1960s signal cabling etc

[ikcdab]

So I am about to start tracklaying which you can see on my layout thread, link below.

This is 1960s, BR(s), suburban terminus signalled with colour lights locally controlled from a local signalbox.

So what lineside detailing do I need for signal and point machine detailing?

1. Concrete toughing. Is this 1960s. If so, I assume it begins at the signalbox and is laid to all signals and point machines. Or does it just go to a group and then visible wiring to individual installations?

2. Is all cabling in ducting or trunking? Is it ever buried?

3. A lineside cabinet for every installation or a large one for a group? And does the cabling run to the cabinet and then buried to the installation?

I have done much googling on this but found nothing definitive. If there are any useful links, please let me know.

Any advice on the positioning of these items would be gratefully received!!

Thanks

[iands]

1. By the 1960s concrete cable troughing was becoming more prevalent, but usually as a result of a resignalling scheme. As you are using colourlight signals on your layout, you can claim that cable troughing is being/has been installed for this resignalling scheme, and at the same time the resignalling scheme did away with existing pole routes.

 

2. Depends on what you want to do. As I say, concrete cable troughing is becoming more widely used. Many cable routes were buried, indicated by specific square concrete blocks placed above the cables (to a depth so they were flush with the finished ground level) with lettering cast into the block such as "S&T Cable", "High Voltage Cable, or "Low Voltage Cable". In other cases, cables were supported on cable hangers attached to concrete posts 2 to 3 feet high (and typically spaced about 3ft apart).

 

3. Again it depends on what you want to do. If there are a number of point ends and a number of signals in close proximity, then a suite of Locs (Location Cabinets) will be provided - for housing relays and local cable terminations, one Loc may be provided just for main cable terminations, and another Loc for main power supply distribution. Then again, away from point ends etc., if there are just a couple of track circuits to worry about, then only one Loc might be provided.

 

Cable troughing supporting cables to main signals, were usually fed right up to the base of the signal, and of course the Locs. Cables feeding track circuits (the connection to the rails), point machines and sub-signals usually "broke out" of the main trough route and just ran on the ballast surface to whichever piece of equipment there were supporting. Certainly by the 1970s small "knock-out" sections were cast into the troughing section sides so they could be easily removed to allow for a small number of cables to "exit" the troughing in a properly managed way.

 

And then there may even be separate Locs for just Telecoms cables, although admittedly in the 1960s some "signalling" and "telecoms" cables may have been terminated in the same Loc - this "principle" changed 2 or 3 times during my railway career, largely depending on the "Chief S&T Engineer's" point of view at the time, and on which Region - a change of Engineer may result in a rethink for the next resignalling scheme which resulted in a change to the previous principle that applied.

 

Hope this helps, though no doubt it may well raise more questions for you than it answers. The best advice I can offer at this time  is to scrutinise photos from the period you want to see if you can pick out a bit more detail of the "infrastructure", rather than just focus on the loco or rolling stock.

[BernardTPM]

On the GER lines out of Liverpool Street the cabling was in raised troughs, possibly cement asbestos, and on hooks, rather like London Transport Underground lines. The ground level concrete troughing was associated with the later AC electrification*, so the LTSR Southend lines had them.

 

*The original GER electrics were DC, but converted to AC in November1960.

Edited February 26, 2021 by BernardTPM

[The Stationmaster]

One thing to bear in mind is the way the SR arranged certain location cupboard type things in 1960s schemes - the cables came up out of a concrete area surriounded by brickwork into the base of the cabinat.  You really need period pictures, or later pictures of surviving SR installations to get it spot on.  and of course SR colour lights had their own Regional touches so looked different from anybody else's contemporary installations (that could be said for all Regions at that time).

[Wickham Green too]

Don't forget cables were an assortment of greys & browns under the brake dust an' other crud .......... fluorescent orange cabling hadn't been thought of - let alone those hosepipes they use under the tracks now. ( Elf 'an safety MIGHT extend to a splash of white paint on something that's really likely to get tripped over.)