Some questions about signal box lever colours

[DistantAR3]

What do red and yellow, and red and black levers do in a signal box? Also, what colour levers are used to unlock a ground frame?

 

[cool110]

• Red and yellow - Combined home and distant signals on the same lever
• Red and black/white chevrons - Combined home signal and detonator placer
• Blue and brown - Ground frame, Annett's key, etc. release

 

[John Webb]

Plain Red: Stop signals, both main line and shunt signals
Yellow: Distant signals
Black: Points
Blue: Facing Point locks
Black/White chevrons: Detonator placer levers
White: Not used.
Brown: Locks on crossing gates, ground frames etc.
The Combined Red and Yellow mentioned by cool110 above are usually 'Intermediate Block Signals' setup when a box has been closed in the past.
The restored lever frame at St Albans South box:

We don't have any brown levers. The chevron levers point up or down to indicate they apply to an up or down line.
Note the IBS (37 and 41) and distant (40 and 44) levers have short handles to remind the signalman that they are colour light signals, not mechanically worked.

 

[DistantAR3]

Plain Red: Stop signals, both main line and shunt signals
Yellow: Distant signals
Black: Points
Blue: Facing Point locks
Black/White chevrons: Detonator placer levers
White: Not used.
Brown: Locks on crossing gates, ground frames etc.
The Combined Red and Yellow mentioned by cool110 above are usually 'Intermediate Block Signals' setup when a box has been closed in the past.
The restored lever frame at St Albans South box:
View attachment 178683
We don't have any brown levers. The chevron levers point up or down to indicate they apply to an up or down line.
Note the IBS (37 and 41) and distant (40 and 44) levers have short handles to remind the signalman that they are colour light signals, not mechanically worked.

so do the combined distant and stop signals automatically display proceed or caution depending on the aspects of the following signal/s?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Apr 2025 ==

so do the combined distant and stop signals automatically display proceed or caution depending on the aspects of the following signal/s?

Also if you wouldn't mind me asking, how would a driver tell apart a green colour light distant from a green colour light stop signal (aside from route learning)?

 

[IceBlue]

Also if you wouldn't mind me asking, how would a driver tell apart a green colour light distant from a green colour light stop signal (aside from route learning)?

Colour light distant signals have a upwards facing triangle on their identifier plate, such as the one here:
(Source: https://www.railsigns.uk/info/sigid1.html)

Image shows a single colour light signal, displaying yellow, with an identification plate below showing the identifier ‘YS 154’. The plate has an upwards facing triangle above the identification number.

 

[DistantAR3]

Colour light distant signals have a upwards facing triangle on their identifier plate, such as the one here: View attachment 178686
(Source: https://www.railsigns.uk/info/sigid1.html)

Image shows a single colour light signal, displaying yellow, with an identification plate below showing the identifier ‘YS 154’. The plate has an upwards facing triangle above the identification number.

thank you

 

[cool110]

so do the combined distant and stop signals automatically display proceed or caution depending on the aspects of the following signal/s?

No, you have it backwards. They are two separate signals that are both controlled by the same lever. They're used when the distant only applies to a single stop signal (rather than a home and starter), so there's no need for the distant to have it's own lever as they always move as a pair.

 

[DistantAR3]

No, you have it backwards. They are two separate signals that are both controlled by the same lever. They're used when the distant only applies to a single stop signal (rather than a home and starter), so there's no need for the distant to have it's own lever as they always move as a pair.

oh ok. thank you.

 

[John Webb]

so do the combined distant and stop signals automatically display proceed or caution depending on the aspects of the following signal/s?

As stated above they stand on their own. In our particular case at St Albans they replaced a signal box about halfway between St Albans and Harpenden, closed in the 1960s. This would have left a long 'Section' between the two stations which would have reduced the number of trains that could run. so the 'IBS' signals were installed to keep the previous two sections. There is a white band on the two levers indicating Harpenden Station box had to give 'Line Clear' to St Albans before these signals could be worked.

Also if you wouldn't mind me asking, how would a driver tell apart a green colour light distant from a green colour light stop signal (aside from route learning)?

In the days of the mechanical signalling at St Albans, the IBS distant signals were numbered with an 'R' following the signal/lever number; this stood for 'Repeater' as the distant signal repeated the aspect the Home (stop) signal was showing. The triangle symbol in post#5 above is a more recent invention.
The ordinary distant signals worked by their own lever had their own number. The LMS had a policy of converting the distants to colour lights from the 1920s onwards. They also painted the posts of all 'remote' distant signals, mechanical or colour light, with black and white bands to remind drivers it was a distant signal, not a 'stop' signal.

 

[edwin_m]

Sometimes an intermediate block distant will be close enough to the starter of the box before that they are combined as a three-aspect. Similarly the IB home signal might be combined with the distant for the next box.

 

[Gloster]

Not all Intermediate Block Signals were worked from the lever frame. On the Western Region the ones I knew were just a little metal case 8” or so high on the block shelf with a button sticking out of the front. There was an arrow on the button pointing up when Normal (Danger), but to clear the signal you turned it ninety degrees clockwise. If the train hadn’t yet passed the IBS Distant that cleared as well as the Starter, if it had then the Distant stayed at Yellow; the Starter could only be cleared if you had Line Clear from the next box.