Railway General Knowledge.

[midland1]

The ones that used to straddle the West Coast Main Line and Northampton line at the South end of Rugby station? We're they dismantled upon resignalling with colour lights and installed as smaller units elsewhere?

Thats right all four signal structures came from the Rugby "bedstead" gantry. When colour lights were put in in 1939 the gantry was still in good condition so the LMS cut it up to use at the four sites. Well done.

 

[D6130]

Thanks. Continuing on a signalling theme, on the former Great Western Railway - and later on BR (Western Region) - what was the significance of a short-armed red-painted subsidiary signal with two horizontal holes at the left hand end placed beneath a main stop signal arm at certain locations?/

 

[Ashley Hill]

A backing signal for making wrong direction moves. IIRC the last one was at Castle Cary.

 

[D6130]

A backing signal for making wrong direction moves. IIRC the last one was at Castle Cary.

Correct. I thought that you would know that one. Your turn to reverse into the next question!

 

[Gloster]

The last one was at Cary until February 1985 and went to the National Railway Museum. It was taken down carefully, but they still managed to bend the arm; in those days they had only just over 48-hours to commission the whole last stage of the Westbury resignalling. Cary’s signal had a three-way route indicator and for the Weymouth line it was released by the token.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Sorry no question prepared. Open floor…

 

[Ashley Hill]

Sorry no question prepared. Open floor…

I’ve thought of one.
In what year was the last GWR ATC equipment taken out of service? (Automatic Train Control)
Embarrassingly I’ve just checked a 3rd source which has given the following year but only days apart from the previous,so I will accept either year.

 

[DerekC]

1962?

 

[Ashley Hill]

Not 1962.

 

[Peterthegreat]

I think it lasted longer, possibly late 70s or early 80s so I'll go for 1979.

 

[Gloster]

1975?

 

[RDP]

1969?

 

[Ashley Hill]

1975?

Correct,in the Hereford area. Two sources said late 75 another said early 76 so I would have accepted that as well.
Your turn to automatically produce a question……..

 

[Gloster]

A fairly simple one: why was the Great Central’s 8K class so notable?

 

[RDP]

They became the ROD standard 2-8-0 during WW1.

 

[Gloster]

They became the ROD standard 2-8-0 during WW1.

Indeed they did. Your turn to set a question.

 

[RDP]

An interesting one from an event that occurred yesterday.

On 9th May a pair of Rail Adventure class 43 HST power cars made the first daylight appearance of the class in Kent. Although a number of people have claimed this as the first appearance of the class in Kent that is not the case as the NMT has been trialled on HS1. In what year did this occur?

 

[RDP]

As no one seems to know the answer I will declare open floor.

The answer was 2011 when in the early hours of 15th October and again on 19th November the NMT ran the full length of HS1 from St. Pancras to the Eurotunnel boundary and back. Presumably the lack of cab signalling equipment meant this could only be done when no other trains were running.

 

[DerekC]

A quick one that should be open to guesswork. In its very early days, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway operating committee debated whether to put platforms at intermediate stations and if so, where. But they didn't call them "platforms". What terms were used?

 

[Calthrop]

Quays?

 

[D6130]

Pavements?

 

[DerekC]

Pavements?

Not those.

Quays?

No, but you are getting warm.

 

[D6130]

Jetties?

 

[DerekC]

Jetties?

On the right lines, but still not one of the terms used.

 

[Calthrop]

Docks?

 

[DerekC]

Docks?

No - could have been, but wasn't (Interesting that the DLR uses (or did use) "docking" as the term for accurate stopping at stations). Think canals - or little ferries across rivers.

 

[Peterthegreat]

Staithes?

 

[Cowley]

Landings?

 

[Gloster]

Stages?

 

[RDP]

Piers?