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"S" and "T" plates on GWR signal boxes


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A year or so ago, somewhere on line I found a really good explanation as to what they were about.  It might even have been somewhere on RMweb, but there is only so much you can bookmark before the list become unmanageable and when search engines don't like anything with less than three letters Google isnt much help.

So, can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

My vague recollection is that they were used in pre-telephone days as a means for signalmen to communicate via train crews with the relevant department when they had a problem with either signals or telegraph equipment. I'm sure there was more to it than just that, but I think that was the gist of it.  I'm also fairly sure they were only used on certain lines (former broad-gauge?) but lasted long after they became obsolete as a form of decoration, some lingering to the very end.

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Basically yes. They were displayed to indicate the state of the signalling (S) or telegraph (T) equipment. If all was well the plates were displayed with a white letter on a black ground. If there was a problem then they would be reversed to show a red letter on a white ground.

 

The idea was that they could be seen by linesmen or inspectors travelling on passing trains but did not absolve the Bobby from the responsibility of reporting the problem by the most expeditious means.

 

Their use was not confined to the GWR and they were in use from around the 1880s to just before WW1.

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There was a more "modern" equivalent. Southern Region (and possibly other Regions) resignalling schemes of the late 1950s and early 1960s used location equipment cabinets with a stalk on top which terminated in a light. If a there was a problem with the signalling equipment in the new "power" boxes, the signalman could throw a switch that caused all the lights on cabinets in the box's area to start flashing, indicating to the lineman out and about on his rounds that he should phone in to ascertain the problem.

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21 hours ago, bécasse said:

There was a more "modern" equivalent. Southern Region (and possibly other Regions) resignalling schemes of the late 1950s and early 1960s used location equipment cabinets with a stalk on top which terminated in a light. If a there was a problem with the signalling equipment in the new "power" boxes, the signalman could throw a switch that caused all the lights on cabinets in the box's area to start flashing, indicating to the lineman out and about on his rounds that he should phone in to ascertain the problem.

The WR equivalent was a klaxon horn on relay rooms and in some cases adjacent to location cupboards.  

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2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

The WR equivalent was a klaxon horn on relay rooms and in some cases adjacent to location cupboards.  

The same on the LMR on schemes up to about 1970, nicknamed 'Cuckoos'. Speakers pointing each way on top of location cases about 2km apart. Some of original ones could do different calls for different departments, S&T, PW and electrification. Abandonded early 1970s IIRC. 

I remember having a lot of problems around Saltley PSB area, sometimes the neighbours cutting the speaker cable to shut them up and others the local miscreants nicking the amplifiers to build big sound systems in the ghetto.

Edited by TheSignalEngineer
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On 08/09/2020 at 13:56, bécasse said:

There was a more "modern" equivalent. Southern Region (and possibly other Regions) resignalling schemes of the late 1950s and early 1960s used location equipment cabinets with a stalk on top which terminated in a light. If a there was a problem with the signalling equipment in the new "power" boxes, the signalman could throw a switch that caused all the lights on cabinets in the box's area to start flashing, indicating to the lineman out and about on his rounds that he should phone in to ascertain the problem.

And I believe the London Underground equivalent was the use of air whistles, driven from the signalling air main and operated by the signalman.

 

Jim

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