. When shut, the West Moors - Fordingbridge 'long section' was worked by Miniature Electric Train Staff ('M' type) 'C' configuration. Sorry, but I don't know the colour of the signalman's socks

To be more precise, he is exchanging tablets, as he can be seen to be handing down also the one from the section which he has just left

"the levers do indeed work point motors, and in time a signal (honestly!)..." That will be one more than Highbury then :-) Chris

IIRC the S&D example in the gallery was indeed confirmed later as being at Moorewood. The Scottish example has a number of differences, tho' essentially the same basic style.

"My preferred option would be...." ....any time prior to the signal-box getting bashed about in the 1936 accident :-) I have often thought that for those who like minimum space layouts and/or just wanted a small shunting model, then just the area north of the Long Arch would make a nice small model. I wonder if anyone has ever done that?

Had you posted your question on Tuesday, I could have taken a closer look at the piles of the stuff lying around Midford when I walked along the trackebd path yesterday

Extracted from a discussion elsewhere some months ago (and with due acknowledgement to the relevant contributors):- " If Meldon was well-developed by 1900, the chances are the SDJR ballast would have come from there? If not, it would have been from local sources, including the Mendip mountain limestone, the Dorset stone and crushed gravels from coastal areas." "Ballast northwards out of Bailey Gate.....seemed to be from a Carboniferous Limetsone assemblage (brachiopods, corals). The colour of the ballast was mainly a blue/grey which was the limestone with the fossils, but there was also a brown ballast littered amongst this which looked volcanic." "The brown (basalt) ballast did and still does come from Moons Hill Quarry just above Stoke St Michael in the Mendips. John Wainwright is the quarry owner. If you want samples to replicate the basalt colours a polite request in the post to John Wainwrights would be a good bet. Their website is very interesting [http://www.wainwright.co.uk/]"

"It breaks my heart to add this - so it will vanish from this thread in no more than 24 hours from now - by which time you will have identified the location (in the land of the Withered Arm of course) I'm sure..." It looks remarkably like Boscarne Junction:-) Actually, one of those places which I have studied quite a lot recently, with a view to a possible model....... In which context, what - if anything - might you know please about the date whenever the Western Region changed the Wadebridge - Bodmin direction from being 'down' to 'up'?

Well, I went via the Withered Arm and there was so much else to see on the way........

Thanks. Yes, a bit before my time down that way :-)

" this 1964 (rather poor quality) picture ....shows a splitting Goods Line signal with, to the left, the very old pattern of 'Goods Line to Siding' miniature arm..." Where was that taken please?