RailWest

Which period are you modelling?

At West Moors levers 1, 12 and 22 were short-handled as they controlled power-worked items. There were no push-pull levers. Normally all levers would have been normal except for 24, which would have been reversed to allow the gates to be left across the rails. However as the photo shows 15 (the FPL) may well have been left over in readiness for the next train if it was following the same route as its predecessor.

>>>The lower plates are on a double lugged fitting that mounts them at an angle, and the angle was guessed at 10 degrees.... For the L&SWR-style cast brass plates the two pairs of lugs are of different lengths in order to give the angle. The angle between the lugs and the back of the plate is approx 60 degrees. If you hold a plate with the lugs horizontal then the holes in the fixing lugs are vertically above one another, but of course you also have to take into account the taper of the levers and whether or not it is truly vertical when normal. With the (wider size) SR painted plates there is a small ramp cast along the inner side of the rear bracket at an angle of about 10 degrees to the back of the plate and this rests against the front edge of the lever to give the 'slope'. In an attempt to (hopefully!) clarify my comments, photos are attached showing the rear of L&SWR and SR examples. Hopefully the 'ramp' in the latter is obvious...:-)

Lever 6, as a GF release, would have been blue in L&SWR days or blue/brown in SR days - you can just make it out as two-tone in photos. It is more questionable as to what was done with lever 11.... Don't forget the upper 'pull plates' needed on some of the levers :-)

Given that Ropley box was closed in 1931 and the loop abolished, I would hazard a guess that all the main running signals were still LQ arms at the time and the shunt signals were probably still the Stevens 'drop flap' type, but a more detailed study of old photos might clarify that.

Well, quite some while before preservation then, as by BR days it had no signals at all :-)

Looks like he is doing Ropley :-)

I remember the prototypes...:-)

Oh yes it did, there were several, tho' mostly at WB :-) See here for more details.....www.trainweb.org/railwest/railco/minor/lb-signals.html#register

It's only from looking at the exhibition photos that I've realised just how l-o-n-g the storage loops are compared with the actual trains! Plenty of scope to have both pre- and post- 1923 versions of the same coach rakes.....:-)

West Moors in BR days had the SR style of plates (painted ovals), /probably/ a replacement set done i/c/w the war-time alterations, but one would need to check the SR's order books to confirm that.

What puzzles me is that the ground-signal 8PULL, which controlled such a move, appears to be 'on', but it is hard to tell from behind.

Given the way that both the footplate crew are looking, and judging also from the track of the steam, I would suggest that the engine is propelling the train...

I'm puzzled that you've painted the Up Home down rod white (can't see the on on the Down Starting), as I would have expected them to be black (or at least dark grey), as you have done with the Up Starting. Have you found a photo which shows otherwise perhaps?

I like the idea of the magnets for the 'moveable' figures, would never have thought of that myself :-) But how do you spot the magnet locations when you are putting the figures in place?

It may be worth pointing out that, although the LH ground-signal (6) applied to the Down Through (the line to the left) - the same line as the main arm (34) - the RH ground-signal (18) applied t the line to the right (the Up Through) and therefore is not really anything to do with that main signal at all.

...and a ladder :-)

Is not the MSN South sign the same as the one which IIRC is now in the S&DRHT Museum at MSN station? If so, then I would speculate that indeed it is a WR repaint, and probably of a BR period replacement anyway in order to accommodate the addition of the 'South' suffix.

No. it wasn't - just a hand-point with the key to the padlock kept in the box ! It was on the reversible former Up line, hence it became facing to Down trains. The double-to-single connection was just a little bit further towards Yeovil. At the same time, a siding was retained also for Eng Dept purposes at Gillingham. This too was hand-worked and C&P with key kept in the SB, but the difference was that it was a trailing point in the Down Loop. It was only later that it was converted to a facing connection worked from a local GF released from the SB.

After the 1967 singling the WR had C&P facing points in the running line for the siding retained for Engineer's use at Sherborne. The complete absence of any interlocking made me glad that I was getting off the train before we reached that point :-)

Practices varied and changed over the years :-) In cases where the engine release point/crossover was beyond the end of the platform, then the stretch of track from the buffer-stop end of the platform to the actual buffer-stop might be regarded as being beyond the limit of passenger train working and hence not restricted to the rules for signalling passenger lines. This often resulted in a different arrangement of the point-work and ground signals, see examples such as Princetown or Helston for GWR practice.

Compensation is a tricky subject best left to those who understand it more than I do :-) To some extent compensators can be eliminated by the careful use and positioning of any cranks, but that may not happen here. However I would suggest that:- In the long run to the pointwork at the LH end you will need one compensator roughly midway between the signal-box and the trap, and another somewhere between the crank which feeds the rod across to the trap and the point at the LH end At the RH end, one comp in the run from the box to the facing point and another in the run from the box to the trap One in the run from the box to the FPL. Although practice did differ, in principle the rod from the box to the FPL should feed the end of the lock bar further from the toe of the point, the FPL plunger itself being driven off the end of the lock bar nearer to the toe. This ensures that the plunger can't be moved if the lock bar is broken! As drawn, at the LH end both the trap and point will move in the same direction, but if you study what will then happen at their switch blades you will realise that actually they need to move in opposite directions, so one of the cranks will have to be reversed.

Not quite correct - points 14 (into the goods yard) are still mechanical. IIRC points 14 are the channel rodding. AIUI this exists 'cos in BR days the sidings were taken OOU and then BR removed the rodding, only to decide later that they needed the sidings for Eng Dept usage, so had to re-install rodding hence the use of channel.

The WR introduced two sections of TS&T working Barnstaple Jcn 'B' - Instow - Torrington in 1968 :-)

AIUI the signalman would have to 'Block Black' to the next box up the line whenever he wanted to occupy the single line outside of the Down Home, regardless of whether there was an Up Advanced Starting or not. So really it make no difference.