View allAll Photos Tagged semaphore
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
10th May 2008 and 6233 Duchess of Sutherland prepares to take the Fylde Coast Express from Blackpool signal box. Authorised visit to the then Blackpool number 2 box
Dark storm clouds overhead taken on Oolong Rd between Oolong and Yass, this storm passed with no action
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.
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.
no matter how much the city of pae mucks up the foreshore, thank god they can't fuck with the sunset...
The West Yard-based (South Beloit, IL) #922 local had quite a bit of work during the late 1990s to perform. This is the job heading south through Rockford, IL on Saturday morning January 30, 1999. The IMRL 123 and 115 have 112 total cars: 6 frame empties from GM and 2 empty covered hoppers for the PVC pipe factory in Janesville, 101 coal empties out of the Beloit, WI power plant and another 3 frame loads headed for Mexico by way of Chicago and the SP.
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
My last trip of 2024, traveled around 1600+ km to explore the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) but ended up having a wonderful time with buses from TNSTC, SETC & KSRTC altogether while the trains remained stable like this even after getting CNF Tatkal a day before.
The postcard from the green valley of Coonoor (ONR), where the railway architecture & machineries like Metre Guage Tracks, X Class Steam & YDM Locomotives, Arch Building of Bricks, Steam Loco Shed, Semaphore Signals and the open sky without catenary mess still offering the glimpse of colonial past. 😀
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15 December, 2024.
Coonoor (ONR, SR)
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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.
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
45305 puts on a fine show as the early morning mist and cloud clears departing Loughborough on the Great central Railway
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
Adelaide, South Australia.
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Copyright © 2015 This image may not be reproduced, copied, stored, or manipulated in any way without the written permission of Mark A. Cooper. All Rights Reserved
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.
The semaphore signal near Campbellsville, IN on the fomrer Monon line stands forelornly under the stars. The weed-overgrown line was railbanked by CSX.
Two SD40-2's roar upgrade past the old wooden elevator at Hatton, WA on the afternoon of April 23, 1987. The old building would outlast the ABS semaphores in the background, but only by a few years.
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
The conductor is changing the aspect on the semaphore signals so that CP 1608 can lead Exporail's excursion train to Hays Station to lay over after the last run of the day.
In the first sunlight of the day, 153308 on a Grimsby Town-Newark NG train approaches Wrawby Jn's section signal WJ101 on the Lincoln route, 08/12/15. Note the semaphore signals modern replacement waiting to be erected...
Taken with a camera pole
3850 works a goods train into Rothley station during the Great Central Winter Gala on 25 January 2025.