What is a J.M. Panel ? Mystery eBay purchase

[Stentor]

I recently bought this item from eBay.

lt was sold as part of the estate of a railway enthusiast and modeller by a friend who, by her own admission, knows nothing about railways. It intrigued me and I’m guessing that it is transport related.

Its a small plaque made of plastic or Bakelite on a wooden base with a hollowed out oval at the back, about 6” by 3”.

I’ve tried Googling it but put in J,M and railway and you just get loads of stuff about JMRI.

So can anybody please tell me what a J.M. Panel does and where would this plaque have been put up?

Any help much appreciated, thank you, Simon

[Enterprisingwestern]

Seems more likely to be industrial/power station to me.

 

Mike.

[Nearholmer]

It’s a traffolyte (ite?) engraved label from some sort of switchgear, and “JM” is the designation of whatever was controlled from it.  

Unless someone pops up who recognises “JM”, you may never know, because circuits, isolators, and control panels can carry all sorts of designations. It may be part of a series going from “AA” to “ZZ”, or it may mean something particular like “Joint Main”, or “Junction Main”, or “Junction Manual” (as opposed to remote control), or “Jam Machinery” or, whatever.

 

One thing I will say is that it doesn’t follow good practice, which is to have a white ground with black lettering, because the letters are incised and will collect dirt, so it’s better for dirt to collect in black letters than in white, where it can obscure them.

 

Is it “railway”? Might be, but equally might not be.

 

If I were you, I’d screw it to the wall in your house below a really impressive switch (not connected to anything) as a conversation piece.

 

It does have a vaguely “tube train” feel about to me, similar to the labels on the lower parts of seats to allow staff to quickly find things like triple valve isolating cocks.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by Nearholmer

[Stentor]

Thanks Mike & Nearholmer, Traffolyte is a new material to me and I see that it was developed by Metropolitan-Vickers in 1927 at their factory at Trafford Park.

 

So perhaps Metrovic might be the closest my mystery item gets to railways.

 

I’ll keep my eye out for a large switch too.

 

//Simon 

[Oldddudders]

Jolly Mysterious

[Hibelroad]

No idea what it is but having worked in power station control rooms and substations I would put my money on it being electricity supply related, it’s that sort of terminology. 

[Stentor]

Hibelroad, yes I’m thinking that too, it would be right for a 1930s to 70s electrified railway control room.

 

Maybe from a line that has been subsequently de-electrified like the Bury line, the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway, Tyneside or even Woodhead.

 

//Simon 

[Nearholmer]

I doubt it’s from a control room as such, to me the wording smacks more of something that would be on the front of a switchgear panel, so more substation than control room. But, it could equally be from the bowels of a signalbox, with ‘panel’ being ‘signalling panel’, or a jam making factory switch room, cutting off supply to the sub-distribution panel feeding the machinery (this is a very wild and not entirely serious guess!)

 

Below it, I’d expect to see something like a two or three position rotary switch, possibly open-centre-close, maybe sprung to the centre position, or a couple of push buttons, open and close, to control a motor-operated or solenoid actuated isolator.

 

I can’t say with certainty when it was realised that white lettering was a bad idea, and the convention changed to black, but I think possibly 1960s. Certainly there was a lot of 1950s and earlier gear around with white lettering. It could come from any bit of scrap gear of that vintage or earlier.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Nearholmer

[Johann Marsbar]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I doubt it’s from a control room as such, to me the wording smacks more of something that would be on the front of a switchgear panel, so more substation than control room. But, it could equally be from the bowels of a signalbox, with ‘panel’ being ‘signalling panel’, or a jam making factory switch room, cutting off supply to the sub-distribution panel feeding the machinery (this is a very wild and not entirely serious guess!)

 

Below it, I’d expect to see something like a two or three position rotary switch, possibly open-centre-close, maybe sprung to the centre position, or a couple of push buttons, open and close, to control a motor-operated or solenoid actuated isolator.

 

I can’t say with certainty when it was realised that white lettering was a bad idea, and the convention changed to black, but I think possibly 1960s. Certainly there was a lot of 1950s and earlier gear around with white lettering. It could come from any bit of scrap gear of that vintage or earlier.

 

Our substantial trolleybus switchgear panel in the old substation at Priory Heath depot in Ipswich (now the transport museum) certainly has white on black lettering and that dates from 1937.

The panel was left in place after August 1963, athough they removed the Mercury Arc rectifiers, so we actually inherited it when we took the bulding over in the late 1980's!

Will try and remember to take my camra up there tomorrow and get a photo, as not many people realise something like that has managed to survive....

[franciswilliamwebb]

Ah yes. I suspect this was removed from John’s office door in 1983 when he was promoted to Chief Isolator.

