RJS1977 Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 A non-railway friend of mine has recently photographed this sign close to the Stockton-Darlington line: (Precise location is 54deg 32' 52" N 1deg 20' 7"W). It would appear to be a milepost but it's unusual to see one with only the fraction and not the number of whole miles. (The mileposts on that stretch of line are measured from Leeds). My friend would be interested to hear any more information on this sign. He wondered if it went right back to the railway opening in 1825, but I would have thought that was unlikely as mileposts didn't become widespread on railways until 1845. Can anyone here shed any more light on it? Many thanks Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Worsdell forever Posted August 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 7, 2012 It's a NER 1/2 mile post. half a mile either side will be mile posts and quarter and three-quarter posts between. This is the full set. Not sure how far back they go. Edit, found it, they started measuring and putting up the posts in 1905. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted August 7, 2012 Author Share Posted August 7, 2012 Wordsell Many thanks for that. Though this does raise the question of why this particular route was measured from Leeds rather than York! Richard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin_m Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 The zero point is always rather arbrtrary but often reflects railway history. In this case I'm presuming you are somewhere east of Eaglescliffe in which case the route was effectively a continuation of the Leeds Northern which missed out York and passed underneath the ECML at Northallerton with connections but no common section. I presume the NER therefore decided to continue the mileposts from Leeds up towards Middlesbrough and they appear to have continued the same series right round through Sunderland to end at Gateshead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium keefer Posted August 7, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 7, 2012 some at railsigns.co.uk http://www.railsigns.co.uk/info/milepost4/milepost4.html didn't realise till i saw the others that they had extra 'prongs' according to the number of 1/4 miles marked! presumably for visibility purposes? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Worsdell forever Posted August 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 7, 2012 It was on the Leeds Northern Railway line from Leeds via Harrogate, Ripon and Northallerton to Stockton and on to Hartlepool. It ran parallel to the S&D between Eaglescliffe and Bowesfield (they actually had to cross over). Leeds Northern. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Classsix T Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 It would appear to be a milepost but it's unusual to see one with only the fraction and not the number of whole miles. (The mileposts on that stretch of line are measured from Leeds). Not if you think about it. To save the cost of one cast for every quarter mile you'd do one for every milepost then a batch of common ones for the quarters. Here on the GE concrete posts with 1-3 black dots can mark the quarters on some sections. C6T. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 Yes, I realised it was cheaper to cast quarter miles like that. But as I do most of my rail travel on ex-GWR or ex-Southern metals, I haven't really seen many "quarter only mileposts". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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