RailWest

...as also were places like Lodge Hill and Wookey etc.

The reason for the difference in layout at Staverton between the diagram and the photo is simple. Originally the layout was as per the diagram (IIRC complete with an Up Home signal no 2 that was was removed at an early date). After many years in preservation the South Devon Railway built a new passing-loop north of the station with a new signal box called Bishops Bridge. The former Staverton box was retained simply to control the gates and 'slot' the main signals worked from BB. The siding was 'reversed' so that the connection was now at the north end and faced Up trains, whereas previously it was at the south end and faced Down trains, and is now worked from BB as well. It should be noted that only the gates across the main running line were bolted from the signal-box, those across the siding simply being padlocked (?) across the rails except when need to be opened for shunting. The same applies today AFAIK. As an aside, I had the pleasure of working that box on many occasions in the late-1960s/early1970s when it was still in its 'original' layout form - lovely place to be on a summer's day :-)

Sadly, I don't :-( In fact, I was not aware that such a facility existed, although I know that at Crowcombe there is an indicator in the waiting room AIUI for when the box is switched out.

I'll need to get into my store cupboards, it may take some time......

Not exactly.... Have a look under the cover of one in a (WSR) signal-box convenient to you :-) Usually there was some form of adjustable stop which limits the movement of the wide, flat armature piece. I don't know what the official guidance was - if indeed there was any - but I've found that the best result IMHO is to adjust it so that, when you push the armature slowly by hand, the 'striker' stops just short of the dome. When used 'in anger' there is sufficient momentum to carry the striker far enough further forward to strike the dome, but it then falls backs so as not to remain in contact with the dome and deaden the ring. Also, by adjusting the padded 'back-stop' (horizontally threaded through the dome support pillar), you can adjust how far the striker has to move and that in turn affects how hard/soft it hits the dome.

Many thanks, most useful :-)

This link seems dead - is there a new one available please?

Just a thought, but.... If disc 13 only reads across 5 reverse and 7 only reads across 2 reverse, then you could work both discs by just one lever and which one operates would be selected by the position of the points. A common enough feature on the prototype to save levers....

Looking at the lever-frame photo, there appears to be both a shunt disc 13 (at the top of the diagram) and a point 13 (at the bottom right). How does that work then ? :-)

Ask your local friendly S&T technician - who knows what's lurking 'unwanted' in their stores...:-)

No doubt there is....but far too often manufacturers pick a one-off as the basis for their models and then suddenly you see them on far too many layouts in totally unsuitable places :-(

I don't recall ever seeing a box with a half-depth brick extension under the landing like that - I wonder what box was the prototype for it ?

Looking at the "was a train Inter City?" issue from the opposite viewpoint.... There is a regular service which runs between Cardiff (a city) and Portsmouth (a city) via Newport (a city), Bristol (a city), Bath (a city), Salisbury (a city and Southampton (a city), yet was never regarded as 'Inter City'. As a result all that we got usually was Sprinters, sometimes only the basic 'commuter' type - not something which made for a pleasant journey. I've not done the journey since I retired, so I don't know the situation these days. Mind you, what really p***** me off was the fact that my employer paid for me to have first class travel, but there was no First Class on that service (at least, not then) :-(

I would agree. The RH 'X' is superfluous. Well, that makes for a short and simple thread :-)

Interesting - proves the 'prototype for everything' adage. I suppose one could argue they were on different dolls though...:-)

Oops - egg on face time :-( Now changed, thanks! It' all those 'W's that confuse me......

No. Goods stock is goods stock..... As a fudge - and not sure if the GNR used them - you might get away with providing a scotch-block that was put on/ taken off the rail by a lever in the SB, perhaps on the grounds that you did not want something to derail on the trap and demolish the water-tower or signal-box :-)

I second that - nice job, wrong place :-)

I don't know enough about the GNR to know whether or not the McK&H signals are the correct type for 'point indicators'. I've struggled to spot the 2nd trap-point to which you refer. In the absence of a track-plan, am I correct to assume that the track immediately to the left of the platform in the right foreground is a passenger line? If so, then there needs to be a trap at the exit from the siding which passes in front of the water-tower. And what is the status of the line on the extreme right please?

>>>>The red disc facing the driver means the secondary route is selected, disc side on to the driver means the primary route is selected... That makes them sound like non-independent 'point indicators' worked directly off the points and which merely show the position of the point rather than act as a stop/go signal. Independent shunt signals worked by their own levers in the signal-box would indicate either 'stop' or 'route is set', regardless of which route if they served more than one.

It was certainly not uncommon to have a distant signal at a station that was nothing to do with that station at all. There were two examples (at least) of that on the Minehead Branch - at the south end of Stogumber station was the Up Distant for the loop at Leigh Bridge, whilst the Down Distant for Kenstford was right opposite the middle of the platform at Watchet station (almost next to the 2-lever GF which controlled access to the sidings there). Neither of those two stations had any signals of their own at that time.

AIUI from the partial diagram, the distant underneath the Up Main Home is NOT worked from Hartlebury Jcn but the next box along, so HJ would not have a lever for it.

>>>Sequential locking is another control, under which you can't pull the home if the starter is already off (this applies to all the stop signals in sequence if there are several). So you must clear them in the order in which the train passes them. There was also sometimes Rotation Locking which AIUI meant that once you had pulled (say) the Home and then put it back, it could not be pulled again until after the Starting had been pulled and replaced (and so forth if there was an Advanced Starting etc), thereby proving (in theory at least) that the train had passed onwards. Of course, if you pulled the Home only, so that the train could pull up to the Starting and then reverse back into a siding or over a crossover on the adjacent line, then because the Starting had not been used there had to be a means to release the backlock on the Home, which might have been achieved (say) by the pulling+replacing of whatever shunt signal was used to back the train out of the way.

>>>...... In very many cases - in fact probably the majority - level crossings were only protected by a single stop signal which might only be a few feet in rear of the crossing stop signal.... From what I can recall, most examples that I have seen of L&SWR/SR locking tables for such locations had the 'lock 2 back' applied. >>>....on secondary lines level crossings worked by a Crossing Keeper might not have any separate protecting semaphore signals at all... Indeed. Most odd in my mind, given that trains running at 'fast' speeds might pass thru' other crossings just a few miles away which had Distant and Home signals. Even more odd IMHO when the latter was found on single-track 'minor branch lines' yet the former persisted on double-track 'main lines'