Platform 1 Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 At some point, oil lamps on buffer stops must have given way to electric, eventually moving to the bright LED types we see today. Anyone know approximately when this happened? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aire Head Posted October 27, 2019 Share Posted October 27, 2019 Can't say it's a guaranteed correct answer but I'd expect around the same time that oil lamps started disappearing from trains. So probably around the 60/70/80s depending on where the buffers in question are. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Probably lasted a lot longer in semaphore areas while lamp oil was still available - after that you'll need a length of electric string from the nearest 13A socket ( metaphorical ) as I don't recall seeing cordless battery-powered buffer lamps. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 28, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 28, 2019 Depends on the location and perhaps the type of signalling as well as the type of stop block. I know there were some about back in the 1950s at one large London terminus and they were possibly there from the 1930s. But local branchlines and more general use I doubt any electric ones appeared until the late 1970s and even then not at all widespread. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platform 1 Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 Thanks for the comments. Looks like I can get away with a couple on the layout then - main era is 1990±4. Might need to hide them to run my late steam period though! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davefrk Posted November 9, 2019 Share Posted November 9, 2019 Most bufferstops didn't have any lamps on them at all... Only where it mattered, platform ends, lye sidings, head shunts etc. Dave. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold daveyb Posted November 12, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 12, 2019 On 28/10/2019 at 04:26, Wickham Green said: Probably lasted a lot longer in semaphore areas while lamp oil was still available - after that you'll need a length of electric string from the nearest 13A socket ( metaphorical ) as I don't recall seeing cordless battery-powered buffer lamps. I helped fit or more accurately re-fit the battery lamps on the newer, rigid, rail- mounted buffer stops* in St. Pancras during my work experience in 1984. The nose of the HSTs knocked a few of them off so we set them back 6 inches. Some of the overnight stabling of the early HST services caused problems as St. Pancras had a gradient toward the stops. They were a tin box with two spring top batteries and a tail lamp lens with the ldr daylight circuit from a roadworks light. They were not lit at night because of the station lighting so Willy covered the 'eye' with tape. The batteries didn't last even a day so we wired them to just be mains powered lamps. I remember a number of stories about Willy... * That were set in front of the hydraulic buffers. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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