West of Scotland Railway


Very nice photography and composition on that website. I noticed one of the pictures mentioned a signal box controlling local color signals. How does this system work and are manned signal boxes still common in Sctoland?
 
Jim, This is a great site that will explain British Signalling far better than I could with my rudimentary knowledge:

http://www.signalbox.org/

These old colour signals are mostly gone now and most signalling is computer controlled from central locations covering very large areas. There are a few old but in my view very beautiful signal boxes still around but are in the main non functioning although I'm sure a few still are. They certainly still work on heritage railways!
 
Thanks for the link. The concept of block signals in the UK and the US are very different. Here, we think of automatic block signals where the signal aspects are completely automatic based on detection systems that know if a block is occupied or vacant. About the only place you'd see the signal box concept here would would be major interlocking plants for yards or complex rail crossings. We used to have a token system of train control where there would be a tower similar to a signal box and the operator would hand up or retrieve a token, usually a 3 foot long colored stick. The operator knew if he had a train in the block by looking at the token rack and seeing which sticks were present or missing. No train could pass a tower without stopping for a token for the next block and handing back the token for the block they just vacated. As you might imagine, this was labor intensive, time consuming, and prone to error. Automatic block systems got adopted fairly early here to get around all the problems of the token system and, later, manual signals.
 
Check this out this is up Rogue's neck of the woods (more or less, give or take a few dozen miles), the loco is one of our local ones from the east lancs railway, i have had the pleasure of working on it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for posting that, Steve :) Now how brilliant was that? fantastic scenery with a fantastic train, it doesn't get much better!

Here's a video of Bittern, a loco from my favourite class of steam loco (An A4 Pacific) steaming through Durham in England last month. Not quite as scenic as Steve's video but still pretty awesome (turn up your pc's sound!) ! I actually saw her leaving York the day before this was shot, fantastic!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfcmZursH4
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top