View allAll Photos Tagged semaphore
ScotRail I7C short set HST with 43012 leading departs Arbroath with 1A75, the 12:30 Edinburgh – Aberdeen service on 5th June 2019.
The setting sun backlights the semaphores at the west end of North Freedom shortly before they were taken down.
66 614 departs Great Rocks Junction with 6L89 Tunstead to West Thurrock. Semaphore signalling, complete with operational distants, still very much in evidence along the former Midland Main Line.
The last semaphore signals that I am aware of on Queensland Rail in the Brisbane area are on the single track Pinkenba line between Hendra and Ascot stations. They no longer operate, at least as far as I know as the line is also fitted with colour light signals.
Electric passenger services on this line terminate at Doomben station.
Semaphore signals were developed in the 19th century as an improved means of safe working on the railways, keeping trains separated by safe distances and replacing earlier forms of signals, including human flag men. This was important in the early days of railways because trains were either unbraked at first or until the development of much better fail safe air and vacuum systems, fitted with poor forms of brake that often led to disastrous crashes and death tolls.
You will note that the semaphore signals in this collage are both different. The one of the left in yellow with a chevron cut from and also painted on the end is called a distant signal and is near Hendra Station while the red signals (two arms) in the shot on the right are called home signals. The white cross on the top right signal means it is technically not in use, the crossing loop which it controlled in Ascot station is disconnected. The bottom signal controls the single track that remains that runs through the platform.
The yellow distant signal is intended as a warning to drivers about the position of the next home signal. They do not stop at distant signals. If the distant is showing stop (signal arm horizontal) then it tells them to be prepared to stop as the next home signal will also be showing red or at danger. They must never pass a home signal at danger or the "on" position. If the distant is showing proceed in either lower quadrant ( as these signals are - that is the arm falls if it is "off" or in the proceed position) or upper quadrant where the arm is raised halfway between horizontal and vertical (UK practice) or near vertical (US practice), then they know the following home should be showing proceed and they can expect to pass it without hindrance.
You will note that all these signals have two glasses on the inside end, red and green behind which sits a light which is used in hours of darkness. They were once fuelled by paraffin or kerosene but modern versions like these are electric. Semaphore Signals were mostly controlled by trained signalmen from signal boxes or other staff from small ground frames. They are designed to fail safe.
Passing a signal at danger, in modern terms known as a SPAD (or signal passed at danger) would be a situation subject to compulsory reporting and investigation leading to severe consequences and possibly termination. Signals at danger mean that there is another train or obstruction ahead. Many drivers have paid with their lives over the history of railways having caused a crash, often with fatal consequences for passengers and staff in both trains as well. The history of safe working improvements and their causes fills many books and is often littered with great drama, death and innovation.
Modern railway safe working is often carried out by computer systems, colour lights of course, in cab signalling, radio and fully automated systems that allow trains to operate without drivers. These can be found in places carrying passengers like the Tube and Docklands Light Railway in London or in Western Australia where Rio Tinto operates massive iron ore trains without drivers from a single control centre hundreds of kilometres away.
Please note that this is a very simple explanation of semaphore signal systems, which even though many years old and outdated now could be very complex in their operation on busy lines and junctions.
Wabash #1189 goes through some semaphore signals at the Monticello Railway Museum. Stair Tower can be seen in the back.
September 17, 2022
Monticello, Illinois
A Worcester bound GWR train splits an aging pair of semaphores that guard the Moreton-in-Marsh station.
A newer set of power, LED headlights and a boring wedge frame don't really help this picture out, but don't think a redo will come so easily.. After hearing that my dad and I would have some time off and a car during our trip to the UK I instantly got on google maps to check if there was anything of interest nearby. This search lead me to Moreton-in-Marsh, a smaller town in the Cotswold's that had the pair of semaphores you see here. Form the very limited research I did on these oddball signals (at least for NA standards) I found that they managed to stick around as a result of GWR upgrades further down the line taking up too much of the budget. I had wanted a North facing shot at the station which was miles better than this. I was also running out of space on my SD card so in anticipation for this train I deleted every test shot I had taken while trying to get the prefect frame but due to some "infrastructure issues" that oncoming train seemingly vanished and all hopes for my better shot of the British semaphores with it as well.
TransPennine Express class 185 no. 185136 arrives at Scarborough on 30 July 2010 with the 09.22 from Liverpool Lime St. The Falsgrave Road signal gantry was removed to Grosmont, NYMR.
14.2.2007.
