Signal visibility during thick fog?

[Tomnick]

They're all the same when it comes to saving pennies, these driver types .

 

[LowLevel]

Interestingly it was a good old wakeup call this morning as we were zooming along at 85 mph on the up road through the hope valley and Edale's down home appeared in my view and then disappeared within about 100 yards in a fog bank - it does sort of make you a bit more sympathetic to people who say semaphores should be history!

 

[carriageline]

The biggest problem I have encountered (very recently more than anything) is how hard it is to acquire replacement parts for semaphores, and more importantly inside the local S&T team, not everyone has the competences to maintain and fix the mechanical stuff. When we fault things, sometimes nationwide resources are required to come out and fix something trivial!! On that note, our locking fitters come from nearly 250 miles away for our 6? monthly frame work


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[Tomnick]

Locking fitters are indeed thin on the ground - remember the outrage when it became apparent that they were being brought over from India for the big Stockport job a few years ago? We don't seem to have many problems keeping the mechanical stuff working though - the only time that I can remember a long delay awaiting parts was when one of the new LED 'light engines' packed in and a replacement couldn't be obtained - in the end they had to pinch one off a 'less important' signal. We're lucky to have a small S&T team for maintenance and daytime fault cover though, dealing almost exclusively with the mechanical boxes on the patch, though the teams from the nearby 'big' depot are well familiar with the equipment too.

 

[ac6000cw]

Locking fitters are indeed thin on the ground - remember the outrage when it became apparent that they were being brought over from India for the big Stockport job a few years ago? We don't seem to have many problems keeping the mechanical stuff working though - the only time that I can remember a long delay awaiting parts was when one of the new LED 'light engines' packed in and a replacement couldn't be obtained - in the end they had to pinch one off a 'less important' signal. We're lucky to have a small S&T team for maintenance and daytime fault cover though, dealing almost exclusively with the mechanical boxes on the patch, though the teams from the nearby 'big' depot are well familiar with the equipment too.

Interestingly, NR has very recently erected a new building alongside Waterbeach station (just north of Cambridge) which says 'Mechanical Locking Fitters Workshop' above the entrance, so presumably we have a few of them in my part of world.

 

[Tomnick]

Interesting - what a strange place to base locking fitters! Could it be a structure recycled from elsewhere?

 

[ac6000cw]

Interesting - what a strange place to base locking fitters! Could it be a structure recycled from elsewhere?

Looks new to me - a standard 'industrial unit' type structure. The main NR maintenance base in the area seems to be at Ely, but that is quite a sizeable 'portakabin village' now, so maybe they've run out of space there.

 

[infobleep]

Interestingly it was a good old wakeup call this morning as we were zooming along at 85 mph on the up road through the hope valley and Edale's down home appeared in my view and then disappeared within about 100 yards in a fog bank - it does sort of make you a bit more sympathetic to people who say semaphores should be history!

In the distance past though for signalman were used. Surely there would be a case in some part of the country to use them again until the signalling that be replaced. I believe they were required on the Southern Railway network any time visibility fell to below 200 yards and / or it was snowing. I have the 1947/48 server weather regulations booklet for staff. Makes for fascinating reading.

 

[Tomnick]

What does a fog signalman at a distant signal achieve that AWS doesn't, though? At least the latter doesn't have to put itself in tremendous danger every time the signal is cleared or replaced. The greatest problem, unless the drivers wish to correct me, nowadays is after the distant has been passed (and observed) at caution, creeping along, peering through the fog, waiting for that little tiny dot of red light to appear...