Signalling a single line station, your advice please!

[MrWolf]

Hello all,

I am told that the best place to come for advice on signalling for my current project.

I am currently building a single line through station based on 1920s-30s GWR practice. I have unashamedly pinched the track plan from Shipston on Stour, removed the terminus hezdshunt and taken the platform road onwards through a manned level crossing towards the (theoretical) junction with the main line.

I have had about a 20 year break from modelling and haven't much idea where, or what side of the track I would be placing signals. I have marked the site of the signal box by the main concentration of points and giving the best view of the station area. I propose to have the engine shed siding operated by hand lever, am I right in thinking that it would require a ground signal? If so, where?

Excuse the scruffy drawing, there is no computer in this house. (There are a few of us left!)

[roythebus]

No ground signal needed for the engine shed. Once off the main running line and loop everything would be under shunter's instructions. There would be a ground signal at the exit from the goods yard.

 

From left to right, a bracket signal to control movements to te platform (higher arm) lower arm for the loop, subsidiary to enter the goods yard.Sterter signals from the platform and loop. Other side of the level crossing would be another 2 arm bracket for the main line or loop. 

 

In the loop before the exit crossover a starter signal for the main line and a subsidiary signal for the headshunt. And the subsidiary signal for the exit from goods yard to loop.

 

As for signal box position, would the bobby have control of the crossing gates? If so the box would be there, not by the main group of points.

 

There's also the consideration of access for the booby to trains to do the token exchange.

 

I've probably forgotten something as well.

[MrWolf]

Thanks Roythebus, that's a great help! I think I should now re-draw my track diagram with the signals in the positions you have indicated, hopefully having understood that comprehensive instruction!

Matters became more complicated with the realisation that I need to signal for both directions of travel.

 

It looks like I should move the signal box position, though I had originally thought that the gates wouldn't be anything more than manually opened and positioning it at the western (left hand) of the platform, would involve less complications with the point rodding and sighting.

To be honest I hadn't given much thought to the subject of token exchange, although I know that some stations had the token machinery in the station building. Whether that was considered bad practice after the Abermule crash I'm not certain.

[DavidBird]

I'm not at all familiar with single track stations with goods loops, I've a couple of questions.

1- As the 2nd through line is a goods loop only, can the points from the loop to the yard sidings be hand operated?

2- If there is a starter from the goods loop to the main with a subsiduary for into the headshut, should there also be a ground signal disc for coming out of the headshunt - (or if the points into the yard are worked from the box, a double disc)?

 

Thanks

[meil]

Try this

 

 

Edited May 31, 2020 by meil

[DLT]

Interesting!

Much will depend on whether its a block post, where two trains can pass each other, or not.  I'm thinking of Hatch on the Taunton to Chard branch, which had a passing loop but only one platform.   Two goods trains could cross, or  a passenger and goods train, provided that the passenger train used the platform line.  For this reason, the loop-lines were both signalled for either direction running.  Two passenger trains could NOT cross.  Excellent article on signalling on The Chard Branch here:  http://www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/gwr/chard.html

 

If that's getting a bit complicated,  Highley on the Severn Valley line was not a passing place but had a goods loop opposite the platform as in your plan.

There is a description of Highley signalling here:  http://www.svrsig.org.uk/svr/Frame6.htm 

And a thread on signalling a similar sort of non-passing station here:  https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105561-a-layout-shunt-signal-question/

 

Hope this helps, Dave.

[Flying Pig]

30 minutes ago, DLT said:

There is a description of Highley signalling here:  http://www.svrsig.org.uk/svr/Frame6.htm 

And a thread on signalling a similar sort of non-passing station

 

Another signal diagram of Highley prior to the alterations made in preservation at: https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/gws/S2650.htm 

[RailWest]

>>>Excellent article on signalling on The Chard Branch here:  http://www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/gwr/chard.html....

 

Well, thank you kind sir :-)

 

There needs to be a trap point at the RH end of the loop siding.

 

It would be useful also to mark the Up and Down directions for ease of reference please :-)

 

If the location were not a block-post, then I would suggest just a small ground-frame next to the gates working a stop signal in each direction and the points at that end, with another GF at the LH end for the points there (locked by the staff/token for the section). But then, there would be no need for an engine shed, would there ??? :-)

 

Assuming that it is a block post, then:-

 

1. There needs to be a stop signal for right-going traffic immediately to the left of the gates (and ideally to the left of the point into the loop, but there may not be room)

2. There needs to be a stop signal  for left-going traffic between the LH end of the platform and the point out of the loop.

3. The Stop signal + disc at  the LH end should be moved up close to the toe of the loop points.

4. If you are talking any time GWR then NO yellow discs - it would be red (possibly with a white light instead of red? - ask the Stationmaster!)

 

[MrWolf]

Thankyou everyone for your advice, the plan I have (plan, what plan?) is making more sense now. I had pinched the Shipston track plan years ago because it suited what I wanted to model, although I mirror imaged it. I realised that a BLT was not what I wanted for several reasons. I wanted to run through traffic. I wanted to set the model as a might have been at a real location, but that location is only small and wouldn't justify building a railway. If I set it as the block post and first station after the junction with the main line, I could probably justify a small engine shed. The other excuse being that there simply wasn't enough space at the terminus location. I had been thinking that I needed a catch point. Didn't think I would get away with it!

 

I think I had better get on with things, not to mention start a layout topic in an attempt to explain my ramblings!