Semaphores

[thunderer08]

Kirkham to Blackpool North is still fully semaphore signalled including the junction for the Fleetwood branch at Poulton.

[Mallard]

Deganwy certainly had semaphore last year. But I am not sure about the rest of Llandudno Junc. - Llandudno.

 

BobM

[PaulRhB]

Marchwood on the Fawley Branch is all semaphores though it also controls one colour light at Fawley.

Yeovil Junction also has some for the branch to Pen Mill though these may be for the chop in 2 years now they have announced the re-control of the entire West of England Line.

[Swindon 123]

The situation on the North & West route between Newport and Salop is as follows. Still semaphore signalled at the following boxes. Abergavenny, Pontrilas, Tram Inn, Moreton on Lugg, Leominster, Woofferton, Bromfield, Craven Arms, Marshbrook, Dorrington, Sutton Bridge Jcn and all the boxes at Shrewsbury. The only losses in recent years have been Shelwick Jcn which went in late 1984 on the singling of the line to Ledbury, Fords Bridge which went in the late 80's on the building on the A49 Leominster bypass and Church Stretton which finally departed us in 2008 after suffering severe flood damage a few years before, ironically shortly after being fully rewired. Two absentees from the above list are Hereford and Onibury which are fully colour light signalled, except for some ground disks at Hereford. Of the list of semaphore boxes Sutton Bridge has a LQ distant in the up direction and Dorrington, Woofferton, Leominster and Moreton on Lugg in the down direction, all being motor worked. Leominster's claim to fame is that all the signals in the up direction are colour lights whilst in the down direction the are all semaphores, all the other semaphore boxes having at least one semaphore signal in either direction. Between Abergavenny and Craven Arms the signals are "ex GWR" LQ type whilst north of "the Arms" a mixture of LQ and UQ can be found.

North of Shrewsbury on the Chester line only Gobowen retains semaphores , LQ and UQ, whilst even further north Penyfford still retains a full compliment of semaphores including wire worked UQ distants in both directions. On the Salop Crewe line all the boxes as far as and including Nantwich retained some semaphores, Prees like Penyfford retaining a full set in both directions although I believe the distants where later motor worked. (Its been a few years since I have worked over the route so there may have been some other changes as well).

East of Hereford the line as far as Droitwich retains semaphores at Ledbury, Malvern Wells, Newlands, Henwick, Worcester Shrub Hill and Tunnel Junction, and as already seen in this topic Droitwich. Although Worcester is the star of the show all the other boxes have some signalling oddity associated with them. As already mentioned the Oxford line is in the process of being doubled in places so what effect this will have on the remaining semaphore signalling will have to be seen.

As far as the North and West route is concerned I have not heard of any plans to resignal before 2020 and maybe later than that, so it would seem that semaphores will be around for some time yet. I did see plans to resignal Salop in 1985 and Worcester even had new colour lights installed ready for resgnalling out to Norton Junction but after the Clapham Jcn crash these schemes never happened, so luckely we still have a fine array of semaphores to photograph.

 

Paul J.

[beast66606]

whilst even further north Penyfford still retains a full compliment of semaphores including wire worked UQ distants in both directions.

 

Hi Paul,

 

you need a refresher mate, the up distant is now a 2-aspect colour light

[Clay Country]

Here's one of the newest semaphore signals in the country, T26 at Truro, which was installed in connection of the upgrading of the Falmouth branch. This allows trains for the branch to depart from the up platform.

 

[Swindon 123]

you need a refresher mate, the up distant is now a 2-aspect colour light

 

Not surprised. Last time I was up there was end of Feb and it had a distinct lean on it then. Is the new distant in the same place or has it been moved out? Its all academic now beast66606 as I am in the process of retiring on ill health grounds so no more driving for me.

 

Paul J.

[beast66606]

Not surprised. Last time I was up there was end of Feb and it had a distinct lean on it then. Is the new distant in the same place or has it been moved out? Its all academic now beast66606 as I am in the process of retiring on ill health grounds so no more driving for me.

 

Paul J.

 

Sorry to hear that Paul, hope everything works out.

 

It's been moved back to just before the road overbridge on the end of Buckley station, the other one goes in December and is also moved back so it's in front of the (currently) preceeding bridge.

 

hth

[Guest eddie reffin]

There are quite a few on the Aberdeen-Inverness line, most stations on the Highland mainline also have them. Moving south, there a number left at Fort William Junction and not to forget the stone signals in the Pass of Brander.

