Which way should GWR semaphore blades face?

[Stephen Freeman]

Just remember to be careful when working from photos of a signal on a preserved line, it just might not be quite right.

[The Stationmaster]

30 minutes ago, Stephen Freeman said:

Just remember to be careful when working from photos of a signal on a preserved line, it just might not be quite right.

I can also point people to various places in the real world where the signalling wasn't quite right!  

 

Here's a rather nice example of a signal which was wrong twice over - Slough Middle's Up Windsor Branch Inner Home Signal.  The main arm is a 3 foot arm but in fact is on a passenger running line so should be a 4 foot arm - it almost certainly wasn't due to tight clearance with the Down Main Line to Down Branch Line connection right next to it.   Interestingly the Windsor Bay Starting Signal, a splitting signal, also had 3 foot arms - again probably due to clearance difficulties.

 

But the real gem is the centre pivot arm bracketed off it to read to a siding, an arrangement which was obsolescent over 30 years before this signal was erected.  What appears to have happened is that when the signal was renewed in the mid 1950s the centre pivot arm which had been used on the previous timber post signal in this position was 'recycled' and used with the new tubular steel post signal whereas at that time it should have been replaced by a co-located disc.  

 

Why it was done in that fashion I don't have a clue and can only surmise that it was either done to save money or, more likely, it was easier to do the job this way than provided some sort of mounting - at ground level or elevated  - for an ordinary disc signal.  But whatever the signal survived in this form until the arrival of MAS in 1963 and the GWR wooden centre pivot arms were very tough and could be long lived - two at Twyford lasted just over 60 years in regular everyday use.

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Another wrong side gem is the one at the Wolverhampton end of Shrewsbury station. Splitting signal with centre pivot wooden arms and the spectacle plate on the side nearest the track. GWR design although the arm retaining castings were marked BRWR.

Second one down on this page.

 http://www.railsigns.uk/photos/p_semasig1/p_semasig1.html

 

 

[melmerby]

If you put the white band the other side of the pivot they could be upper quadrant signals for RH running.

 

[rogerzilla]

I'm still amazed by the fact that you can order up a NEW enamelled iron signal arm!  I'd love to know how much they cost, since I have a couple of used ones on the garage wall.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, rogerzilla said:

I'm still amazed by the fact that you can order up a NEW enamelled iron signal arm!  I'd love to know how much they cost, since I have a couple of used ones on the garage wall.

Still used on NR lines, when parts of the Cotswold line were redoubled IIRC they put up new lower quadrant semaphores.