SOS Junction. If anything happens would someone wake me up please..

[Mallard60022]

How did the goods shed and creamery get shunted?  They're both at the wrong end of a kickback for an UP engine shunt.

I have no idea. However I have a DVD showing stuff being backed into the up yard and I have a written account of a visit to the Junction where it says a Class 700 was 'shunting the Yard'. I suspect there could have been some running around by train engines? I also suspect there was gravity shunting of the empty tanks into the filler house. There was no Industrial as there was at Chard. Maybe they used a 'tractor'?

P

Edited January 22, 2016 by Mallard60022

[Dunsignalling]

raymw, I was going to PM Mike but decided some other folk might like to see this as many of you are obviously keen on signals and operation of the same.

This is taken from The Salisbury to Exeter Line (OPC) and should no be reproduced other than on here for our use.

Img_0283.jpg

I'd like to know what 'RBC' stands for on the diagram; (one is just to the left of 'D' on the down main).

The little arm signal is lever 27y by the look of it? Ther seems to be one at 36y as well but I can't find photo evidence of that (yet).

Thanks as well CK.

 

Phil

RBC? It's a new one on me. Maybe "Remote Bell Cabinet" or suchlike - a plunger by any other name?

 

Seaton Junction isn't the only diagram in this book to feature them; they also appear in those for Wilton South, Semley, Gillingham and Sherborne in similar positions - adjacent to yard exit points and/or crossovers worked from, but not within view of, the signal box.

 

Seaton Junction appears to be the only location with two relatively close together but that is probably explained by the yard exit and mainline crossover being either side of the underbridge. There is another by the crossover beyond the Colyton Road overbridge at the eastern end.

 

Interestingly, there isn't one in the corresponding plan of Yeovil Junction, where the exit from the up yard was right next to the 'A' box and the down opposite the 'B' box, though there is no diagram for the latter. At Honiton, there is one by the exit from the down yard but not that from the up sidings which was similarly adjacent to the new (1957) signal box. (correction, there is)  That suggests it is almost certainly some device for communicating with the signalman, perhaps that shunting is complete and the train is ready to depart.  

 

The other common factor is that they only appear on diagrams dated in the late 1950s/early 1960s; not SR or LSWR-era ones, which might suggest something added by BR. 

 

So, I can offer an educated guess as to what it did, but what it was called has me stumped.

 

John

 

PS: you probably already know this, but the circled letters identify the various track-circuited areas of the layout indicated by the broken lines alongside the solid ones.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Dunsignalling

[Mallard60022]

OK, after all that sensible talk (and thanks Dunsig....) I have a really really feeble question! If one is laying track with Peco foamy stuff, I can work out that the foamy stuff probably needs to be stuck to the board surface, however when that has actually adhered, how does one get the track to adhere to the foamy stuff?

I know that sounds really feeble but I've not used this shaped foam before. I'd rather not be pinning this track in 'view'. The bit wot I haf dun is nice and level at the moment but I've not yet tried sticking the track and wont until I know it's looking OK.  

Panic not Mr Grant Ham as this is the Incline experiment (not unlike the Quatermass experiment as it turns out.)

No Hungry Caterpillars were injured during this experiment and clearance has been achieved, although so elevation will be required (as suggested earlier).

Thank you,

Eva Stick (but not for a doggy) 

[The Blue Streak]

RBC

- Rhubarb and Custard.........?

 

Hat, Coat, Gone.

[Stubby47]

RBC

- Rhubarb and Custard.........?

 

Hat, Coat, Gone.

Right bl**dy comedian...

[Mallard60022]

Return Bell Communication (plunger). That's the wonder of Farcebook. Signal Box Group question; 30 seconds later response. Just asking how it might have been used.

Look at this link

http://forum.signalbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2472

Phil

Edited January 22, 2016 by Mallard60022

[Northroader]

Haven't used it for years, but don't you put the foam around the track, it sort of stretches and envelops it, and then lay the two together? Then I used to pin the track down, which might not suit modern tastes.

[Mallard60022]

Haven't used it for years, but don't you put the foam around the track, it sort of stretches and envelops it, and then lay the two together? Then I used to pin the track down, which might not suit modern tastes.

Yup, that's how I've got it to work but I forgot to spray the foam as it is treated on Grantham; poo! As I don't want to pin I think I shall just use some dilute pvc or Copydex and see if that works. Could try Klear I suppose?

Maybe I should glue the foam to the track before laying it?

Who cares?

P

Edited January 22, 2016 by Mallard60022

[Northroader]

Me. Don't worry, you'll get the track well sorted.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Northroader

[Herbert Nigel]

Me too. What does Mr. Ham do?

