Shunting from main line--signalling advice please.

[Crepello]

My trains will stop on the main line, then reverse into the yard. I assume a ground signal (position light) would be appropriate, but which way would it face? In the direction the loco was travelling, or would the driver have to look behind him?

[Nick C]

All signals face the movement they apply to - so a shunt signal for reversing in the yard will face the train as it reverses.

 

----------x------\----- main line
             <    \-------- siding
              signal faces left

In this example, the train approaches from the right, stops at x, then backs into the siding, the signal being at <

[bécasse]

In the old days, entry to sidings remote from a signal box was usually controlled by an adjacent ground frame, released either electrically from a box or by a key, and there would have been no fixed signals at all. Even today it is still a possible arrangement.

[Edwin_m]

49 minutes ago, bécasse said:

In the old days, entry to sidings remote from a signal box was usually controlled by an adjacent ground frame, released either electrically from a box or by a key, and there would have been no fixed signals at all. Even today it is still a possible arrangement.

In this situation the person operating the ground frame would give hand signals to the driver.  However if poor sightlines made this difficult, there might be a shunting signal worked from the ground frame.