GNR Signals

[strang steel]

Has anyone tried to construct working 4mm scale models of somersault signals?

I have often thought about taking the plunge with various available accessories, but getting the arm to move up and down into accurate looking positions without some form of extra 'control' wire seems the difficult part.

MSE do make various parts for them, but I have never actually seen a photo.

Maybe I should just buy them, plus a few model concrete posts and give it a bash, then see the results?

[micknich2003]

A couple of pics of a Somersault signal I made some years ago. D&S etches, assembly compared to an ordinary signal is a bit fiddly but just take things one step at a time. Mick.

[micknich2003]

I made this one many years ago. D&S etches etc. Mick.

[StevieG]

Fantastic work Mick, as usual - always a treat to see.
Many thanks.

[Mickey]

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[Iron Duke]

Wonderful models and informative replies - thankyou all.
I still do not understand why certain locations on the GN had this type of mechanism and some didn't.
Is it that they all did originally and as mentioned in one of the replies, they were gradually phased out?

ID

[Mickey]

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[strang steel]

CLIFF 17 .JPG

I made this one many years ago. D&S etches etc. Mick.

Thanks for those photos, Mick.

You have inspired me to have a go. I will order some bits and pieces online.

[micknich2003]

CLIFF 17 .JPG

I made this one many years ago. D&S etches etc. Mick.

Thanks for those photos, Mick.

You have inspired me to have a go. I will order some bits and pieces online.

If you get stuck, or want further advice please feel free to contact me.
Also thanks for the kind comments, I posted the pictures to encourage you, and others to "Have a Go". Mick.

[strang steel]

Hi ID,

<snip>

A Peterborough-Skegness trip in 1975 revealed at least 11 examples extant 'east' of Boston, including the bonus of Wainfleet's Up Distant which was such a veteran that it had a substantial wooden post rather than the oft-encountered lattice or concrete posts, and, with the arm at the top, its spectacle plate and glassses were still about halfway down the post!

There were a couple like that at Heckington (between Sleaford and Boston).

The up outer home and distant were both on very tall posts, to be visible from distance, but the lamps and spectacle plates were half way down the posts, at 'normal' signal height.

All Heckington's seven main signals were somersault up until the 1970s, although the up advance starter was removed altogether sometime around 1963/4 leaving just six after that date.

[Iron Duke]

The real deal............. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbjEVb-yxc8

[Mickey]

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[61070]

...to the 'somersault' design having the arm pivot on a bracket, away from the post entirely, and put the pivot point in the arm's centre (but slightly above its horizontal centre line, so that in the event of operating linkage failure while at Clear it would still return to Danger by its own centre of gravity).

I once owned a 'kit' of full-size somersault signal components, which consisted of virtually everything required to build a signal except for the post. I spent quite a lot of time stripping and repainting all the parts, and I remember very clearly that the wooden arm had a tapering thickness. It was perhaps half an inch thick at the outer (square) end and an inch thick at the inner (half-round) end. I reckoned this was associated with balancing for a 'fail safe' return to horizontal in the event of mechanical failure of the linkage. Can anyone comment on whether this was a standard feature of these arms (probably not, as Mick's drawing doesn't show it), or was it an alternative (perhaps an unusual one?) to the centre-line pivot feature noted above by Stevie. Or, were both these self-returning features used together? I can't remember whether the pivot on my signal arm was above or on its centre line.

[StevieG]

Interesting, 61070.
I had never heard of, noticed, or even thought of, dffering arm thickness as a means of ensuring 'fail-safe' return to Danger.
One thought though, however unlikely a risk it might've been. Given that the theoretical proper 'off' indication, as in drawings, was the arm fully vertical, I wonder if with weight distribution alone (pivot not offset), there would have been an outside slim chance of mechanism failure with an arm in such a position, leaving the arm there, finely balanced in the complete 'off' position.

My guess would be that the pivot was always offset, or perhaps soon became so if trials led to realisation of the above possibility, but perhaps at some time supplemented by a thicker, thus heavier, right-hand end as well.

[Bryan]

Here are two shots of mine of a Somersault signal.
Both at same location.

Any guesses as to where?