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Crossing keeper's cottage or not ?


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I'm considering having a level crossing with gates for a country road over a single line approach to a BLT. The crossing would be approx. 100yds scale distance from the station signal box. I'm assuming that the gates would not be opened by the signalman ( or would they ?) so in these circumstances would a crossing keepers cottage be realistic or would something along the lines of Lambourn with a crossing keeper's hut manned at short notice by  a junior station staff member just before the train was due be more likely?

I want to try and keep as close as possible to prototype practice. The layout is set in the 1950's with Southern Region influence. Many thanks.

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Gates that close to a terminus on a single line would almost certainly have to be interlocked with the signalling with the home placed before the gates followed by one or more running shunts at any points facing an arriving train. The gates would have to be locked shut before either the home or starting signal were cleared, but that doesn't mean that the gates could not have been worked by hand, particularly if road traffic was meagre. I tend to favour the option of operation of the gates by a porter and it is, to my mind, improbable that he would have been provided with any shelter. Crossing keepers, typically the wives of pw men, weren't paid much but the porter would have been paid anyway so he came "free".

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I think that it may be an unrealistic scenario.

 

The signal box would operate the road crossing and therefore be located there. The station throat would be moved accordingly closer to the road even if that meant the station being further away from the town centre than the passengers would like.

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Thanks becasse for your reply - understand about the need for interlocking but can you briefly explain what running shunts are please ? I have a couple of spare huts so would like to keep the porter dry !

 

Thanks Joseph for your comment - can't change the track layout so that bit will have to be covered by rule one !

 

As an  aside the hand opened gate crossing at Brundall (right next to the platform) was until very recently operated by a man in a brick built hut right next to it - don't know if he was a proper signalman and if there was any other signalling equipment in there but there was a signal box a bit further up the line at a junction.

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57 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

I think that it may be an unrealistic scenario.

 

The signal box would operate the road crossing and therefore be located there. The station throat would be moved accordingly closer to the road even if that meant the station being further away from the town centre than the passengers would like.

Affected to some extent by individual railway company  policy and methods but unless the signal box is already close to maximum distance from any points it works it would logically be situated next to the level crossing as by far the most economical way of doing the job.

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Hi Stationmaster

 

I did think about moving the signal box next to the crossing as as you say that would be logical - this would put it about 70yds from the first point (into the goods yard)  but thought in real life it may cause visibility problems in fog etc but maybe that's not a factor.

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It was certainly the case at Bridgwater (North) when first opened in 1890 that the level-crossing was worked by a crossing-keeper  who lived in an adjacent house,  the signal-box being midway between the crossing and the station, but later replaced by a SB actually at the crossing. However I would agree that generally such a scenario seems more uncommon than likely.

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The crossing keeper's cottage doesn't have to be currently used for its original purpose. It might be that when the branch was built, the crossing was hand-worked independently of any other equipment but with the advent of properly-interlocked signalling in the 1880s, say, working of the crossing was taken over by the signalman from his newly-built box. The cottage could have remained as a company house, perhaps rented to one of the p/w men. So you can have the best of both worlds! (And avoid having to model a motorised old dame coming out of the cottage to work the gates.)

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The current situation at Egginton Junction on the North Stafford line between Derby and Uttoxeter is that the signal box (a fringe box to what was Derby PSB) was sited at the junction where the Great Northern line from Nottingham and Derby Friargate joined the North Stafford. Not far away (100-150 yards-ish) is a level crossing for the Hilton to Willington road, this crossing is worked manually by a man in a little hut. A bit further towards Derby is another level crossing which I believe was one of the first AHB crossings many years ago. It shows that a level crossing not far from and within sight of a signal box can be worked manually by a separate keeper in this day and age, even though it is a left-over/throw-back from a system which has evolved over many years.

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Thanks all for your helpful input. I like the idea of an ex keepers cottage as I quite fancy the look of the Metcalfe gardeners cottage which along with the crossing gates etc should make a nice scenic detail. I'll put a pw hut on the other side of the crossing so I think that covers all bases. 

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On 20/10/2020 at 14:09, Badger boy said:

Hi Stationmaster

 

I did think about moving the signal box next to the crossing as as you say that would be logical - this would put it about 70yds from the first point (into the goods yard)  but thought in real life it may cause visibility problems in fog etc but maybe that's not a factor.

70 yards is nothing in terms of the distance between a signal box and points. And if there was a visibility problem that was what whistles were for ;)  

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