TheSignalEngineer

Nominally 4" pipe, so approx 1.3-1.5mm in 4mm scale would look right.

The Roaches and surrounding area were often our chosen destination for winter walking. I always felt strangely at home there. It wasn't till many years later that I found at least one branch of my family tree came from the Staffordshire Moorlands only four generations back from me. That's probably why I feel drawn to the area.

The joys of pole work. Sitting up there in the sleet with the MOX iron spluttering away at the other end of the arm. Alf Ansafety, who's 'e when e's at 'ome. Actually it was refitting the pole behind the box in this shot http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrthl1100.htm into a terminal pole post-electrification of the Trent Valley. It hadn't been done properly at the time and the old arms were falling off because they still had spindles instead of J-Bolts. Looks like I made a reasonable job of it.

Pallet supply became the norm when they started coming from contractors outside BR. Taunton and Newton Heath used to load in open wagons and send to the siding of your choice. Very convenient as they were ready to go to site.

1) Just look at what is around on the loco pictures, you might be surprised and find an interesting bit of infrastructure. 2) Distance depended on the type and voltage of the machine and the fashion at the time. Electric machines were originally fed from close by, up to about the length of a crossover away, although Westinghouse Style C worked by a hand generator would go over at half a mile or more on the pole route. In later years machine feeds tended to be grouped if possible at junctions with feeds up to about a quarter of a mile, but it is a trade off between fewer locations and more expensive cable due to increased volt drop. 3) I will have a closer look later at those pictures as there are several varieties, some almost unique.

New thread is up and running here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/84785-poles-wires-and-cables/

For those modelling modern-ish image, here is the page from the "Crewe Stores" catalogue for troughing http://www.unipartrail.com/WebPDF/StockPDF/Concrete%20Troughing.pdf

Thanks Mick. I am thinking of setting up some other threads depending on the reaction to this one. I was looking at Signals and Point Operation as a couple covering much of the art of getting the railway to work, visibly at least. Eric

Doncaster PSB came into use July 1979 IIRC. Kirk Sandall lasted a further 7 months, which my account for wires on one side but not the other. It may have been a temporary fringe box during that period.

'Like' is not really enough for that one Mick. Was that pole at a place which the whole route had been split at some time? I don't know the history of the area. It shows how to do J-bolts on a terminating wire and cross wires to other places. What intrigues me is that it has double sided arms bolted together. Eric

Next up we have a combination of restricted space and Urban Grot. The photo was taken at Soho Road in April 1981, the signal being the exit from the Soho Pool Branch. Where there wasn't enough space at the bottom of the bank for concrete troughing, Cement Asbestos troughs mounted on posts (CATOP) or wall hangers were used. Photograph Copyright C E Steele As you can see these were fragile and prone to bricking, especially where there was another good target such as the ground signal. In later years this material was replaced by Glass-fibre Reinforced Plastic troughing.

Nice shot Merf, hope that's a rubber hammer!! Plenty of allowance for the collapsing ballast shoulder and "Spoil to Bank Cable Route" ballast cleans.

I'll get it going with a twofer, or possibly even more when you look at the rest of the shot. This was a picture that didn't get printed, coming to light recently when scanning stuff from an old file which hadn't been opened for years. It was taken almost 50 years ago in the summer of 1964, the days when there were so many trainspotters that BR used to run special trains from Birmingham to Crewe Works during the summer shut-down. This is the return trip coming into the tunnel by Monument Lane shed. You couldn't take it now because in addition to it being electrified with MAS, it's under the NIA. It demonstrates my policy that there are few useless photos, bad ones often show things of historical or technical interest. Photo Copyright C E Steele The two for the price of one are the newly laid concrete trough for the New St Resignalling project, complete with odd spare troughs and lids lying around, but more interestingly some LMS boxing on posts. It does show on other pictures but isn't that often noticed. Thanks to the help of a member on here I now have some details of the stuff as I want to build a length myself, so will post details when I get round to making it. Going back and breaking my own rule for the thread, Michael would like those 16 tonners in the scrap siding which was formerly the coal yard and Malt House siding. Further on there is a nice possibly LMS vintage 4-aspect colour light. I believe it was put up around 1947 but can't confirm that, and what looks like an asbestos cement sheet hut.

OK,. The gauntlet is down. Discussing details of a signalling nature following a recent question, it became clear that there could be some interest in gathering together reference information into a topic thread to aid the adding of these often neglected little details to layouts. As an opener I am going to start with the string that ties it all together. From the earliest days of the railway telegraphs in the 1840s there has been a need to pass electricity from one part of the system to another. The telegraph pole route is the most obvious sign of this to start with right up to the blue diesel era in some places but from the earliest days cables were experimented with. The South Eastern Railway reputedly trialled a submarine telegraph cable at Folkestone in 1849. As more equipment became electrically worked or monitored the need for cabling right down to the track increased, resulting in the mass of orange pipes we see today. Please try to keep to the topic where if possible. I will start a couple of other threads to cover other equipment on the track and around it. Feel free to post your own pictures but please add date and place information as there are a lot of local quirks due to company history and progression of standards over the years.

I will try to look some out later. Perhaps i will start a thread as a repository for pictures on linneside and on-track cabling when i get chance later on.

Trough sides should be at least 1" above finished ground level, otherwise they get full of muck when you take the lids off. Also don't forget that particularly from about 1970ish they had knock-outs at the top of each side for tail cables to come out.

Try this shot. The three rods to the left of the switch blades are for the lock and detector slides. The other single one drives the points. The two bits sticking out on the base sit on the extended timbers. Edit; Usually best to put it in the widest available interval if it can't go in the cess.

By the 1970s most domestic coal in the West Midlands was delivered to Coal Concentralion Depots in 21T hoppers. It was conveyored onto the stacks then loaded for bulk delivery. One of the last places I remember in the North West was the Deepdale Branch at Preston, which closed about 1994

Camera framing can do some funny things, like the day we spotted what was apparently two trains in section north of Milton Keynes. I think it's still there on Google Earth.

The picture of 43464 is a good reminder of the early days of electrification at Crewe. There was complete intermingling of AL1s and EE Type 4s with 60-year old steam locos

Don't know where 'OSS is off to, but about 15 seconds in there is a Class 304 still in 4-car formation with the First Class compartment heading past the gas works at Watery Lane. Looks like it was taken from the locks by Factory Road bridge. You can't see the railway for the trees there now.

As for the best I ever had, it would have to be my Dublo 3-rail 2-6-4T. It would take 10 Dublo SD coaches round 15" radius curves.

Doubt if many were as bad as the Hornby Mickey Mouse 2-6-0 of about 30 years ago. Mine would manage to take about 3 coaches with pin-point bearings but steadfastly refused to budge on curves with one Hornby Dublo coach.

Have you been counting rivets again?

Why does he have to trade under two different names on ebay? Is it to make us think his prices are also charged by others so are not really crazy?