[Johann Marsbar]

White on Black nameplates on our 1937 switchgear panel.....

 

 

 

 

The complete panel......

 

 

 

EDIT:  Forgot to mention that it's actually 60 years this evening when that panel was last shut down.  The last trolleybus departed Electric House in central Ipswich at 6.36pm

on a Service 2 Journey, running into Priory Heath depot - now the location of our Museum - around 7pm.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Johann Marsbar

[Enterprisingwestern]

5 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

White on Black nameplates on our 1937 switchgear panel.....

 

 

 

 

The complete panel......

 

 

 

Are you doing a re-make of Young Frankenstein?!!

 

MIke.

[Nearholmer]

Cracking stuff.

 

Much to my delight, last time I had a look at the substation for the Manx Electric at Douglas, maybe 25 years ago, it wasn’t hugely dissimilar to that, although I have an inkling that it’s been decommissioned/replaced since.

 

Until most of the gear was progressively replaced/upgraded in the 1980s/90s, the 1930s subs on the Southern were a delight of stylishly black panels and shiny metal, but made slightly sinister in the case of the earliest ones by having swastikas here there and everywhere. The remote control gear was supplied from Sweden by ASEA, and until the nazis appropriated the symbol their logo was a swastika, I think symbolic of energy/vitality in Scandinavian cultures.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Nearholmer

[kevinlms]

Many such labels for switchgear etc, are often engraved layered plastic.

[Johann Marsbar]

27 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Cracking stuff.

 

Much to my delight, last time I had a look at the substation for the Manx Electric at Douglas, maybe 25 years ago, it wasn’t hugely dissimilar to that, although I have an inkling that it’s been decommissioned/replaced since.

 

Until most of the gear was progressively replaced/upgraded in the 1980s/90s, the 1930s subs on the Southern were a delight of stylishly black panels and shiny metal, but made slightly sinister in the case of the earliest ones by having swastikas here there and everywhere. The remote control gear was supplied from Sweden by ASEA, and until the nazis appropriated the symbol their logo was a swastika, I think symbolic of energy/vitality in Scandinavian cultures.

 

I think the reason it survived was that it would have required too much effort to dismantle back in 1963, so they left it there and just removed all the Mercury Arc Rectifiers from the room.

We've even got the CO2 fire extinguisher kit still in there as well with all the rods, wires. pulleys and (empty) gas bottles that formed part of it.

There is still a "live" grid substation in one of the side rooms that supplies the local area, most of which was built post 1937.

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

Many such labels for switchgear etc, are often engraved layered plastic.

Traffolite .......... always reminds me of a plain/white/milk layered chocolate bar : can't remember what it was called !

[SR71]

As of 10 years ago you could still order your own. In previous job industry plant room specs still called for them.

 

Plumridge and Peters in Billingshurst did ours as I recall.

[spamcan61]

10 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Traffolite .......... always reminds me of a plain/white/milk layered chocolate bar : can't remember what it was called !

This is probably not the one you or I are thinking of, but illustrates the point:+

 

https://www.cadbury.co.uk/products/cadbury-dairy-milk-big-taste-triple-choc-sensation-chocolate-bar-300g/

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I could inform you that it's the isolater for the control panel that ran the 'Jigger Motors' on the feeds to the Oblicones. This is not fictional equipment, just happens to fit the initials 'J M'. 

 

Truly, labelling like this was all over UK manufacturing plant from the 1930s onwards; without the point of origin, it's guesswork.

[Nearholmer]

35 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Traffolite .......... always reminds me of a plain/white/milk layered chocolate bar

I always found it had a phenoliccy tang, and found it very tough to chew, so not really like chocolate at all.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

35 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Traffolite .......... always reminds me of a plain/white/milk layered chocolate bar : can't remember what it was called !

Fry's Milk Sandwich, perhaps. It was milk / plain / milk, though. Apparently there was also a Fry's Plain Sandwich, with plain / milk / plain layers. Looking online, the pre-decimilisation versions were called "double milk" and "milk" respectively.

[kevinlms]

43 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

This is probably not the one you or I are thinking of, but illustrates the point:+

 

https://www.cadbury.co.uk/products/cadbury-dairy-milk-big-taste-triple-choc-sensation-chocolate-bar-300g/

Ironic that a chocolate site, uses cookies!

[kevinlms]

46 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

This is probably not the one you or I are thinking of, but illustrates the point:+

 

https://www.cadbury.co.uk/products/cadbury-dairy-milk-big-taste-triple-choc-sensation-chocolate-bar-300g/

We have this in australia

 

https://www.cadbury.com.au/cadbury-dairy-milk-top-deck-340g