The LNER Encyclopedia

Many years ago I used to frequent signalboxes between Alnmouth and Chathill, most of these had a level crossing with gates operated by a big metal wheel. I have never seen a diagram how the wheels worked can anyone explain or point me to a relevant drawing or explanation.

Hi 52D,
have you tried a search or posted the question on The Signal Box site.
Here is the link http://forum.signalbox.org/index.php
Hope this helps.

As before http://forum.signalbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6132 then you have channel type point rods from the end of the wheel crank which impart motion to the gates through further cranks.

Basically you turn the wheel one way and the gates open, turn it the other and they shut. The clever bit is raising the stops and locking between the wheel and lever frame. I doubt the 500kb picture size will do any pictures justice but if you pm me an email address i'll send you some stuff. I'm rather privileged to have worked on a few during relaying jobs etc.

edit to add..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImxWDq8PBDg

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Micky wrote:I think i vaguely recall one of those b&w british comedy films of the 1950s where some character in the s/box closes the level crossing gates to the pursuing police car that is chasing the villain's in there getaway car then picks the gate wheel up and throws it out of the s/box and it rolls down an embankment and into a river!.

I wouldn't work a level crossing box cos they're a pain to work the only exceptions from the 1960s & 70s would be Arlesey, Everton & Connington north those 3 boxes would be ok.

The guy in the movie must have been Arnie S. or Sly Stallone! I used to have a gate wheel (the wheel only) and it was a 2 man job to lift it.

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I'm sure the film was called "The Wrong Arm Of The Law", released in 1962/3 and starred Peter Sellars. It was on the telly a few weeks ago, I watched it.
I do love old comedy films.

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I recall something of that scene from 'The Wrong Arm Of The Law', also starring Lionel Jeffries and many other then familiar faces.
It was an L&SWR box somewhere in SW London (something like Fairfield Road, or similar), and the location I think has been previously discussed somehwre in http://www.signalbox.org/forum.
The way the wheel was thrown out of the box definitely made it look like some sort of lightweight film prop.

As to it going down into a river Micky, that I don't remember : -
- Are you possibly thinking of where a handle to a vital set of handpoints kept getting thrown and then retrieved, during back and forth train chases between schoolgirls and robbers on what was surely the LMR, in 'The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery'? (George Cole, Frankie Howerd, Dora Bryan, etc., etc.)

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The top rod goes to the gates. The middle rod is from the gate lock lever. The bottom rod goes to the road stops. Putting the gate lock lever to the check position has no effect until the gate operating rod meets the butterfly. The interaction between the two will push the road stops up. Going the other way pulling the gate lock lever will cause the stops to drop before the wheel is turned.

Thanks for all the replies. I just thought about the subject the other night and knew id get a good explanation on here.

Micky wrote:Getting back onto the topic of Level crossings again reminds me of the story that was printed in the national newspapers many years ago maybe back in the 1980s of a "lazy signalman" (thats what the newspapers called him) who was taken out of a Level crossing box because a youngster who was in the box with him at the sametime was seen by the waiting car driver's outside the s/box working the Level crossing gates by winding the gate wheel around opening & closing the gates as well as working the signal levers.

Thats the way to do it working a s/box under the supervision of the signalman.

Now I was told this tale by a signalman some years ago; it's probably an urban myth, but I do like it.
On Chinese state railways somewhere, a signalman found the labour of turning the wheel too much, so he hit upon the idea of training a panda (or was it a bear?) to turn the wheel.
All went well until a passing passenger noticed the panda moving about in the 'box, and assumed it had been trained up as a signalman. When this idea got around, it was not universally welcomed....