Back on the 1st March I was down in Cornwall to obtain some detail pics of the tops of CDA clay hoppers, after a quiet half-hour waiting on the bridge at Lostwithiel it suddenly started to get busy... First up was a pair of class 37's, 37047 and 37308, which arrived from St Blazey and ran into the up loop. These loco's had been working stone trains in the area and were headed back to the midlands on this train, taking it as far as Bescot yard in Birmingham. The load was three covered hoppers and two vans of China Clay and a large cut of empty fuel tanks on the back. The train will likely keep this formation until Plymouth (Tavistock Junction yard) where it will pick up more covered hoppers of china clay and leave the empty tanks. [ 18. March 2004, 10:31: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Next arrival was 66163 which arrived from the Fowey branch with empty CDA clay wagons, notice now that the other train is looped the main line signal has also cleared for another train to pass it... Closeup of 66163...
As the clay empties are still entering the loop, 158841 passes with a stopping passenger train, this unit is in an advertising livery for Ginsters Pasties and is one of a fleet operated by Arriva Trains Wales.
66163 then ran around it's train using the main running line and headed for St Blazey with the clay empties. And yes, mission accomplished, I got lots of top down detail shots of the CDA hopper wagons!!
Nice Martyn! I'm "burnt out" on US railroads (since everything merged out of existence). It's refreshing to see some overseas action. Are those semaphores in the background? I'd love to see some pics of those. Are semaphores still plenitful in the UK? I'm a semaphore fan.
Most of the main lines in the UK have colour lights, but there are lots of semaphores still about if you know where to go, go off the main routes a bit and they start turning up. Cornwall still has lots of semaphores at Liskeard, Lostwithiel, Par and Truro on the main line, (St Blazey and Goonbarrow on the Newquay branch are still semaphore as well) and they are all still manual installations controlled by lever and wire or rodding from signal boxes (towers) as well, Cornwall is cool for signalling fans! These are all locations with either a junction or freight activity, all the intermediate locations where there would once have been a block post are now automatic colour lights. The signals in the shots above are worked from Lostwithiel Crossing box, seen here in 2001 This is a shot of 66123 from the East end of Par station back at the start of March, this train had arrived with three covered hoppers of Kaolin to head up the branch, the loco had run round the wagons and it was shoving them out of the station so that it could head up the branch (left) On the Newquay branch, this is Goonbarrow Junction, the branch is worked by train staff (token.) Goonbarrow is a passing place and here the signalman is collecting the staff from a Westbound train, he then needs to put that in the machine in the box which will release the single line behind it. He'll then issue a staff for us to continue East and the other train to continue West.
Dunno how I missed this topic Martyn Brilliant stuff as usual from your neck of the woods Lovely to see those semaphores - ah, memories of the "good old days"
Found this one as well, the junction signal (red arms) in the background is the one that appears in the first set of pics, just shot from the other side...
Nice Martyn! Are those white discs with the red stripes dwarf signals? Are semaphores rapidly disappearing in the UK or are they stable for the moment?
Yep, they are shunt signals, sort of like dwarf signals in the US. They don't carry the same authority of main running signals, the main signals convey the right to occupy the next block and confirm that it is empty, the shunt signals allow moves against the normal current of travel, or to enter a block that may already be occupied. In the pic above you can see the control wire for the signal, as well as the bar that works the catch point (derail) behind it, this signal controls the exit from some sidings at Goonbarrow, and the derail protects the main line. I think the situation regarding semaphores is fairly stable at the moment, some of that is due to the there being far more major projects going on than replacing these, there seems to be a realisation as well that some of the 1960's big colour light schemes actually need major work now as the wiring starts breaking down, whilst manual installations might need higher manpower costs and a bit of maintainence, it's simple and "bulletproof" technology.
I may be showing my ignorance of UK railroads with this question. Are those class 37's the same type of locomotive that were on the Royal Mail during the Great Train Robbery of 1963? If I remember correctly, they look similar.
Not quite, that was a class 40, it has a fairly similar look as it's from the same builder, but the 40 is a 1Co-Co1 wheel arrangement, whilst the later (and lighter) 37's are Co-Co. The 40's all went out of service in the 80's, apart from one kept for specials. A handful have been preserved though. 37's are still about on both freight and some passenger workings, just not in large numbers anymore.
