The LNER Encyclopedia

In Colin Walker's excellent 'Great Central Twilight' plate 25 shows a B1 leaving Marylebone platform 4 heading towards the Rossmore Road bridge. In the lee of the bridge are two sets of quaint lower quadrant signals - so quaint in fact that they look distinctly 'home made.' I guess the date of the pic maybe 1955-1959. I first went to Marylebone in 1960 and I don't remember seeing them. Certainly by 1964 they had been replaced. Anybody have any idea of the origin of these signals, or any other photographs of them?

adge wrote:In Colin Walker's excellent 'Great Central Twilight' plate 25 shows a B1 leaving Marylebone platform 4 heading towards the Rossmore Road bridge. In the lee of the bridge are two sets of quaint lower quadrant signals - so quaint in fact that they look distinctly 'home made.' I guess the date of the pic maybe 1955-1959. I first went to Marylebone in 1960 and I don't remember seeing them. Certainly by 1964 they had been replaced. Anybody have any idea of the origin of these signals, or any other photographs of them?

To the best of my knowledge the signals against Rossmore Road bridge were only ever Great Central Railway lower quadrants, WR lower quadrant replacements* or LMR upper quadrant replacements. If the signal you refer to was definitely not of one of these patterns, I would be very interested in seeing the picture in that book.

* - from memory, platform 4's signal was not one of these

John

I don't have the photo in front of me just now, but to my inexperienced eye it appeared as if the home signal post once carried a signal at the usual level near the top of the post, but that had been moved and fixed at drivers' eye level. Then there appears to have been a later addition of a brace and short post with a shunt signal to give access across the points to the right and onto the lines out of platforms 1,2 and 3. There is a similar set up for platform 3. The home signal is lower quadrant. Upper quadrant signals were in place by the time the main line services out of Marylebone finished. The signals in the photo just look very odd.

If you look at this clip between the 35 and 38 second points you will see glimpses of the signals for (presumably) the crossovers. The left hand one is upper quadrant but the two on the right hand post seem to be lower quadrant.

These are probably nothing to do with the ones by the bridge which are also visible as the train arrives, but I thought the clip might be of interest.

They appear to have been removed by the time later clips were filmed.

http://steamtube.ning.com/video/marylebone-in-the-1960s

Some lovely shots on that vt - Warships at Marylebone! - a completely separate topic....
but the site of the signals I originally referred to can be seen at 0'14" to 0'32" with Rossmore Rd bridge behind. In the vt they are quite obviously modern at the time and upper quadrant. The home signals further down the platforms are something else....
obviously we can't infringe copyright so I can't lift the photo from Colin Walker's book.

A nice film that, a change to see something of high quality published.

It shows at many points the later, LMR, upper quadrant signals for platforms 2 to 4. Platform 1 gets a raw deal, with only some close-up views towards the end with the lunch-time Aylesbury parcels leaving (with a DMU car in the train, if I am not mistaken, probably bound for Bletchley for maintenance). This signal has a finial visible, this is the WR-built example that differed from the other three. I always assumed it once existed in lower-quadrant form but maybe not - I'm told the WR did install a few upper quadrants (shock, horror!) in ex-SR territory and this could have been similar. But I digress . . .

Looking at an earlier signal plan all platform starting signals are shown on a straight post with the main arm lower than the horizontal beam that holds the miniature arm (suspended below it) that reads to the depot. I note on that film that bright sunlight causes shadows to be thrown onto the bridge and maybe that could cause an illusion of arms in strange places?

On the matter of copyright, I believe it is legal to copy extracts of pictures for "research study purposes" - see http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyr ... yright_law - but I do not profess to be a legal expert.

With best wishes,

John
(Relief Signalman, Marylebone, in the 1970s)

Deleted

The RCTS site perhaps may help
LNER and CONSTITUENT COMPANIES
PMB0096 VG View looking north at Marylebone station showing lower quadrant signals 21/1/61
PMB0097 G Platform signals at Marylebone showing GCR lower quadrant nearest and LNER upper quadrant furthest 21/1/61
PMB0098 G Signals part way down platforms 2 (left, LNER type) and 3 (right, GCR types) at Marylebone station 21/1/61