Islineclear3_1
Established Member
Given that many older colour light schemes are being renewed/replaced with LED's, where is the oldest surviving working example on the national network?
No, I mean original signal head, post, fittings, signal plate and still using a filament bulb - not LEDDoes it count if the signal head is still the same but now there is an LED fitting inside instead of filament bulb? There are plenty of those kicking around.
Plymouth predates the 1962 Perth installation by a couple of years, so that’s another possibility.Distant on old mechanical boxes are the most likely answer as zwk500 suggested.
The oldest signals I know the dates of are at Workington No.2. It has signal 4, a 3 aspect colour light with associated position light 56, alongside 2 ground position light signals 54 and 46. All of these are for the Up Through Siding which is now out of use but all the infrastructure remains in place. These were all commissioned in 1984 with the closure of Workington No.1 signal box.
I’d imagine some of the signals in the Perth area could be quite old, it is seemingly a rather early form of power signalling with double stacked position light signals for route indication and red & white for danger! That being said quite a few have been renewed with LED bulbs.
Our oldest ones around the Harrow area are c1948, with c1962 once you get up towards Amersham. Most are still filament, although some LEDs are now in use.LU signals between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Amersham on the Met line route used by Chiltern Railways services have been in place I believe since around 1960 or maybe even earlier...
...would rule them all out, as all the plates were renewed around 18 months ago.No, I mean original signal head, post, fittings, signal plate and still using a filament bulb - not LED
I am extremely confident of still working the mechanical frame at Harrow well into 2025, so they'll all be at least another year older.although they are due to be replaced next year under the 4LM modernisation scheme.
Yes, Dorking certainly had some 1930s heads until well into the 90s, if not the 2000s. Also, as an aside, when the down siding was reinstated in the 2000s, the semaphore shunt signal was reinstated too, with what looked like a hand-painted disc (a narrower-than-usual red band)!During the 90s I used to drive trains to Dorking. I believe the CLS dated back to the 30s. No idea if and when replaced