Are searchlights extinct?

[russ p]

1 hour ago, PerthBox said:

Perth still has miniature yellows, though the only one currently in use is on P46 in the Up Dundee Loop for the route leading toward the Mineral Yard (McPherson’s Sidings)

 

Oh wow didn't realise that. Take it they are on conventional signals?

[PerthBox]

56 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

Oh wow didn't realise that. Take it they are on conventional signals?

Yes, Perth is all still SGE multi-aperture heads from 1962. Only a handful of shunt signals have been replaced with Dorman units.

[russ p]

2 minutes ago, PerthBox said:

Yes, Perth is all still SGE multi-aperture heads from 1962. Only a handful of shunt signals have been replaced with Dorman units.

I didn't realise they were still installing miniature yellows as late as that 

[andyman7]

3 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

 

The resignalling has to be looked at in context with the period, not like the present fad for re-writing history based on presemt day norms. 

When the job was being planned BR was broke. We lost nearly 50% of our signalling renewal projects budget in two years even at a time when were were struggling to maintain the status quo. Network South East hadn't been invented.

Financial constraints were extreme. It was even questioned as to whether it was worth keeping the DC Lines north of Harrow at all. As it was the original specification required the system to support a 10 minute interval between Harrow and Watford plus the Croxley branch trains.

It took a lot of work with the Magic Pencil to get the figures to balance. It was not really a runner as a conventional relay interlocking but the first SSI at Leamington was under trial so the figures were re- worked on the basis of using that technology. It was just about viable if two interlockings were used but that was stretching the processor capacity to the absolute limit. Other considerations were that a job with two SSIs talking to each other had never been done before and SSI had not been used next to AC electrification let alone with AC and DC lines adjacent. Somehow the job was made to work and within what our masters were prepared to pay.

Two hours after the job was signed in Clapham happened and the signalling landscape was drastically changed. NSE was now in control of the area and passenger numbers were increasing. 

Yes, it was a factual observation and not a criticism, I very well remember the investment environment back then. And you are right that when any life expired infrastructure renewal could no longer be put off, closure was always an option. Selsdon-Woodside and Tunbridge Wells-Eridge both succumbed on this basis.

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, andyman7 said:

you are right that when any life expired infrastructure renewal could no longer be put off, closure was always an option

We had one section of line that was in the balance because we were struggling to justify replacing the GWR ATC equipment with BR AWS, it got that bad.

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 hours ago, PerthBox said:

Yes, Perth is all still SGE multi-aperture heads from 1962. Only a handful of shunt signals have been replaced with Dorman units.

 

2 hours ago, russ p said:

I didn't realise they were still installing miniature yellows as late as that 

I'm not sure how long the LMR put them in but they were retained at Lime Street in the 1960 alterations. I don't remember any being provided on the new boxes between Manchester and London  between 1959 and 1966. 

 

The WR used them at Birmingham and Plymouth in 1960 but I don't know if any were used after that.

[uax6]

Are there any photos of these miniature yellows anywhere please, I've not managed to find any.....

 

Andy G

[beast66606]

1 hour ago, uax6 said:

Are there any photos of these miniature yellows anywhere please, I've not managed to find any.....

 

Andy G

 

Andy,

 

The Perth signal.

 

http://www.railsigns.uk/photos/p_shuntsig2/p_shuntsig2.html

[uax6]

Owwww, thats cute, I need one of them!

 

Andy G

[russ p]

2 hours ago, beast66606 said:

 

Andy,

 

The Perth signal.

 

http://www.railsigns.uk/photos/p_shuntsig2/p_shuntsig2.html

 

Cheers Dave, I certainly wasn't expecting them to look like that !

What was the miniature yellow that eckon used to model based on? It looked like small searchlight head?

[TheSignalEngineer]

7 hours ago, russ p said:

 

Cheers Dave, I certainly wasn't expecting them to look like that !

What was the miniature yellow that eckon used to model based on? It looked like small searchlight head?

The ones at Snow Hill were similar to a searchlight unit. I was looking for the one I used to stand by for trainspotting then found this one taken from the back of it. The miniature yellow is to the right of the theatre indicator.

https://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbsh32.htm

[roythebus1]

On 14/04/2021 at 21:46, andyman7 said:

Yes, it was a factual observation and not a criticism, I very well remember the investment environment back then. And you are right that when any life expired infrastructure renewal could no longer be put off, closure was always an option. Selsdon-Woodside and Tunbridge Wells-Eridge both succumbed on this basis.

Sorry to go off-topic a bit, but Selsdon-woodside was a deliberate run-down. I got my driving job at Addiscombe in June 1978 and passed out in December 1978 and started work there having done route learning. that included Selsdon-Woodside. All fitted with lovely semaphores, 12 car platforms that were only served by 2 car trains in the rush hours. Some time during 1979 the station signs were renewed with new corporate BR signs; semaphore signals were replaced with semaphore signals. This maybe would be the upturn the line needed? But no, there were bods counting passenger numbers, all of which added to the losses incurred on running the line. Closure was rumoured and it was rumoured to be converted to the tramway which of course it eventually was. The rest is history.

 

But no searchlight signals there.