Jump to content
 

WR Banner: Finial or not?


Recommended Posts

4 hours ago, RailWest said:

..or red perhaps ?

I looked at a lot of black & white photos of red finials before coming to the conclusion that the finial on the banner post was black but it is, of course, impossible to be absolutely certain. I would, though, have expected it to be painted to either match the post (white) or match the banner arm (black). There are other black items on the post so the painter would already have a brush "loaded" with black paint (and, of course, white), he would have to get out a brush specially for red paint - railwaymen generally were very good at finding the easy way to do a job, within the rules of course.

Edited by bécasse
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
46 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

the 'ball' has always been in the relevant signal colour.

Yes, that makes sense - and by that logic you could say that a banner, being essentially a "black armed signal", would have a black 'ball'.

 

That feels right - but what feels right and what the Western actually did are two different things.

 

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

AIUI the principle of the colouring, other than perhaps for aesthetics, was that - if perchance the arm fell off - the colour of the ball would tell the driver what sort of arm the signal had - ie distant or stop - and therefore what action he was required to take on the basis of assuming that the arm was in the 'on' position. Rather irrelevant for a repeater, hence I would have thought a 'neutral' black or white would have been appropriate.

  • Like 1
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Many thanks to all for their input, particularly info and photo of High Wycombe.  Looks like the prosecution lawyer (post 1) wasn’t very good!!!

I’ve also learned something about RMweb settings: as I started the topic but hadn’t replied to it, it didn’t appear in my ‘followed’ listing.  Hence a rather belated response from me.

Paul.

  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
10 hours ago, Junctionmad said:

Is that mechanical or electric , if mechanical was there a balance weight 

It's electric.  I can't off hand think of any mechanical ones on the Western and it would be interesting to see a photo if such things did exist anywhere (forget the odd things done by 'preservationists').  Banjo signals were generally mechanical so it's not beyond teh realms of possibility of there being a mechanical banner signal but it would have been a very interesting job ensuring that it worked correctly:huh:

  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...