Southern Signals
Semaphore Signals
| Shunt signals. |
| Siting shunt signals on high was quite common where they
were used underneath running signals, but when on their own was nowhere near as
common as there really wasn't any need to do so unless sighting of the
signal was difficult. Where so positioned, they are referred to as elevated
shunt signals. On the right is a photograph of one that was at Tunbridge Wells
West, and was the inspiration for one installed on the Bluebell Railway where
an embankment would restrict the view of the signal were it to be placed at
ground level.
photograph by kind permission of Alan Elliott |
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| The following front and rear views of a floodlit shunt disc, a yellow shunt signal disc, a yellow shunt arm and an animation of a yellow shunt signal disc are from photographs provided by Trevor Hurdle. Note that these do not contain the spectacle glass which is part of the post on which the discs/arms are mounted. |
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| The white diamond on the front of the floodlit disc means that that particular signal was exempt from the provisions of Rule 55, most probably because it was situated beside a section of track-circuited line. | |||||||
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| From the above images it can be seen that the fixing holes are the same on both the miniature arm and the disc, indicating how easily a disc could be substituted for a miniature arm. Look at the red miniature arm above to see how the spectacle plate had the aspects in the same place as the discs have. | |||||||
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This is the basic post that can carry either a miniature arm or
a Westinghouse disc. Note the blue proceed spectacle glass which, when paired
with the yellow flame of an oil lamp shows a green light.
photograph by Peter Richards |
| Here is a modern example of a round dummy on the Southern.
This one, at Dorking, doesn't have the traditional lamp but is floodlit
from above therefore showing the whole disc after dark, not just a red or green
light. These discs were generally put in with colour-light signalling, though
in the pre-modernisation era only if a layout required drastic revision when
usually the existing mechanical signalling was replaced with a miniature
lever-frame working power points, colour-light signals and floodlit discs.
photograph by Nick Beck |
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This page was last updated 29 January 2004
