Colour light ground signals - when were they introduced?

[Edwin_m]

Hereford has colour lights for the main aspects, but the shunt signals are a random mix of GPL's and ground disks. Gobowen went a stage further, and had a mix of colour lights and semaphore signals, for both main aspect/signals and shunt moves. Also although signalled from an old fashioned box, access to the old Oswestry branch was controlled by a power ground frame, the only one I ever came across in my railway career. When it came to signalling, I found that sometimes, resignalling at a location could be very haphazard, and depended on local circumstances sometimes, unless it was part of a much larger scheme.

 

Paul J.

Shrewsbury also has a mismash of upper and lower quadrant and colour lights.  This was explained to me once as being partly due to regional boundary changes giving different signalling design offices the resonsibility for making changes, which they would then implement according to their standard practices with little regard to consistency with what was there already.  I guess the same might apply at Hereford. 

 

More recently the standards have required more consistency, hence things like installing a new LQ semaphore for Banbury a few years back, when BR would just have put in a colour light.

[The Stationmaster]

Shrewsbury also has a mismash of upper and lower quadrant and colour lights.  This was explained to me once as being partly due to regional boundary changes giving different signalling design offices the resonsibility for making changes, which they would then implement according to their standard practices with little regard to consistency with what was there already.  I guess the same might apply at Hereford. 

 

More recently the standards have required more consistency, hence things like installing a new LQ semaphore for Banbury a few years back, when BR would just have put in a colour light.

 

Shrewsbury and Hereford are very different.  Shrewsbury came under the WR following nationalisation and renewals and major alterations were made to WR standards but in the early 1960s boundary changes it moved to the LMR and remained there until the final years of BR.  having started with a mix of LNWR/LMS equipment and GWR/WR equipment all the renewals following the 1960s change were done with LMR kit although in one or two cases Western items were reused.

 

Hereford, apart from the original signalling equipment has been consistently WR throughout its BR life and was always signalled to Western standards.  Thus the rationalisation scheme which saw all signalling control in the station area concentrated on what had once been Aylestone Hill 'box (long since 'Hereford') was done in accordance with normal WR methods and was wholly consistent with Reading Drawing Office's standards.

[luckymucklebackit]

I was looking at the 1960s resignalling notices for the Glasgow Suburban area, this was a mix of existing manual signalboxes and some new power boxes, in general, the existing manual signalboxes were equipped with MAS, manual points and ground disc signals, new boxes on the same route (e.g. Hyndland) were equipped with MAS, electrically worked points and two position light shunt signals, this mix survived until the centralization of signalling at Yoker in the late 1990s.

 

Jim

[Edwin_m]

I was looking at the 1960s resignalling notices for the Glasgow Suburban area, this was a mix of existing manual signalboxes and some new power boxes, in general, the existing manual signalboxes were equipped with MAS, manual points and ground disc signals, new boxes on the same route (e.g. Hyndland) were equipped with MAS, electrically worked points and two position light shunt signals, this mix survived until the centralization of signalling at Yoker in the late 1990s.

 

Jim

Not disagreeing with your point, but Yoker was earlier than that.  It was part-commissioned when I joined the IECC support team in 1989 and I assisted in the later stages before I moved on a couple of years later.