THE INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY RECORD

No. 12 - p312

© DECEMBER 1966

ANOTHER AUTOMATIC LOCOMOTIVE
SIGNALLING APPARATUS

K. R PLANT

    No letters or articles were stimulated by the contribution on this subject in RECORD 3 even though Haydock is an interesting and much visited spot. Military railways may not be strictly speaking "industrial", but as we have brought them within our sphere of operation by the publication of pocket-book "WD" I'm including the following extract from the 12 January 1894 issue of "Iron" to show that the Haydock experiment was not just an isolated example.

    ‘Some trials of Pen’s system of railway signalling were recently carried out on some of the military railway lines in Germany. The apparatus consists of a battery carried by each locomotive and connected, by means of metallic brushes, with a series of conductors laid parallel to the metals. The circuits are so contrived that two trains travelling upon the same metals, whether in the same or opposite directions, are warned of each other‘s position by the ringing of a bell on each locomotive, while, at the same time, the two drivers are brought into telephonic communication. The same thing occurs if one of the trains be stationary, so that drivers receive notice of any breakdown upon the line in front of them. The breaking away of a carriage or carriages from the rear of a train is also notified both to the driver and to the station which the train has last passed through; and the distances at which all these warnings are given and received can be varied in such a manner as to provide either long or short "blocks" according to the requirements of the traffic. The experiments were conducted on the military line, seven kilometres in length, between Mahlow and Marienfelde, and, it is stated, answered all expectations.’

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For the record ....

    At a time when British Railways are proposing to curtail certain rail services in Wirral, Bebington Council’s. Planning Committee have given permission for an extension (about 2 miles - Hon. Eds.) to the Manchester Ship Canal Company’s private railway along the northern side of North Road, Ellesmere Port, through to the oil storage installation in Bankfields Drive, Eastham, near the Queen Elizabeth II oil dock at the entrance to the ship canal. - Liverpool Echo & Evening Express, 24th September 1966.

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JUST FOR THE RECORD

X = Crawshaw & Warburton Ltd.

Y = Peckett & Sons Ltd.