This illustration dates to the 1870s and shows the signal box on the North London Railway. The interior of a signal-box near an important junction or station is shown here, and we see here the numerous levers for working the points and the signals, each of these having a connection, by rods or wires, with the corresponding point or signal-post. The electric telegraph is now an important agent in railway signalling, and in a signal-box we may see the bells and instruments which inform the pointsman whether a certain section of the line is “blocked” or “clear.” The signals now generally used on
This illustration dates to the 1870s and shows the signal box on the North London Railway. The interior of a signal-box near an important junction or station is shown here, and we see here the numerous levers for working the points and the signals, each of these having a connection, by rods or wires, with the corresponding point or signal-post. The electric telegraph is now an important agent in railway signalling, and in a signal-box we may see the bells and instruments which inform the pointsman whether a certain section of the line is “blocked” or “clear.” The signals now generally used on British railways are made by the semaphore, which is simply a post from which an arm can be made to project. When the driver of the train sees the arm projecting from the left-hand side of the post, it is an intimation to him that he must stop his train; when the arm is dropped half-way, so as to project 45° from the post, it is meant that he must proceed cautiously; when the arm is down the line is clear. These signals, of course, are not capable of being seen at night, when their place is supplied with lamps, provided with coloured glasses—red and green—and also with an uncoloured glass. The lamp may have the different glasses on three different sides, and be turned round so as to present the required colour; or it may be made to do so without turning, if provided with a frame having red and green glasses, which can be moved like spectacles in front of it.
Size: 4800px × 3771px
Photo credit: © Ivy Close Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1800, 1800s, 1870s, 19th, box, century, early, engineer, industrial, london, man, north, railway, revolution, room, semaphore, signal, signals, train, trains, working