EWS Class 66 No 66111 approaches Pelham Street Junction with a loaded coal train from Immingham - bound for a Trent Valley Power Station.
Pelham Street signal box would have just to the right of the picture.
After the recent disappointment of missing the 6M86 due to late running and darkness, I thought it would have to wait until the lighter nights of next year! But ...
with the closure of Marches line due to track damage , an one off change to the WTT brought today's run ,via Birmingham, in daylight. 66027 approaches the semaphore at the bottom of the gradient.
A home Signal and two gantries can clearly be seen, with a third gantry seen through the bush, at Wrawby.
Filthy 66046 approaches Wrawby Signal Box with 6T25, Immingham - Santon Iron Ore Train.
Seen on the 8th December 2015 at 1409
Dark storm clouds overhead taken on Oolong Rd between Oolong and Yass, this storm passed with no action
The semaphore on display at the Union Depot Museum in Mendota, IL is silhouetted against the hot summer sun.
One of the earliest forms of fixed railway signal is the semaphore. These signals display their different indications to train drivers by changing the angle of inclination of a pivoted 'arm'. Semaphore signals were patented in the early 1840s by Joseph James Stevens, and soon became the most widely used form of mechanical signal. Designs have altered over the intervening years, and colour light signals have replaced semaphore signals in some countries, but in others they remain in use.
Wikipedia
50 031 Hood passes the upper and lower semaphores at Fenny Compton while working 1M20, the 09:40 Paddington - Birmingham New Street
1st November and in dramatic light a Transpennine 185 on hire to Northern leaves with the 1540 departure to Manchester Airport leaves Blackpool North Station.
In ten days the station closes for 4 months and all this will be gone .
I have been told the box will be pulled down the Day after the line closes. The lever frame is stamped Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Horwich works. Let us hope someone saves it.
Welsh Gold, aka Chris Davies, does his best Chariots of Fire impression as he goes for the Plumley bracket signal shot, the train had arrived several minutes early and had to wait for the passenger train to clear the section ahead. 66 510 departed four minutes early from Plumley and I'm still not sure if he managed to get the shot.
I'm not really sure that I can think of anywhere that you might see a class 68 in a sea of lower quadrants. Worcester is a possibility I guess, maybe somewhere along the Marches. Other than that...
There aren't many places left on the national network that can boast lower quadrant semaphores like Bewdley can, the ex-GW signalling is getting decidedly thin on the ground. Enjoy them while you can, unlike Superb (68025, not 50002!) they probably don't have much of a future...
21 May 2016
no matter how much the city of pae mucks up the foreshore, thank god they can't fuck with the sunset...
The fine array of semaphore signals at Wolsztyn are hard to work into a satisfactory composition with them being evenly spaced out across the broad section of running lines south of the station, but a wet morning and an empty stock move from the station to the depot presented a good opportunity to attempt something. Almost blocking the photographer by an incoming service from Poznan, Ol49-69 heads to the depot on a grim Tuesday 5th December 2017, just as a DB Schenker road vehicle hurries across the flyover!
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
Semaphore Fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus, 7mm), a so-called long-legged fly from a family associated with wet areas, the Dolichopodidae. The adults are typically found wherever there is pond-weed or algae. Larvae are believed to be predatory, developing in damp soil, and adults certainly are, feeding on a range of invertebrates. The male has white tips to the wings.
37414 'CATHAYS C&W WORKS 1846-1993' departs Prestatyn on the North Wales coast, a mid-morning shot, Bangor to Crewe working in September 1996.
Over the years I have taken many photos around here. Most are in the ownership of Martin Loader [Hondawanderer website]. My wife's aunt owned a static caravan at Ffrith so many holidays spent in the area.
Ref: img378 NWC
Were at Savanna next to the tower with semaphores everywhere .The two GP-40's are heading into the engine facility next to the round house in the summer of 1980
Friday, 18 September 2009
2605/16 departs Glounthaune with the 1600hrs Cork-Cobh commuter service.
© Finbarr O'Neill
67012 is surrounded by a fine array of semaphore signalling as it passes over the Crewe Junction crossovers at Shrewsbury heading the 1V91 05:33 Holyhead to Cardiff Central Arriva Trains Wales service on a damp Thursday 23rd March 2017.
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
45037 approaches Exeter St Davids with the summer Saturday 08.02 Nottingham - Paignton on the 16th July 1983. Semaphores abound.
Adelaide, South Australia.
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West of Binghamton, on NS's Southern Tier line, one of the last semaphores still stood, guarding the block ahead. It was living on borrowed time, and has long since been replaced.