Unidentified Lineside post

[sss750]

I have seen these strange posts on a former GNR/LNER disused line, they have a flat plate bolted to the top of them, with some indistinguishable numbers or letters painted on, has anyone got an idea what they might have been?

[sss750]

The plates are oval shaped and these 2 were in a cutting, so not culvert plates, it's been suggested elsewhere they could be chainage markers, but someone I know who is an expert on railway bridge numbers said if that was the case then they would be a lot more common, as he's never seen these before.

[R. pike]

I would expect to find these at culverts or maybe where drainage crosses from one cess to another.

[PinzaC55]

It looks like the top photo says 1/4 to me.

[Mickey]

I could well be wrong guy's but something keeps telling me it's a 'Buried Electrical Cable Marker' something i vaguely remember seeing trackside before many years ago back in the 1970s.

Mickey

[sss750]

By the look of the age of these posts, the thickness of the paint and condition of them, they look like they are probably of GNR origin, would the GNR have used electric cables buried along the Lineside in a mechanically signalled area?

[R. pike]

I know of one where i could stand in the drain and take a picture of it above...if there was a little less water about.

[Mickey]

Even during GNR days from the 1880s onwards with the continued development of mechanical signalling there was a certain amount of electrical equipment in use in signal boxes such as the eletrical interlocking working inconjunction with the signal box mechanical lever frames, block bells & block insturments the eletcric telegraph equipment and early telephones but i presume a 'Buried Electrical Cable Marker' would possibly signify that the power lines buried nearby were of the high voltage type and may have not been connected with any nearby signal box?. Signal box block bells & block insturments along with the electric telegraph and telephones usually went through the lineside telegraph wires between signal boxes and not usually buried in the ground?.

As previously posted i am only guessing that the sign is or was to signify 'Buried Electrical Cables' i am not totally certain that it is?.

Mickey

[sss750]

If you could ever get a pic of the one you know of R. pike that would be great. I'm a bit more convinced it's probably for marking A buried cable now to be honest.