Disappearing world of rail signals
THE subject of railways and trains is one which inspires deep passion and a dedication to extreme detail among enthusiasts.
As such, over the course of several volumes, Allen Jackson has used an array of photographs to lavishly illustrate the story of signalling in the principal constituents of the London and North Eastern Railway.
He continues in volume II with the story of the North Eastern Railway in Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria.
The LNER is most popularly remembered for the ‘railway races’ to the North in the 1870s, and trains like the Flying Scotsman and streamlined recordbreaker Mallard.
The last link with such glory days is the mechanical signalling and signal boxes, many of which witnessed the LNER’s finest exploits.
This way of life is coming to an end and this book records some of the last of the semaphore scene, which in some cases is no longer, with us, with the rest being on notice.
The LNER was the second largest railway company, but it had the largest route mileage and area served - from bucolic East Anglian branch lines to the intensity of the Durham and Northumberland coalfield, and the chemical industry and shipping of Teeside.
In Scotland the picture was much the same, with the LNER active from the Borders to Inverness.
Although modernised in the 1960s and 1970s, enough of the mechanical signalling scene remains to give a flavour of the way railways were worked and controlled in the 19th century.
This series of books provide a nostalgic and timely look back at the halcyon days of British signalling.
Signalling and Signal Boxes Along The NER Routes, Volume 2, Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria, Allen Jackson, Amberley Publishing, £14.99