Speed Signs

[RBTKraisee]

I'm adding some infrastructure elements with my 3D printer and want to print my own rail-side speed signs, but I don't know what height would be typical for a speed sign mounted on a pole?   I can't find any dimensions of measurements on here, or on railsigns.uk.

 

I'm not sure if there are any specific "standards" but I'm guessing that if I put the centre of the sign at a scale height between 1.0-1.5m / 3-5ft above ground level I'll be in the right ball park, but wondered if there are any guidelines I should be referencing.

 

Thanks for any advice.

 

Ross.

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by RBTKraisee

[Paul H Vigor]

Has there been a tendency on British railways to import road-type warning signage onto the railways? 

[kevinlms]

11 minutes ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Has there been a tendency on British railways to import road-type warning signage onto the railways? 

Old 'flat top' 3's into the bargain!

[Dagworth]

1 hour ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Has there been a tendency on British railways to import road-type warning signage onto the railways? 

Only for close to the last forty years

https://www.railsigns.uk/sect13page3/sect13page3.html

[MartynJPearson]

I had a look in my copy of the excellent book Colour Light Signalling for Model Railways by Simon Paley @St. Simon, but couldn't see any mention of a height. The diameter of the standard boards is 900mm, 450mm for miniature boards if that helps as a guide to working out a height from a photo.

Edited September 2, 2021 by MartynJPearson
Corrected @ reference

[John M Upton]

Generally speaking, they tend to be eye line of the driver of an approaching train with the exception of the small ones located down in the cess or 10 foot.

 

Main line ones use Gil Sans font (basically the old pre double arrow British Railways typeface) but some in sidings and depots use off the shelf road sign type (Transport font) as purchased by the private contractors who install them.

 

A narrower font is used for differential boards in restricted spaces.

[St. Simon]

11 hours ago, MartynJPearson said:

I had a look in my copy of the excellent book Colour Light Signalling for Model Railways by Simon Paley @St. Simon, but couldn't see any mention of a height. The diameter of the standard boards is 900mm, 450mm for miniature boards if that helps as a guide to working out a height from a photo.

Hi,

 

There’s no height mentioned in the book as there isn’t a standard, it’s dependent on signal sighting committee, who’s opinions vary day by day!

 

On Western a rule of thump has been start at 2.5m offset to centre of sign , 2.5m to top of sign and see how it goes in the committee!

 

Simon

Edited September 2, 2021 by St. Simon

[RBTKraisee]

While we may not have a particular standard, this info is quite helpful, thanks guys!

 

After the F1 practice sessions tomorrow I'll grab a couple of images from the different areas I'm trying to model (mainly WCML and WCR, with a liberal sprinkling of NSE just to keep things colourful) and I will compare the sign diameter to the pole height and see how close it gets to Simon's 2.5m starting post (bad pun thoroughly intended).

 

I'll try to report my findings as I compile them, for future reference.

 

Cheers,

 

Ross.

[SM42]

From trackside experience, most old fashioned speed  signs were around or just above head height out on the mainline rather than in the confines of a station. The bottom of the number being level with the top of the head in many cases. 

The newer signs seem to be a little lower generally, by around half a diameter, and may be due to the retro reflective nature of them.

However as with most things of this sort there doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rule  and the height depends, it seems, on the situation. 

 

Around the 6 - 7 ft mark wouldn't be far out I would say, and of course making it too long is better as it can be cut down if required and you would also need a tail for mounting perhaps.

 

 

Andy

 

 

 

[RBTKraisee]

I've managed to find nearly a dozen different images of red-border speed signs on the UK railways, and scaled them based on the 900mm diameter mentioned by Martyn above.   In every case so far they appear to be right around 2.5m from ground level to the centre of the sign, plus or minus 100mm.

 

So, for me I think I'll go with that.

 

One change I am doing for my N gauge layout, is I'm up-scaling the sign itself by a little bit, just so I can use a handy 6.5mm hole-punch to cut out nice crisp circles every time!   That technically scales to signs that would be 962mm across, but the hassle I save is well worth such a small error

 

Thanks for everyone's help on this!

 

Ross.

[RBTKraisee]

One quick follow-up (perhaps Martyn will know this too!), what is the standard diameter for a shunting signal disc?

 

Ross.

 

[Dave-5-5-7]

22 minutes ago, RBTKraisee said:

One quick follow-up (perhaps Martyn will know this too!), what is the standard diameter for a shunting signal disc?

 

Ross.

 

Seem to recall it's a foot, or 30cm in new money. 

[SM42]

Not the type pictured but this one is 18 inches

 

 

Andy

[RBTKraisee]

Much appreciated!

 

I figured it was somewhere around 500mm when visually comparing directly to the 900mm speed signs.   Thanks Andy, for the confirmation of 18in (457mm).

 

Ross.