Signalling.

[52D]

Cheers RP that has been bugging me for ages.

[StevieG]

3-2-5

or

4-3-2-5 Train composed of Freightliner and/or Carflat vehicles exceeding 56 but not more than 70 SLU or Train composed of 7 Cartic 4 vehicles to be regarded as 510 yards long...

or

3-3-2-5

Train composed of Freightliner and/or Carflat vehicles exceeding 70 but not more than 75 SLU to be regarded as 570 yards long..

... and, in the late '60s, 4-3-2-5 and 3-3-2-5 's were still reported/'wired' forward, including by single-needle telegraph where still in use, with the supplementary information, "EW" or "HW" respectively.

And I know, in the southern area of the 'GN' at least, trains of other freight Classes, also long enough to qualify as that first category of 'overlength', also attracted the "EW" description :

[ I think the bell codes were :
Class ... Normal bellcode .... EW
4* ...... 3-1-1 ................ 2-3-1-1
6$ ..... 5 ..................... 1-5
6# ..... 4-1 ................... 2-4-1
7 ....... 1-2-2 ................ 2-1-2-2
8 ....... 3-2 ................... 2-3-2
9 ....... 1-4 ................... 2-1-4

* (non freightliner)
$ ('block load'; e.g., petrol)
# (mixed freight)

(The Class 6 long 'block load' code was 1-5 because 2-5 was a previously & long-established standard bellcode, with a completely very different meaning.) ]

[Mickey]

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[R. pike]

Between two of my boxes a routing code is added to the end of the 'Is line clear' code.. Between Ely Dock Junction and Ely Station North to identify trains to and from the Bury road 1-2 is added. For example a class one is offered from the Dock as 4-1-2. We usually run 4S80 as a long freightliner and it is offered as 4-3-2-5-1-2. We need to know if the train is longer than usual because Ely North Junction has two locations where the train must not be held. The first is at the down homes where the train could tail back onto an AHB and the second is at the down March Starter where a spring point exists at the junction of the down March/down West Curve.

[Mickey]

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[Anthony Tubbs]

Correct Micky

The special instructions card at Upper Holloway had the special bell codes whited out with tippex at the time I was there.
The rubbish train from Northolt used 3-2-1 (unoffically? I can't remember) in reference to the tv show 321 dusty bin.

Cheers
Anthony Tubbs

[thesignalman]

The rubbish train from Northolt used 3-2-1 (unoffically? I can't remember) in reference to the tv show 321 dusty bin.

Definitely unofficial - I never knew it signalled as anything other than 3-2-5.

We used to call it the "London Pride".

At Aylesbury South there was a bell that rang continuously while trains approached and passed over Marsh Crossing after it was automated. A long train like that used to take an eternity to clear the crossing and you can imagine what we thought of that at 2 am in the morning! "London Pride" was not quite the words we used to use then!

Still, it did have its benefits - on the outbound run it was useful to know when to run out with the token.

John

[BHornsey]

3-3-2-5?. I don't ever remember hearing of a 3-3-2-5 bell code?. I remember a 2-3-2-5 and a 4-3-2-5 but by 1981 on the London Midland Region the 2-3-2-5 & 4-3-2-5 bell codes wasn't applicable anymore although 2-3-2-5 & 4-3-2-5 was still applicable on the Eastern Region from Harringay Park Junction onwards towards South Tottenham because when Upper Holloway would ring on a 3-2-5 onto Harringay Park Junction Harringay Park Junction would then ring it on as a 2-3-2-5 to South Tottenham likewise South Tottenham would ring a 2-3-2-5 onto Harringay Park Junction then Harringay Park Junction would ring the same train on as a 3-2-5 onto Upper Holloway.

When I started in 1977, the standard bell codes were:
3-2-5 for a freightliner (up to a 15 set - they were in rakes of 5 at that time, remember)
2-3-2-5 for a 20 set,
4-3-2-5 for a 25 set &
3-3-2-5 for a 30 set
As I remember, 30 sets rarely made it into London (certainly on the GE) as the terminals had trouble accomodating them, but they were common at Ipswich (by special arrangement - they were too long for the passing loops on the Felixstowe line) though by the time I was at Ipswich, all the length related standard bell signals had been withdrawn.

Brian

[Mickey]

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[52A]

What was the bell signal down there for station master entering signalbox.

[Mickey]

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[strang steel]

Good one. On the G.N. in the early 1970s it was 1-2-1-2 well it was around the Hatfield/Welwyn/Knebworth/Stevenage areas.

Is that just coincidence, or railway humour? - as the old Scotland Yard switchboard number was Whitehall 1212 (the BBC announcers used to read it out just before the news if the police were trying to contact somebody who may have been on holiday).

[52A]

Up here in the far north it was a slow 1-1 for the stationmaster etc. and 1-2 to answer block phone, and now bells are going the same way as the old telegraph instruments. Progress!

[Mickey]

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[thesignalman]

Same with ''Go on the phone'' on the G.N. it was 1-2 but on the Midland region it was sometimes 1-1 (rung slow-long pause between each ring).

1-1 was an official code found in the Block Regulations and specifically applied to "block telephones" which shared the same wires as the block bells and thus did not have any other means of ringing for contact. These were very common on the former Midland Railway lines but a few could be found elsewhere. Another code also applied - 3-3-3-3 which meant to attend the block phone for an emergency. This was in the LMS Regulations but after 1960 when the BR ones came into force it was transferred to the local instructions at boxes concerned. As it was an LMS thing, it may not have applied at the relatively few locations on the LNER with block telephones.

John