British Rail Signalling
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- Опубліковано 24 тра 2020
- After recovering a VHS from the former Crewe Training Centre, here's one of three ex-BR films recovered from it. This film goes into great depth about the various forms of signalling used on the BR network at the time such as the traditional semaphore, token block working, RETB and colour light. As well as also looking into other aspects of railway control such as level crossings.
I was part of the film crew who shot this.
The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy seems very detailed on trains of earth for some reason.
Next entry: towels probably
I was an instructor at the Southern Region Training School, South Side (Waterloo) from 1977 until privatisation.
We used to show this film during the Rules part of the trainee driver (MP12) courses.
(Under privatisation, I went to the Connex South-Eastern Training Centre at London Bridge - until voluntary severance beckoned!).
The narrator in the film(s) also worked at South Side for a period. He also filmed and narrated many route-learning videos.
He had been a Driver, Signaller, had a model shop and small film company.
Pleasure to go to work in BR days!
I remember the signalling school at Beckenham House, they had some decent simulator stuff in there. My late father left London Bridge in the nineties, poss 95 worn out by the SE Platforms panel, he spent his retirement working for Swanage Railway. Just ask any of the old hands down there about "fag and tea Keith" hehe he was never without either. You prob knew Andy Tczinski I think his name was who was at the old Waterloo signally school, also I believe one of my old school mates is still lurking about Paul Burton, think he got involved with the RMT as I kept bumping into him all over the shop, he'd been a signaller at Orpington when it was still running then moved into another branch.
Yes that was Dave who directed most of these films.
Railway signalling is amongst the most logic oriented fields. Good to see this knowledge coming in public domain.
That's a lot of stuff to know and to apply! I guess it becomes second nature in practice, but I am thankful for all the safe journeys I have made by train over the year that have depended on someone's attention to getting this stuff right. Well done all your rail folk out there!
That bit about route control versus speed control is actually really important. When I first learned about signalling it was the British type and so I was rather confused when I learned how others did it.
Great vid 👍. I remember doing relay control stuff in the 90s.. its the same logic from then being used in most PLC stuff today. Complexity v reliabilty.. and how to fail safe. 👍
Level crossings in the States, for those that have flashing lights and/or gates, were fully automated by 1950.
Thank you for sharing this.
I was born in 1964 in the States. Here, all single-track signaled railways were fully automatic for decades before that. The Reading and Pennsylvania railways were fully automatic before 1900.
Interesting video👌
Wow, barrier-less crossings and public operated gates; a relic of the past that would be lethal with todays boy racers.
And yet ther still exist.
OK here a question for train enthusiasts as I can't remember "Old Age kicking in". I was born in 1961 and can remember very well these coaches at point 0:23 of the video. I remember the old train stations with the Cadburys 1 penny chocolate machines, the 5 Park Drive cigarette machines and the waiting rooms with the old gas fires in them. I can also remember the every time after getting off the train the conductor would blow his whistle and there would be clouds of black smoke billowing up all around the bridge crossing above the tracks. So what engine would that be?. I can't see it being diesel as in all these film clips there are no billows of black smoke and steam trains were before my time. Crazy how I can remember the coaches and loved going on the trains back then but blowed if I can remember what type of engines were used 🤷♂️
Well, most all early diesel locomotives would produce clouds of black when starting as the engine would be under maximum load.
Its a Class 47 in Intercity livery
That BR employee at the failed signal at the end of this video could also simply hold out his right arm horizontally to ask an approaching train to stop, and later hold his right arm 45 degrees upward from horizontal to instruct the train to proceed, mimicking a semaphore signal.
I think it is the flag/lamp that is crucial here for it to be deemed a signal, track gangs acknowledge a trains presence by raising their arms without a flag/lamp. If a train responded to arms alone being raised, confusion would follow.
@@Chilled_Mackers Well, as a lamp is part of a semaphore signal, he could also hold a lamp with sections of coloured glass around the light in his outstretched hand, showing the red section for stop and the green section for proceed. The right arm of his jacket would also need to be red with a white armband in the middle, again mimicking a semaphore signal.
@@denelson83 The SOP's are developed to deal with these situations, to reduce confusion and delay. Often blood and tears improved these over the decades. The older lamps evolved to have lenses for stop and go and eventually caution aspects, these days they are LED button switched for the 4 main signal aspects required. BR/NR tend to avoid "special tools" in this case your jacket idea, for essential emergency response/works - so that reaction and deployment is universal and quick. Special signal jackets would not improve reaction times. There are hand signals, flag signals and lamp signals, which rail workers can use to communicate to a train. The universal high visibility oranges are the uniform, the variations are the company name on the back and chest, the colour of the hard hat and coloured bands on the arms. Hats and arm bands signify various roles. Even a plate layer can stop a train using their arms in a 'X', as an example. I hope that helps.
just adding, if a plate layer has had to stop a train using their arms, the train driver would have heard many large bangs and some people will be sacked.
Are there any mechanical signals left on the British Railway system as of October 2021? If not, do you know when the last one was removed?
Plenty. Though gradually being replaced by modern signalling the network is already in the position that ‘modern’ colour light installations which previously replaced mechanical signals are themselves in need of urgent renewal due to life expiry. These will take up a significant proportion of the available budget. Where significant track alterations are planned modernisation becomes even more imperative. I think it’s safe to say mechanical boxes will be around for sometime yet. Check out Shrewsbury and Worcester Shrub Hill for the best examples remaining.
@@gingertom2355 Thank you. I will have to go to Shrewsberry or Worcester Shrub Hill. The mechanical systems hold a great fascination for me.
We still have a ex-Midland Railway lower quadrant signal is use in 2022 at Ketton on the line from Peterborough and Leicester.
Yep lots of them - mainly on the western region routes
It still makes me slightly alarmed to see in cab ride videos on the Continent how trains will switch tracks with no signal indication at all, as long as the speed on the diverging route is no lower than on the main route. That doesn't look right to me at all
I was just about to watch this video I was sent just before settling down to sleep next to my wife. It started with unnecessary fast and loud music which woke her straight up. Switched off immediately.
Thanks for sharing that vital information.
Shazam failed…
Intro music awful .
It's about spot on for the late 80's or early 90's, when this vid was made.
Come back Gary Numan, all is forgiven.
Yep, I still want a full version tho
Is anyone really interested in this video with its run-on-sentence narration? Semi-infinite details might be comprehensible IF I were interested in the British Rail system. But I am not interested in the least. Thumbs down. Goodbye.
WTF kind of odd creature are you? Its a training video intended for a professional audience from a bygone era. Enthusiasts for this stuff like it. Why downvote something not intended for you?
Odd creature.
It's intended for those capable of understanding it. Clearly lost on you. Goodbye.
Goodbye you fuckwit.
Obviously this subject matter was not intended for you… go back to TikTok for Your stupid stuff.
And goodbye from him. ...