[Mallard60022]

I am too really! I have to say that I will be interested to see what this looks like compared to all the faffing I've done in the past to get ballast sorted using that old diluted PVA and washing up liquid mix/spray.

Does anyone know if any cork ballast product is as good (small) as the grit type for 2mm ?

Phil

[Mallard60022]

Sorry Mr Grant Ham is what is (I think) Fritter's nickname for Graham of Grantham.

P 

[2ManySpams]

Right bl**dy comedian...

Really big chicken.

[LNER4479]

Me too. What does Mr. Ham do?

Grant uses ... ahem ... pins. Can you see 'em from 3 feet away?

 

[teaky]

Grant uses ... ahem ... pins. Can you see 'em from 3 feet away?

 

IMG_5643_LR.jpg

To be honest, yes but the important thing about Grantham is the over all effect.  The fact that you use Peco becomes irrelevant as it flows so well and one's eye isn't drawn to the rails but to the complete scene and the stock running through it.

[Mallard60022]

Did I not say I'd found out that RBC means Return Bell Communicator (a plunger linked to the Signal Box where codes were exchanged from Bobby to Shunters and vice versa)? I thought I'd posted that here?

Phil

[LNER4479]

#2260(!)

[Mallard60022]

Oh bugg£r.....but I hadn't confirmed it's purpose at that point!

 

#2260(!)

Ar$e.

[Mallard60022]

I've just watched the recorded 'Restoration Man'  where the bloke starts restoring Whittingham Station on the Alnwick Branch. What a grafter he was/is. I'd like to see where he has got with it now. I did want to point out that the 'shed' was a Goods Shed and not an engine house/shed but I thought better of it.

Some of the restorations I have seen recently have been magnificent; if only I had such drive to get on with SOSJ.

Quackers.

[Oldddudders]

I never worked RBC, but think it was probably a sort of low-tech alternative to a telephone for local communication.

 

ISTR on a management course exercise, where we were expected to display our acumen (ooh!), there was reference to a location where RBC was in use but being abused with unofficial codes etc. It was suggested that 'we' would position ourselves such that we could overhear the bells but not be observed, then catch the miscreant shunter red-handed. Most of us felt this was not our style.....

 

Since the RBC holds no record of the code sent, it is hard to see how a phone, with the added detail it offers to any conversation, would not be superior.

[Mallard60022]

The RBC on the  Box diagrams appears well back into pre 2nd war so presumably phone replacement  of something that worked was not a SR priority after the war? Maybe the Shunter didn't need to acknowledge the message so could just listen for the Code and do the appropriate task; seems a little unlikely though?   

There is an operational set at Tenterden (K & ES R) but that may have been superseded by signal upgrading.

RBC worked thus: Plunger in Signal Box for sending codes to Shunters/Crew (Bell [in cabinet?] in Yard). Single strike receiver Bell next to this; this was connected from the Plunger(s) in the Yards. There were 'local Codes' (as mentioned by Dudders). I read that the main one was a long single ring and that meant STOP and seek advice from Box.  At SJ Down Yard there were some interesting moves when through coaches were being sorted and thre was a RBC on the up main, beyond the road bridge and out of sight of the Box, where LE cross overs to the down main took place regularly.

Presumably a 'phone was more likely to be used from the early 60s however this is when these Yards were becoming redundant. There appears to be a 'cabinet' attached to the signal post in that yard view I posted a while back. maybe this was the RBC or perhaps a telephone as the pic was taken in 1964 I believe. #2233

There is discussion about this linked to the Signal Box Group on Fartbrook. 

As I know nuffink about signalling procedure I have found this simple feature very interesting. It wasn't just the SR that had these devices and now I can remember seeing some items like this during various spotting trips all those years ago. Great fun.

Ducky.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Mallard60022

[Mallard60022]

I never worked RBC, but think it was probably a sort of low-tech alternative to a telephone for local communication.

 

ISTR on a management course exercise, where we were expected to display our acumen (ooh!), there was reference to a location where RBC was in use but being abused with unofficial codes etc. It was suggested that 'we' would position ourselves such that we could overhear the bells but not be observed, then catch the miscreant shunter red-handed. Most of us felt this was not our style.....

 

Since the RBC holds no record of the code sent, it is hard to see how a phone, with the added detail it offers to any conversation, would not be superior.

Codes:

1.2. = gaffer alert

1.2.1 = get the brew on

1.2.2 = totty alert

2.1 = pop down the chippy 

etc?

 

etc

[Clive Mortimore]

1.2.1 Please

[Stubby47]

1.2.2.2.1.2 = JA Alert

2.1.1.1.1   = TH alert

[Northroader]

At STJ, that's SJ with T in the middle, you'll understand, the yard pilots were all fitted with radio, and everybody got told off for using it to place bets. Perhaps RBC was the primitive form of this?