 

There are none remaining on the remainder of the West Highland, and as far as I know there are none left North and West of Inverness.

 

Cheers

 

Eddie

[pacer lover]

hey all

there a few semaphores down here in south wales and the west

take a look at this sit :- http://www.roscalen.com/signals/index.htm

 

rob

[Guest baldrick25]

Just thought of another , at Kidderminster adjacent the SVR , with , if I remember correctly, one upper quadrant in each direction.

[jeff mcghie]

Still a lot in Central Scotland including the East Coast North from Cupar up to (south of) the Tay Bridge and the stretch from Larbert up to Hilton Jcn including the (now listed and causing headaches for the remodelling) fine array at the South end of Stirling and this unusual starter at Dunblane.

 

Jeff.

 

Who seems to end up consigning an awful lot of semaphore to the scrap heap at work

[Swindon 123]

name='beast66606'date='Aug 6 2010, 13:54' post'33'][/b]It's been moved back to just before the road overbridge on the end of Buckley station, the other one goes in December and is also moved back so it's in front of the (currently) preceeding bridge.

 

Not surprised at that as there had been a differential temp speed restriction leading up to the old distant for months. The weekly notice said it was to do with signal spacing but I've never had trouble stopping anything at the outer home in the past. Interesting that the other one is moving out as well. You only had to shut off if it was on and the grade and line curvature would stop you well before the home. Maybe they're thinking of upping the linespeed from the present 40MPH? Both of those distants where the last ones to be fitted with AWS ramps long after they had been fitted to all other I knew of. Probably because the line speed was so low.

 

Paul J.

[Pacific231G]

There are a few locations with classic Semaphore signals on the national network, following a a recent trip out on the network here are some that I have seen.

 

 

Greenford East box is still going strong. It controls the Greenford branch from the bay at Greenford Central Line down to S. Greenford halt, a section of the Paddington-Birmingham line and the triangular junction between them. Signals are WR lower quadrants though the northbound signals on the branch were replaced a couple of years ago by a single CLS junction signal as the semaphores were suffering from leaning on the not too stable embankment and tending to show rather vague indications. The box can get quite busy as apart from the half hourly Paddington-Greenford service the branch is often used for turning FGW sets from OOC and handles a number of goods trains- stone and waste mostly. It even sees the occasional steam loco usually in a positioning move and there are a couple of passenger services each day on the old main line that run to and from Paddington rather than Marylebone. I assume these are to maintain route knowledge.

 

I understand that for trains using the eastern junction the box is in the odd position of accepting them from and then offering them to the same centre.

GE box used to have its own website but that disappeared a few years ago.

[Rugd1022]

Just thought of another , at Kidderminster adjacent the SVR , with , if I remember correctly, one upper quadrant in each direction.

 

Kidderminster has a few more than that Baldrick, three in the down direction and three more in the up

 

Nidge

[ForestPines]

One recent semaphore disappearance: East Usk Junction, where all the semaphores have disappeared over the last 9 months or so.

[Guest baldrick25]

Although a preserved example, its worthy of a picture for future modelling reference of the Severn Valley signals on the approach to Kidderminster station .

The mainline signal between the footbridge and the 'real' signalbox of Kidderinster junction can be seen behind.

 

[great central]

Lincs is still a bit of a haven for them, as well as the ones around Barnetby, the GN/ GE joint line still has a good complement and the Skegness branch is still mostly semaphore. Sadly the Lincoln re-modelling removed most from that area and although the rural locations are still plentiful, they won't be there forever.

 

There is a new signal and post waiting to be planted at Ancaster, or was the last time i was down there a couple of weeks ago, another one was done last year, I think.

 

On the Leicester-Peterborough line there is, or was a few months ago, a lower quadrant at Ketton I think. Not sure if it's a Midland original, but must still be very rare if not unique in upper quadrant land. Not very accessible for a photo and a devil to take from the train as it's on the opposite side on a curve, so unless it's off it won't neccessarily stand out as lower quadrant!

[John M Upton]

Just to add, found a picture of the down signal at Amberley which is interesting as despite being deep in LBSC territory, it is a reused former LSWR lattice signal post.

[roythebus]

Heres the one at par

Amazing, 1800's technology with 21st century TWPS apparatus!!

 

A bit like Hastings, new rebuilt station, new trains, and semaphore signals.

 

I see the DB are in no hurry to replace their semaphores either, even when there's OHLE around.