Signal Arm (prototype) question - spectacle lens advice please?

[billy_anorak59]

Not sure where to post this – ‘Prototype questions’ or here. Hopefully, I’m more likely to find the signal experts here, but please excuse if I’ve got it wrong.

 

Circa 1975, and I’m travelling home past Bebington Station (in the Chester direction) on a DMU – the line was not electrified in those days - and I spy out of the window a home and a distant signal arm lying at the side of the track. Even though both arms had been ‘gas-axed’ from their pivots, I really wanted to save them, so when I got home I thought I’d chance things and ring up the station to see if they were wanted. Eventually, after persuading the ticket office staff that I was serious (not mad!), they agreed to let me have them, as long as I came and picked them up myself. I only had a push-bike to my name, so the bus it was, but because of their bulk and weight, I could only manage to take one of them - so I selected the home arm, and I managed to get it home on the bus with many  funny looks and covered in soot!

 

Anyway, that’s the history; Now the question.

As previously stated, the arm had been cut down very crudely, and both spectacle plates were smashed too. Years later, and I have managed to find replacements, complete with rubbers, which is why I am posting here. Can any of the signalling experts help please?

 

I can’t for the life of me get the rubber surround and lens into the spectacle case apertures. I’m sure they are the right size, but the rubber is rather thick and is not pliable enough to flex onto the case lips. Is it because the lens itself is not allowing the rubber to flex enough? (should the rubber go on first, and then the lens, or can the lens + rubber be fitted as one unit?)

…or is there a trick to doing it?

 

Pictures of the arm and lenses here (please note that the lens wired temporarily in place was before I had obtained the correct materials) :

 

 

 

Any S&T chaps out there that can help please?

Edited July 21, 2022 by billy_anorak59

[LNERGE]

Use a bit of reasonably stiff wire. Place it in the groove and twist the ends together. Keep twisting and you'll find the loop shortening and pulling the rubber flange in a little. Once this has started to happen force end with the twist into the aperture. If you start then to pull the wire out of the groove the rubber flange should drop in nicely. For added really do this whilst hanging out of a second story window <g>

 

I can post a picture or two if needed later in the week.

[raymw]

looks the same as fitting a windscreen in an old car - well grease rubber with soapy water, insert a strong cord in groove in rubber, place edge of lip over metal and pull cord, so lip is forced over metal all the way around.

[TheSignalEngineer]

There's a special tool for doing it but I last used one about 45 years ago. it was a brass ring that you fitted to one side then put it through the spec plate.

[beast66606]

The signal which once carried the arms would be Bebington Up Fast starter with Port Sunlight Siding Up Fast distant - taken out of use in December 1973, you probably found them in 1974.

 

I used to have the distant arm off the Up Slow starter (which would be Port Sunlight Siding Up Slow distant) but it was very faded and badly rusted so I scrapped it many years ago

[billy_anorak59]

Many thanks for all the pointers - it's much appreciated.

 

It sounds very much like the old car windscreen method as outlined by raymw and LNERGE which I've heard about many times - trouble is, and although I've tinkered around with the mechanical bits of many an old car, I've never done it, or indeed seen it done.

So, with that in mind, can I take LNERGE's offer up for a couple of pictures (whenever you can) please? Might just help me get a better idea.

 

Beast: 1974 would make a lot of sense, my guess wasn't too far out! Thanks for the info. So this arm would have been carried on the Up Fast post just before the road underpass - the sister to this one (but hidden behind the island waiting room)?:

 

Thanks again all.

Edited July 21, 2022 by billy_anorak59

[beast66606]

Yes, the one out of sight (which was on a straight post), I once owned the distant arm visible at "off".

[LNERGE]

All is fair in love and war. Use lots of fairy liquid if it helps or any other suitable lubricant.

[billy_anorak59]

That's great, clear as a bell; a picture (or three) paints a thousand words - many thanks for taking the trouble to show me the ropes.

I'll give it a whirl at the weekend, and let you know how I get on. Thanks again.

[LNERGE]

Double your fun and do it at the top of a signal... in the dark..... in the rain.

[billy_anorak59]

With or without lubrication?

[billy_anorak59]

Tah-daaah…!  👏

 

 

 

Well I needed about four hands, but got it done in the end. At one point, I could have sworn (and I did swear) that the lens were too big to fit the holes!

In the dark, and rain? And probably 30-ish feet up? No thanks – it was a tussle on my own back doorstep!

 

 

So, for the first time in the 43 years since it was chopped down, Bebington’s Up Fast starter has it’s lenses back – many thanks for all the help, and the ‘how to’ photographs.

Much appreciated.

 

Cheers!

Edited July 21, 2022 by billy_anorak59