West Highland Line station lamps from the 1970's and 80's

[young37215]

Along the WHL there appeared a generic and distinctive station lamp comprised of what appeared as a telegraph pole styled post and a twin dustpan style lamp. Indeed when looking at pictures it could be that the telegraph poles were pre-existing and simply had power and lights added to make them dual purpose. Many of the stations on the WHL were equipped with these, no one to my knowledge produces a model that could be used to replicate them. Apologies for the pun but can anyone shed any light on the origins of the lamps and/or more detail about them. I need about 10 for my WHL layout and hope to persuade a small manufacturer that there is a market to sell more into should they make some for me. 

 

Examples at Arrochar and Ardlui can be seen below.

 

 

 

 

 

[young37215]

No further information forthcoming thus far so another prompt in the hope that knowledge of the origins of the lamps exists somewhere within the RMWeb fraternity. The station lamps I am interested in were located at

 

Garelochead

 

 

Arrochar, 1983 view below

 

 

I am not sure when they were replaced, the picture below is from 1989 and shows the light still in place.

 

 

Ardlui

 

 

Tyndrum Upper

 

 

Bridge of Orchy

 

 

Rannoch

 

 

Tulloch

 

 

 

 

 

[Michael Hodgson]

No idea about their origin etc, but they strike me as unusually tall posts for platform lamps, presumably to minimise risk of damage by vandals in such remote unstaffed locations.  Looks like bulb replacement was a job for a bloke with telegraph engineers' climbing irons -

S&T responsibility?

[young37215]

20 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

they strike me as unusually tall posts for platform lamps

 

Rather than being vandal proofing, I think your point adds weight to the hypothesis that the poles were originally installed for telecoms and only at a later date were lights added as an afterthought. As you say, changing a failed light would have been fun, I would not fancy climbing one of the posts in a typical west highland breeze

 

I am wondering if I might get more information from one of the Scottish railway archives which seem pretty well informed