YAGWRSQ - (Yet another GWR signals question )

[Junctionmad]

RCTS Photo Archive 

 

Quick one , looking at GWR square post bracket signals its not clear ( as most photos are to the front of the signal )  How the landing arrangement was spilt between the  bracket landing and the main signal landing, there being only one ladder.  It seems like there was a sort of side entrance to the bracket landing , any picture of the  back side of a typical GWR wooden post bracket signal ?  a web search didn't  give me any conclusive answer 

 

I also notice this signal is unusual in that the balance arms are up on the dolls, rather then the " compensator " arm arrangement 

 

 

Thanks again , oh font of knowledge 

Edited September 10, 2019 by Junctionmad

[The Stationmaster]

The compensator arm arrangement was an early idea which gave way to having the balance weight levers on the dolls or the alternative of using rods via cranks taking the drive from lower mounted balance weights - different photos will show you the various ways it was done.   If you look carefully you can see the gap in the handrail at the back of the bracket landing - but a simple step from the ladder onto the bracket landing.

 

Also the small landing at the top for the main upright arm isn't necessarily typical - it all depended on whether or not the lamp case could be reached from the bracket landing and if not the far better (and in my view much safer) arrangement of a separate ladder with a safety ring was used

[RailWest]

This is the rear of what was once the Down Home at Buckfastleigh, seen in the late 1960s or early 1970s.  I once went up the main post (which was tall enough to have a 5' arm) on a slightly windy day - never again! 

 

Goodness knows how anyone was supposed to attend to the lower arm, as IIRC it had no platform at all, just the metal bracket-work (and one of those 'compensator' arms).

Edited September 10, 2019 by RailWest

[Junctionmad]

so did the lower landing extend to touch the ladder , Im building a signal with a very high main arm and the bracket lower down

 

dave

[Tim V]

Both the signals at Pwllheli and Buckfastleigh have been destroyed, but this signal at Bewdley is there for inspection.

[RailWest]

2 hours ago, Junctionmad said:

so did the lower landing extend to touch the ladder , Im building a signal with a very high main arm and the bracket lower down

 

dave

As I said, the lower arm had only the bracket work - no landing at all that I can recall. However, as the photo was taken in early preservation days, it may well be that there had been a platform which had disappeared in BR days and not then been replaced, so maybe it had originally looked like Tim's photo of Bewdley?

[Junctionmad]

2 hours ago, Tim V said:

Both the signals at Pwllheli and Buckfastleigh have been destroyed, but this signal at Bewdley is there for inspection.

Thanks for that 

[bécasse]

7 hours ago, RailWest said:

As I said, the lower arm had only the bracket work - no landing at all that I can recall. However, as the photo was taken in early preservation days, it may well be that there had been a platform which had disappeared in BR days and not then been replaced, so maybe it had originally looked like Tim's photo of Bewdley?

Actually, Chris, I suspect that it might have been the other way round with lower platform being added at Bewdley, possibly in later BR days when H&S issues started to be taken seriously. It would have been possible to stand on just the bracket and, although it wouldn't have either felt or been particularly safe, it wouldn't have been worse than many tall/complex post situations. Signal climbing was never for the faint hearted!

[RailWest]

10 hours ago, bécasse said:

Actually, Chris, I suspect that it might have been the other way round with lower platform being added at Bewdley, possibly in later BR days when H&S issues started to be taken seriously. It would have been possible to stand on just the bracket and, although it wouldn't have either felt or been particularly safe, it wouldn't have been worse than many tall/complex post situations. Signal climbing was never for the faint hearted!

You may well be right. There /ought/ to be quite a few photos of that signal in GWR/BR days in various books to double-check, but I've not got time to look for them at the moment.

 

>>>Signal climbing was never for the faint hearted..

Too true - which is why I only went up it the once :-)

[Tim V]

For information here is the signal in 1976.